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BON-FOR
On something of a lark, Emily and I decided to take the Amtrak Downeaster plus a bus to Freeport this weekend. It was a fun trip, even if four hours of forced retail therapy was a little more than I really wanted. The train+bus combo worked pretty well for a day trip; the bus ride was short (Amtrak wants you to believe it takes 45 minutes, but it actually takes about 20, and the bus left Portland when the train had unloaded rather than at the later time Amtrak claimed it left) and the driver was friendly. In spite of being the last weekend shopping day before Christmas, Freeport wasn't totally mobbed. The conductor on the train back told us that Friday seemed to be the big day for that particular trip. (We were the only two people on the Portland-Freeport bus, both ways.)
The train was comfortable. There weren't lots of people, but without baggage any Amtrak car has lots of room anyways, especially if you're not sharing a seat with a stranger. The one big downside was that, when we were travelling, we were forced to eat both lunch and dinner out of the cafe car. I recommend the chicken noodle soup as something that microwaves well and isn't gratuitously overpriced ($2.50 for a reasonable cup), just be careful to not burn your tongue on it. :-) Also, usual Amtrak recommendation of "bring your own water", since $2.00 for a 12-ounce bottle is gratuitously overpriced. Every seat had power; it did in fact turn out to be one of the better Amtrak cars I've been on.
The consist is one GE Genesis engine, three Amfleet coaches, a cafe car, and a "cabbage" car. Half of the seats in the cars were reversed (maybe due to lack of a wye in Portland), so the train actually is a push-pull train. There was a spare Genesis parked in Portland, but nothing else.
Looking at maps afterwards, the layout in Portland is vaguely interesting. It looks like there's a lot of abandoned rail out there. The main line does, in fact, continue to the north along the coast to places like Freeport, but the Portland station is built on a branch off of that that heads inland a ways, and then looks to end after about 10 miles or so. Extending the line, then, would involve moving the station, or constructing new right-of-way. The north end of the station has a signal mast with a southbound-facing signal, and a triangular sign northbound saying "end of signal territory". Looking at some of the other track around Maine, I do kind of wonder how much of the Downeaster's initial funding was spent on making the Guilford main line actually usable for Amtrak trains.
Southbound signal leaving Portland was yellow-over-yellow, which is strangely exciting: it must mean "approach slow", and the train behaved somewhat consistently for that, but I didn't realize there actually were slow-speed interlockings in New England. I didn't catch much of the other signalling. We did cross over on the Wildcat Branch in Wilmington between the Lowell and Haverhill commuter-rail lines, which is always special. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of freight traffic, but there did seem to be lots of single-track areas.
I have this vague suspicion that Amtrak has a very different relationship with Guilford than with other freight lines. Dealing with, say, CSX for the Lake Shore Limited, the physical plant is generally in good shape, but there's enough traffic that the train can get screwed if it misses its window or if it gets stuck behind a slower train. The Guilford line the Downeaster follows isn't heavily trafficked, so the train has a very good on-time percentage, but it also causes Guilford to have to keep the line in better shape than it would otherwise.
The train was comfortable. There weren't lots of people, but without baggage any Amtrak car has lots of room anyways, especially if you're not sharing a seat with a stranger. The one big downside was that, when we were travelling, we were forced to eat both lunch and dinner out of the cafe car. I recommend the chicken noodle soup as something that microwaves well and isn't gratuitously overpriced ($2.50 for a reasonable cup), just be careful to not burn your tongue on it. :-) Also, usual Amtrak recommendation of "bring your own water", since $2.00 for a 12-ounce bottle is gratuitously overpriced. Every seat had power; it did in fact turn out to be one of the better Amtrak cars I've been on.
The consist is one GE Genesis engine, three Amfleet coaches, a cafe car, and a "cabbage" car. Half of the seats in the cars were reversed (maybe due to lack of a wye in Portland), so the train actually is a push-pull train. There was a spare Genesis parked in Portland, but nothing else.
Looking at maps afterwards, the layout in Portland is vaguely interesting. It looks like there's a lot of abandoned rail out there. The main line does, in fact, continue to the north along the coast to places like Freeport, but the Portland station is built on a branch off of that that heads inland a ways, and then looks to end after about 10 miles or so. Extending the line, then, would involve moving the station, or constructing new right-of-way. The north end of the station has a signal mast with a southbound-facing signal, and a triangular sign northbound saying "end of signal territory". Looking at some of the other track around Maine, I do kind of wonder how much of the Downeaster's initial funding was spent on making the Guilford main line actually usable for Amtrak trains.
Southbound signal leaving Portland was yellow-over-yellow, which is strangely exciting: it must mean "approach slow", and the train behaved somewhat consistently for that, but I didn't realize there actually were slow-speed interlockings in New England. I didn't catch much of the other signalling. We did cross over on the Wildcat Branch in Wilmington between the Lowell and Haverhill commuter-rail lines, which is always special. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of freight traffic, but there did seem to be lots of single-track areas.
I have this vague suspicion that Amtrak has a very different relationship with Guilford than with other freight lines. Dealing with, say, CSX for the Lake Shore Limited, the physical plant is generally in good shape, but there's enough traffic that the train can get screwed if it misses its window or if it gets stuck behind a slower train. The Guilford line the Downeaster follows isn't heavily trafficked, so the train has a very good on-time percentage, but it also causes Guilford to have to keep the line in better shape than it would otherwise.