I really love your channel. And you are more than blessed to have a wonderful wife who supports what you love to do. I’m addicted to your channel. I have my own channel with over 1 million subs and it’s about firearms. I’m a former cop and military guy but I really like your train. I’ve loved train since I was a kid and still love them today. Your channel inspires me. Keep going. You really matter. Thank you for showing your love for trains.
Umm, "a roommate" is one of the major benefits of marriage, or even a committed relationship. "A roomette" can be booked solo, and the upper berth was, in fact, one of the innovations Amtrak added. 😄
Yours is one of the best train videos going. Your grasp of history and its importance/influence upon the rail road is outstanding. You’re so appreciated…Thank you for your efforts. If the Capital Ltd is combined with the Silver Star, it will be a great option. I’ll be one of the first persons to travel it as an all viewliner train.
If that rumor is true about Capitol Limited and Silver Star being combined into one consist and a one seat ride, I have mixed feelings about this. I hope combined these 2 trains does work. But to me I personally don't like the fact that combining these 2 trains would eliminate the one seat ride on Silver Star that riders have from say like Tampa, Columbia(SC), up to NYC. This is considering that Star is the ONLY train stopping in say like Tampa and Columbia, and other Amtrak trains cutting through the Carolinas(Palmetto, Silver Meteor) do NOT stop in Columbia, and use a more eastern route in SC through Florence and Charleston. YES I am very aware you could transfer to a NEC train in DC to go to NYC, but I still don't like eliminating the one seat ride that Tampa(or Columbia) riders have to go up to NYC. And for Capitol Limited, I would be disappointed if Amtrak took away Superliner railcars from this train. That said since a combined Silver Star and Capitol Limited train would not be running into NYC, they could still decide to run such a combined route(including on the Star) with Superliners. Honestly though, I am waiting to hear an Amtrak press release to figure out the future of both trains, around November 10-ish. Since they still haven't clarified in any press release if any big changes are about to occur, with these 2 trains.
My family has done this trip a few times and loved it. We did find the food to be mediocre, but the ambiance in the dining car is amazing! Staff has also always been incredibly kind and accommodating. Once going to DC (2015ish) I let my husband sleep in and spent 2 hours sipping coffee in the dining car with our kids. I told the kids “you can go to any table that hasn’t been set for lunch”. The attendant said “they can go to any table. If we have to reset one that’s no big deal”. I still insisted that the kids only sit at tables that hadn’t been cleaned/set. The showers in the train we were on where a bit dated but seemed perfectly clean and adequate. We found the beds to be very comfortable too.
I’ve had the flex and full dining food on the same trip from NYC to Omaha, and I enjoyed the full a lot more. My group was in coach the whole way, so weren’t expecting to get the dining car on the California Zephyr, but a fire shut down the BNSF line before we got to Naperville, delaying us 3 hours. I appreciate that the staff offered the dining car to coach to mitigate the hard feelings from being delayed so much, even though it 100% wasn’t their fault.
Back in pre-Amtrak days, even lowly coach passengers could eat in the dining car, though they might have to wait in a long line that snaked up the train into the next car for the privilege. But it was worth the wait, as the railroads competed with each other to provide the best food, regional specialties and so on. But my best dining car story comes from early Amtrak days on the Sunset Limited in Arizona. The train came around a curve, with "Highball Casey" at the throttle. He took the curve a little too fast, and all the table settings in the dining car--table clothes, food, silverware, everything--tumbled into the aisle. A complete wipeout! Needless to say, the dining car staff was pissed!
It's good that you are a channel that mainly covers coach seating. Because all other people care about traveling in top class. I've seen videos of people who get a roomette or bedroom, and they don't even spend the night on the train. Like traveling from Chicago to Kansas City.
Sometimes it can be worth it for a daytime upgrade, especially if multiple people are in the group. Chicago to KC includes dinner, and at least right now coach passengers can eat in the dining car on a space-available basis and pay $45 for dinner. Because food is included in a sleeper, it can work out economically even for that short distance. You have to look at your city pairings against the schedule. I've strongly thought about a daytime sleeping car from Los Angeles - Emeryville because that includes two meals, plus you have a private space to get some work done or take a nap.
@@mikeschumacher I used to do that from Kansas City to Chicago. Roomette for 2, especially if it was on time got us breakfast and lunch; was just a bit of a splurge for the price. Now it’s way too much.
