Home > Rafi on the Rails > Archives > 2007 > September > 26 > Entry
Day 1: The Downeaster—If you ever visit Maine, RIDE THIS TRAIN
To go from First Class on the Acela Express straight to the Downeaster is like leaving a meeting with Donald Trump to go have lunch with your grandmother. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, understand—just the opposite. The Downeaster has a reputation among train buffs for being this rare bird in the Amtrak system. To start with, it’s the only train in the entire Amtrak system to be completely disconnected from the rest of the Amtrak National Network; while the Downeaster arrives into and departs from Boston’s North Station, all of Amtrak’s other Boston services (Regionals, Acelas, and the Lake Shore Limited) hail from South Station, a little over a mile away as the crow flies, and there has never been a solid, straight rail link between the two stations (long, LONG story). Whether or not that physical disconnect somehow subconsiously plays into the atmosphere on the Downeaster is something one can only suppose, but make no mistake; when you step foot on the Downeaster, be ready for ANYTHING.
Let’s take my trip today from Boston to Portland, Maine. I boarded the train at 4:50 PM (the train left at 5:00 PM). As soon as I set foot into the car, I noticed that everyone was engaged as a group. Reread that last sentence; I’ll wait. That’s right, a GROUP. This was clearly a car of people who travel this train A LOT. I took my seat, and as the conductor came through to collect tickets, he remarked that Guilford (also coming to be known as Pan Am since they recently acquired the Pan Am logo and name), the railroad on which Amtrak runs the Downeaster, was imposing heat restrictions today. Yes, heat restrictions. The simple explanation of a heat restriction is this: when the weather gets hot, the metal rails the train runs on expand. If they expand too much, they can break loose of their ties and become warped. The thing is, it has to be REALLY hot for a long period of time for this to happen, and each railroad operates under different heat restriction criteria. Until today, I thought CSX was pretty much the worst when it came to imposing heat restrictions on passenger trains (they’re notorious in the DC area on commuter lines). Now I have to say that Guilford has pretty much taken the cake for calling heat restrictions at the end of September in Maine, when it’s 86 degrees in Portland. I realize Maine folks may find that temperature a little warm, but to those of us a little farther south, that’s pretty comfortable. In any case, the heat restrictions mean that we’ll probably be an hour delayed in getting to Portland.
Imagine how this sort of news would fall on the First Class car on an Acela; Amtrak would probably have to brace for some very colorful phone calls. Now, take a look at the photo at the top of this blog item of our Conductor, whose nickname is Zeb (yes, everyone here calls him Zeb, even though his real name is Tom). That’s pretty much how the Downeaster crew and passengers react. They laugh, relax and get through it. I probably don’t need to tell you that I’d rather be delayed an hour on a Downeaster train with Zeb than delayed 15 minutes on an Acela in First Class.
There’s more to the Downeaster’s interesting story, but I’m going to save that for tomorrow.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Downeaster
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By MrFSS
September 27, 2007 7:54 AM | Link to this
I will try to follow this. Thanks for sharing. Looks like a great trip.
By Alan Smithee
September 27, 2007 10:43 AM | Link to this
Can you drop the satellite view from your GPS map and just use the “normal” map view? It will make it much easier to look at.
By Rafi Guroian
September 27, 2007 4:58 PM | Link to this
Alan,
I turned off the roads feature, which should clear the clutter up some. Thanks very much for the feedback and keep it coming. I intend to polish as the trip goes on, so feedback like this is very helpful.
Rafi