r20230729_151542-CUS
2023 Vacation, 29 July, Chicago
After arriving from California on the Southhwest Chief, we spent the night in Chicago and were scheduled to leave the next day, Saturday, 29 July, on the Cardinal to Philadelphia. The Cardinal takes an interesting route across Indiana to get from Chicago to Cincinnati, including parts of the Monon and B&O lines, as the forner direct PRR and NYC Chicago to Cincinnati lines are long abandoned.
Because of a delayed arrival, the Cardinal's departure was pushed back from 5 pm to 9 pm, so we got to know the new Metropolitan Lounge of Chicago Union Station very well. After the cluster with needing 2 cabs to get from the station to the hotel the day before, the hotel desk was very nice in calling 3 different cab companies until one sent a van for us and our luggage. We could not find a red cap when we got to the station so I left Anne in her wheelchair to watch the some of the bags while I headed to what had been the Metropolitan Lounge in 2015, the last time we were there. It didn't look right. The room was still there, but it turned out that it was disabled person's waiting area, and that the sleeper lounge had been moved to a room off the Great Hall.
Once that was sorted out, we settled in for a longer than expected wait, taking advantage of the snacks and drinks. I walked to Roosevelt Road in time to catch a Metra train and Amtrak's Blue Water to Michigan and Illini to southern Illinois. The new Siemens equipment is changing the look of Amtrak's Midwest corridor trains.
I returned to Union Station, to help Anne, then headed south again to photograph a few more trains, including the Illinois Zephyr to Quincy and the Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids, Michigan. I bought some snacks for the trip at a grocery store at Canal and Roosevelt Rd and at some point, we ate dinner at the Union Station food court and picked up some magazines for the trip. Then it was back to the Metropolitan Lounge, which cleared out as long distance trains departed until only the people waiting for the tardy Cardinal were left.
The employees at the Met Lounge desk had stepped out when the phone rang. I answered it and the voice said "Send down 50." 50 is the number of the eastbound Cardinal. I bellowed into the room to go to the train, then got Anne and our bags onto a red cap cart and headed to the platform.
The Cardinal's sleeper is a Viewliner and this was our first time in a Viewliner disabled bedroom. It is set up like a deluxe bedroom with a sofa across the car instead of 2 seats facing each other like a Pullman section in a Superliner handicapped room. The Viewliner room also has its own shower. I'd been looking forward to seeing our departure from Chicago over a new route for me, as I'd never ridden the Cardinal before, but it was long after dark and we quickly called it a night.
r20230729_151542-CUS
2023 Vacation, 29 July, Chicago
After arriving from California on the Southhwest Chief, we spent the night in Chicago and were scheduled to leave the next day, Saturday, 29 July, on the Cardinal to Philadelphia. The Cardinal takes an interesting route across Indiana to get from Chicago to Cincinnati, including parts of the Monon and B&O lines, as the forner direct PRR and NYC Chicago to Cincinnati lines are long abandoned.
Because of a delayed arrival, the Cardinal's departure was pushed back from 5 pm to 9 pm, so we got to know the new Metropolitan Lounge of Chicago Union Station very well. After the cluster with needing 2 cabs to get from the station to the hotel the day before, the hotel desk was very nice in calling 3 different cab companies until one sent a van for us and our luggage. We could not find a red cap when we got to the station so I left Anne in her wheelchair to watch the some of the bags while I headed to what had been the Metropolitan Lounge in 2015, the last time we were there. It didn't look right. The room was still there, but it turned out that it was disabled person's waiting area, and that the sleeper lounge had been moved to a room off the Great Hall.
Once that was sorted out, we settled in for a longer than expected wait, taking advantage of the snacks and drinks. I walked to Roosevelt Road in time to catch a Metra train and Amtrak's Blue Water to Michigan and Illini to southern Illinois. The new Siemens equipment is changing the look of Amtrak's Midwest corridor trains.
I returned to Union Station, to help Anne, then headed south again to photograph a few more trains, including the Illinois Zephyr to Quincy and the Pere Marquette to Grand Rapids, Michigan. I bought some snacks for the trip at a grocery store at Canal and Roosevelt Rd and at some point, we ate dinner at the Union Station food court and picked up some magazines for the trip. Then it was back to the Metropolitan Lounge, which cleared out as long distance trains departed until only the people waiting for the tardy Cardinal were left.
The employees at the Met Lounge desk had stepped out when the phone rang. I answered it and the voice said "Send down 50." 50 is the number of the eastbound Cardinal. I bellowed into the room to go to the train, then got Anne and our bags onto a red cap cart and headed to the platform.
The Cardinal's sleeper is a Viewliner and this was our first time in a Viewliner disabled bedroom. It is set up like a deluxe bedroom with a sofa across the car instead of 2 seats facing each other like a Pullman section in a Superliner handicapped room. The Viewliner room also has its own shower. I'd been looking forward to seeing our departure from Chicago over a new route for me, as I'd never ridden the Cardinal before, but it was long after dark and we quickly called it a night.