@nembird, if you purchase the roommate like 9 to 11 months ahead you will have a cheaper price since Amtrak raises the prices when each roommate is booked so the cheapest roommate will be the first one booked in that car and the last roommate on that car will be the most expensive.
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@ 17:38 As geeky as it sounds, I would be saving those little Coca Cola food boxes as souvenirs but then again I collect Coca Cola stuff and the added train on the box is pure gold...
Surprised, no one in Amtrak management can see what a miss the food service is and how important food is when marketing more expensive accommodations/tickets. I eat McDonalds out of a bag, not when paying a premium for a roomete. I appreciate you gently pointing out its deficiency. Having a shower is definitely a plus.
Yes the food is so dreadful now, a McDonalds on the cafe car would be an improvement. Airline food. The younger you are the more you like processed food (which explains Hot Pockets and the popularity of fast food)
I'm stunned that you guys had such a bad experience with the food on Amtrak! The Experience going west from Chicago is very different! Dining cars have tablecloths, and the steak dinner is actually well renowned served on China! Meals include a cocktail and dessert
Just absolutely loved this video!!! I truly appreciate all of the hard work you put in to giving us the history of the train and the railroad as well as the settings and all of the details of the train. In addition, I really enjoyed Lindsey’s commentary on everything. An absolutely awesome video!!!!!!!!!
ck4426 +++ the history that thom tra provided is amazing. youre about the only person that noticed the focus on the history of the line. Top level Amtrack video Thom and Lindsey !+!
Congratulations on your first roomette ride. When Amtrak equipped the Capitol Limited in the 1990s it did have an observation “Sight Seeing Car 35:54 ) as well as a longer consist They also had chef-cooked meals. Service has gone down to over the years and hence ridership. Yes there is a discussion about reequopping the train with the new viewliner sleepers and diner. This may bring an upgrade. My parents were regular customers during the mid-80s through the 90s visiting my brother and his family in Frederick, MD, less than 30miles from the Harpers Ferry Station. You and your wife are so cool-not as negative as some older railfans.
The look on your face is exactly how I felt the first time I rode in a sleeper. I really like the Capitol Limited, and I also like the even more scenic Cardinal. If you have some free time while in D.C., you might find it fun to take the Capitol Limited (in coach) up to Harpers Ferry for a nice little getaway. You can also take MARC, but Amtrak is often cheaper and always quicker.
On the Silver Meteor in '23 I got to have Flex meals prepared by a dining car attendant that was part of the first training session on how to use the convection ovens. The difference in quality is significant vs. the microwave preparation. He took a lot of pride in the extra time needed to prepare our meals as such and was very keen to discuss it with my daughter and I.
I'm late watching this vid, but it's so great seeing you and Lindsay enjoying things the way the OTHER other - half does .... at least once ... twice ... maybe a few times in your life. :) You two deserve it.
Amtrak needs to stop Flex Dining and return the gourmet chefs to the service system-wide. One of the best steaks I've had was on the Auto Train which still serves gourmet meals in the East.
Also my first and only Roomette, also upgraded via bid. I was traveling the day before Christmas and figured the train would be empty, but I did bid just over the minimum in case other people did exactly the minimum!
I just stumbled upon your channel having watched your electrified Caltrain video. Thank you so much for your work. And now I must comment, that at the point where you guys had to throw out the prior passengers trash, Lindsay gave what I think was the most enduring “ew” that I have ever heard. Best regards to both of you.
We rode the Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago with our kids (ages 3 and 7) waaay back in 1994. Our "roomette" had its own bathroom (essential, with little kids), and the bunks were laid out crosswise. (Your roomette looked like the roomette we (just the parents) had on the AutoTrain, returning from Florida.*) Of course, the CapLimited still only offered 2 bunks, so each parent had to "sleep" head-to-toe with one of the offspring. We departed DC at 4:35 pm. Two hours later, dinner was served: apparently real food on china plates, with wine in glass glasses and a cloth tablecloth... and flowers in a vase on the table! Very luxurious, by USA standards. Unfortunately, while we dined in splendor, the train was creeping through the WV panhandle, past extremely humble houses mere meters (1.09 yards) away, where people sat out front watching the train creep by. I felt like Louis XVI, riding his coach over beggars. In the middle of the night (can't quite say "while we slept"), a freight train roared by in the opposite direction, cutting loose with its horn right outside our roomette window. I had to make sure all my teeth stayed in, but least I got a look at Toledo, Ohio, at 2 a.m. But in the morning, after a real breakfast, we enjoyed the wonders of the Indiana countryside from the sightseeing car with dome. Yes, there was a dome car. The kids were fascinated--me, I'd seen Indiana before. Not a bad trip, but clearly we could use a high-speed line from my birthplace (DC) to my college town (Chi). * -- We dozed off on our departure evening and expected to be about an hour out of Lorton when we awoke. Turned out we were still in South Carolina--a freight train had broken down somewhere to the north, and apparently it took all night to fix it.
