We left Philadelphia’s 30th street station on Friday morning 3/25 on the Cardinal (train 51) enroute to Chicago. In Chicago we changed to the Texas Eagle (train 21).
The good–
The sleeper accomodations were comfortable and the car attendents were friendly and very helpful on both trains. This was our first Amtrak trip and we would definately do another.
The bad–
Some of the track we were on was glass smooth - even at speeds of over 100 mph. However, the stretch of BNSF track between Fort Worth and Temple TX was very rough. At 60 mph, the ends of the buffers in the cars were offset vertically by as much as 6 inches. Made going to dinner in the diner a real challenge,
The ugly–
At Brookston, Indiana, train 51 hit two women who were walking their dogs along the track and killed them both. There was nothing that the crew could do. The engineer was rapidly blowing the whistle, but the conductor said they had that “deer in the headlights” look. We were detained for about 5 hours while all authorities did a complete investigation and Amtrak brought in a replacement crew. For more details on the accident see:
There are times when I don’t understand why railroads wont let us walk along the tracks anymore. Then there are times like these when I empathetically understand.
I am sorry that your first trip on AMTRAK was marred by this unfortunate accident, and I hope it will not give you reason to not consider riding AMTRAK again in the future. Unfortunately things like this happen, and we can’t seem to drum it into people’s heads enough that tresspassing on railroad property is dangerous and can cost them their lives. And my heart goes out to the engineer and the conductor. It’s not their fault that these two women were killed, yet they will have to live with it for the rest of their lives.
I rode the Cardinal Philly-Chicago and then immediately back again, seven or eight years ago. It’s a scenic trip in places. I rode it specifically because I figured, correctly, that it would be my last ride in a Heritage sleeper and a roomette. I really miss being able to open the top of the Dutch door and listen to the track sounds.