It is sad to think how much the quality of service has downgraded on the Cap in just a short timespan. Glad this video brought up good family memories!
Not during the peak season coach passengers will not be able to get traditional dinning by purchasing it at that time. You still could bring your own food and non- alcoholic drink in coach or purchase Amtrak Cafe food for coach passengers.
I really enjoyed the two previous train trips that I've taken. I've taken Amtrak 91 Silver Star from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station down Tampa Union Station. The First Time was Round Trip and Second Time was one-way with roomettes. If I do book a trip this year, I would like get a UNIDEN BCD160N scanner, so I monitor all radio communications from the crews to dispatchers
There is a pretty Famous song about how wonderful that part of the Appalachian Mountains are. Life is old there. Older than the trees. Younger than the mountains. Swaying in the breeze.
Very informative update. Such a prestigious train needs upgraded service. The B and O even out fresh cuttings of Holly on the dining car tables during Yuletide. They had an arrangement with a homeowner along the route to take cuttings. The railroads once took great pride in top notch service. Glad you got a room next try the deluxe room. 😊
Roomette car experience is very unusual for me, because I haven't seen before such space organization in two-bed room. Two-bed rooms are less common in Russia, they are located in special more comfortable and the most expensive sleeper cars. Beds are situated on the right and left sides from the room door. Bathrooms and WC are mandatory in these cars. Sometimes TV are also installed in passenger rooms. Air condition system may be centralized, but also we have some cars with private air condition which could be controlled by passengers in their rooms. Such cars we name as СВ (SV) - спальный вагон (sleeper car). In Russia sleeper cars usually have four-bed configuration - two beds on right and left side from the room door and the second pare are just upper the first ones. Bathrooms exist in modern cars only. WC are always in car. Air condition system is usually centralized, but may don't work in older cars. Such train car type name - купе (coupe). Have you four-bed sleeper cars in the USA? Sleeper cars without doors and with additional seat places on the other side are cheaper then two previous variants, but they are less private and more noisy. WC are included, but no bathrooms. Sometimes this type of cars can be used for suburban service in very remote places, upper beds are tucked up and lower beds are just seating places. Air condition system could work/not work just the same way as in "coupe" cars. These cars are плацкарт (platzcard). Seating cars or coach cars are extremely rare in Russia and they are the cheapest, but also the least comfortable - cramped seats, poor centralized air condition, chatty passengers all these factors make your travel unpleasure, but if you use it as "intercity" or even "suburban express" for 2-4 hours, it is okay, but my overnight experience from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow (8,5 hours) just made me exhausted... I would never have chosen such a train, especially in a direction where there were high-speed Sapsan trains (250 km/h) or at least coupe cars, but they were all sold out, and I urgently needed to return from St. Petersburg to my native Moscow, so I decided on this desperate experiment , especially since I had never traveled in such carriages before. But it was terrible. My subsequent trips to Kaluga and Yaroslavl in such carriages were, on the contrary, wonderful, only 3-4 hours in seat that is more comfortable than in commuter train and speed is 130-140 km/h like regional express. We call these cars - сидячий вагон (Seating cars). Thank you for such interesting travel report and for animals which you are depicted, it was so cute! I should say Lindsey is very professional reporter, too! It is so nice when you travel together. Also, Thom, you told about sleeper train extinction in Europe, I agree with you... It so sad, because, even many lines were modernized, there are still many places where at least 1-day train trip still needed. Although this is becoming less and less with the development of a network of high-speed railways and aviation. Sleeping trains are significantly more expensive for passengers than seating trains, and many passengers are not willing to overpay, especially considering that many use trains to travel distances of 100-600 kilometers; for longer distances, they often choose an airplane. This makes seated cars more versatile in Europe, where distances are relatively short. The situation is the same in Japan, they generally have one sleeping train left for the whole country, although some 10-15 years ago blue sleeping cars could be found even at the Osaka station. In Russia, the USA, and China, sleeping cars are common due to the long distances. I think this is the reason. By the way, did Thom and Lindsay came to South Shore for testing the improvements of South Shore electric interurban line? 😉
Great video Thom! I never rode the B&O Capitol Limited, but I did see the B&O's special White model 1136 buses running from the B&O's Columbus Circle office in Manhattan. The buses took a ferry from lower Manhattan to the train in New Jersey. Luggage was checked through from the time you got on in New York. Because of tight clearances, there was a bus turntable in New Jersey. Buses ran from hotels in Manhattan too, and they had stops in Brooklyn as well.
Glad you had a good trip! For some very nice scenery, the eastbound Capitol Limited goes through Pennsylvania's Ohiopyle State Park (just east of Connellsville) during the daylight. Sit on the right side of the train if you can.
What an excellent entertaining, informative, and yes, educational trip report, Thom. My wife and I prefer a sleeper compartment when traveling by rail, most often starting in a Viewliner 2 roomette in Ashland, Kentucky and making connections in New York, DC, or Richmond. An advantage of a Viewliner 2 sleeper over a Superliner is that the V-2’s upper berth has more headroom and its own set of windows. The V-2 upper berth is not as claustrophobic as is the Superliner. Much appreciated was your B&O history. Also worthy of notice was Lindsey’s solo segment. Good job Lindsey. In regard to Flex Food…yes, it could and should be better, especially when paying the full sleeper price. This was a video where your and Lindsey’s enjoyment of the ride and the accommodations came through very clearly. Thanks again for the content you offer.
@@Thom-TRA and @coleallen3895 Please be sure to let Amtrak know this. Did you get a survey a few days after your trip? If not, I would leave the positive feedback on Amtrak's social media.
@@Thom-TRA you were living the life. My first sleeping car ride was as a 4 year old on the CB&Q Denver Zephyr and after a week or so stay at a buddy of my dad’s house in Arvada it was off to San Francisco on the original California Zephyr by sleeper.
Great recap of the sleeper experience of today. Kind of disappointed at what has become of the food service but yours looked pretty good. My first sleeper was a roomette aboard the Panama Limited from Chicago to New Orleans, about the same distance, in the late seventies. I can’t sleep on airplanes but I sleep great on the high iron! I was even dozing off from Chicago to Michigan this week. The repetitive clack-clack and gentle rocking is very soothing to me.
Amtrak used to have Rachel's brownies which were phenomenal, and had some lore to go with it. The vendor that had been providing brownies were a no show about an hour before the some sleepers were to depart. A employee that was a native of Brooklyn, NY recommend a local industrial bakery they had worked at, the bakery filled the order, on time, and became the official vendor, replacing the failed pastry vendor. Though their excellent performance they went system wide.
I had the same food issue on the Lake Shore Limited, and have for the past 7 years. I wish they would have real food again, considering the trip only requires one full service meal per trip (dinner west and lunch east) and one breakfast service. They did it to reduce ticket prices and cut costs, mostly under Anderson's leadership. Having the pancakes or french toast outside Niagara was the highlight of the trip!
Nice score on the upgrade bid. When I travel on Amtrak overnight I always pay for a sleeper upfront because they are almost never available for BidUp, so it's good to see the process working. I usually have problems sleeping on a train the first night but I get much better sleep the second night or if I've done a sleeper train recently. A sleep mask helps too, especially if you get stuck at a station with bright light for some time.
On the Eastbound Cap, you get to see the Youghiogheny river as you leave Pittsburgh and the C+O canal that runs along the Potomac river. Sadly, on the Westbound Cap, you do the Youghiogheny after dark so you don't get to enjoy it as much. The Pittsburgh skyline is always amazing as you go through. Both ways you miss the crossing of Sandusky Bay along lake Erie...which I think would be spectacular...but it's always done in the dark.
First time viewing your channel. I was very impressed with your detailed knowledge of the route's history and even the topography of the rivers bordering MD and WV. I'm glad the glazed Asian salmon has returned to the Flex menu. It was replaced with another salmon dish for a while, which was inedible in my humble opinion! Very well done video. You've just earned a new subscriber! 🙂
I am glad you made this video, normally I ride a sleeper class by myself but now I feel 0 worry riding a sleeping car with my mum. I am not 100% pro coach but if you are on a low income it's a godsend. Capitol Limited had the dome car until like 1999 and Lakeshore Limited until 2019
Thanks for great coverage of the Capitol Limited! Glad you enjoyed the trip. 😀 You're right, the B & O's Capitol Limited was far different. There was a real dining car with waiters, and fresh cooked gourmet meals, served on B&O china! There were tableclothes and fresh flowers on the tables. We traveled in something called a slumbercoach, where you paid a coach ticket and a seat upgrade. Two passengers rode in a room very much like the one you and Lindsey shared. One passenger rode in a room with one bed, either upper or lower, and a coach seat. The car attendant gave you the key to your room, which you could lock when you went to the diner or dome car. There were two dome cars, which meant that you could see not only out to the side and up, but also forward. For a young railfan like me, that meant I could watch the B&O's unique color-position signal lights go by, as well as watch breathtaking scenery. I don't understand why Amtrak doesn't have an observation car on today's Cap. The drawbacks? Well, the B&O's Cap didn't have showers.
Amtrak pulled the observation car from the Capitol (as well as the Texas Eagle between CHI and San Antonio) because they were not funded well enough to keep all the cars rolling. The four "premier" long-distance routes (Empire Builder, Zephyr, Chief, and Sunset) are all longer and more popular. Amtrak pulled the observation cars from the Capitol and the Texas Eagle so that they could keep observation cars on the four others.
In the 90s these overnight AT trains through Harpers Ferry had a proper dining car(s) with waiters and kitchens. It wasn't 1955 quality tables, china and service....but it was on stoneware (china) and proper flatware and glasses. I stopped riding them as much as the dining service started to degrade or dissappear. Coach riding, I just carry beverages and cold food in my bag...and use the club car if I feel like a microwaved heatup or a cocktail.
Unfortunately, in the USA about 90% of the tracks that Amtrak operates on are owned by freight companies. This means they have to rent the tracks and sometimes those freight companies cause delays as they sometimes make trains go slow in certain areas
I like that the beds are arranged parallel with the the hall. The only time I've ever taken a sleeper was between Munich and Venice, and the beds were perpendicular to the hallway, which made them feel very cramped. I'm 5'10" and my feet were touching the window. Though the biggest problem I had with that train was that it stopped like every 45 minutes all night. So every time I started to drift off, the train would slam to a stop and the light & noise of a train station would stab in through the curtains. We had a shower in our roomette, but never used it. It seemed complicated & small. We left Munich so late and were in Venice so early, we just went to our hotel and showered there. I want to try the sleeper (starting in DC) between Chicago and San Francisco sometime, as it seems to go through the night without stopping much, on account of the long distances between stations. But we haven't done it yet. Not sure when my wife & I will have a chance.
To answer your question on how the Amish get to the train station, the answer is most likely they had a van driver drop them off. In Lancaster, PA they might take the bus to the train station but I don't know if Elkhart has good public transit.
Thank you for this most enjoyable video ! Glad you had the upgrade to a Roomette, and enjoyed the use of the Amtrak Lounge, and on board food. If Amtrak change the type of stock on the Capitol Limited, I expect there will be a couple of Viewliner sleepers in the consist. I really like the roomettes in the Viewliner, and although I have solo occupancy, the Viewliner has windows for both the main bed, and also the upper one ! Good to see Lindsey enjoying spotting the animals too !
An addon to your history of the B&O. The first ever line to open on the B&O went from Baltimore to Ellicot City. The line still exists today and has been extended and meets with the line you are on at Point of Rocks. It is known as the Old Main and follows alongside the Baltimore subdivision and the beginning of the Capitol subdivision until it splits off where the old Relay train station was.
Thanks! Really enjoyed your video, never knew about the bidding for an upgrade. Liked the B reel footage, made the station stops more fun to watch, did you use the footage from previous rides or have friends shoot them? Anyway, loved the video and the Alien travel buddy!👍
Fun fact: on the cardinal Cincinnati Ohio is the only Ohio stop, and the cardinal is the only line that serves Indianapolis Indiana and Cincinnati Ohio
Love it! I have been wanting to take this train to be able to ride Acela for the first time. I live in Minneapolis, so looking to take the new Borelias train to Capital Limited!! Thank you!!!
First ever singing in the Amtrak shower on UA-cam? Elkhart has a webcam to watch on UA-cam Capital and Lake Shore pass by, with many Norfolk Southern freight.
I remember noticing that Virtual Railfan camera, for Elkhart. Erie(PA) also has one, which shows the Lake Shore Limited passing by. This is east of the Cleveland split(when both routes separate, Lake Shore runs northeast and Capitol Limited runs southeast), so you only see Lake Shore pass by the Erie webcam.
Glad to see y’all are now trying out Amtrak Sleeper accommodations. And I can’t wait till my time comes to travel overnight on an Amtrak train. Be it the Silver Service and Auto Train.
I have a roomette on an upcoming trip going out west on the Southwest Chief and coming back on Texas Eagle. But I have to travel the Lakeshore Limited to and from Chicago from Boston, and that's in coach. I also put in the very lowest bid for an upgrade to a roomette on the Lakeshore Limited. My attitude was like yours, if I get it, cool! I have a couple more weeks until the trip.....we shall see! If the lowest bid worked for you, I hope it works for me! I've done the Capital Limited a couple of times. My favorite part of that line is Harpers Ferry.
My first Amtrak overnight train was the Capitol Limited from Chicago to DC back in Winter 2010. Back then, the train was longer in length and had a sightseer lounge which offered great views of the snowy landscape. Even though I rode in coach, I was able to pay and eat in the dining car and they prepared and cooked onboard. I can only hope that one day, they'll bring full dining service back.
The line from Cleveland to Chicago is the former New York Central main line, the Pennsy ran through Crestline, Fort Wayne, and Valpo. It's a minor issue except that it could piss off a ton of devout Pennsy and NYC fans on line. If you've ever seen clips of CSX engineer Rodney Kantorski online you'd know what I mean. My first overnight train trip was a roomette on the CL from Pittsburgh to Chicago so it'll be a little sad to see the train in its present state go in November. I also made the mistake of not showering on the train which I rectified on my Auto Train trip later that year (and haven't done a Roomette since).
Longtime B&O fan and former Washington Amtrak OBS employee here. I got to ride the original "Capitol Ltd." as a kid, a few years before Amtrak, from Chicago to Akron, with my grandmother and her sister and brother-in-law. It was a great trip to LA and back on the Santa Fe "Super Chief" and Union Pacific "City of Los Angeles", with dome cars on both of those trains (including a dome diner on the UP "City of LA" (a 34 car train with 5 or 6 E-Units when combined with the "City of San Francisco" and "City of Portland" east of Ogden, UT). The daylight B&O train to Chicago was a glorified mail train called "The Diplomat", which was mostly baggage and express cars, with a coach and a coach/cafe. Didn't have a dome on the Cap, but I did get dinner in a real B&O diner, and got to go through Chicago Grand Central Station before they tore it down, as well as Dearborn St. station. About the route. The eastern panhandle of WV exists because of the railroad. It was vital to the Union for the Civil War, so when the western part of Virginia split from Virginia, they made sure to include the counties the B&O ran through. Early in the war, the Confederates captured the railroad and stole equipment to take South for their use, so getting it solidly into Union hands was critical. The original B&O facility in Martinsburg, WV is now a museum. It used to be a double roundhouse, but one of them burned down before the complex was preserved, so only one of the roundhouses survives. The part of the railroad that crosses between Maryland and West Virginia several times is called the Magnolia Cutoff. The original line closely followed the winding Potomac River. The cutoff shortened the route by 14 miles, and saved a lot of curvature and some grades. There are four tunnels and two massive trestles that are part of the cutoff, Graham Tunnel being the only one in Maryland, with the two trestles over the Potomac on either side of it. Originally, the cutoff was only supposed to be for freight trains, but all traffic was consolidated on the cutoff in 1961. The original right-of-way is now dirt road access to private property along the Potomac. You briefly showed a bottle of Deer Park Spring Water, but didn't mention that Deer Park, MD is a town on the Mountain Subdivision on the original line that ran to Wheeling and had the spring the water came from. Deer Park water was a staple on B&O dining cars. As a former Amtrak food service employee, it's really sad and infuriating what management has done to food service in the last 25 years, but much of it is because the Republicans in Congress keep picking away at Amtrak, trying to make it so unappealing they can eventually discontinue it. Before I worked for Amtrak I used to enjoy overnight train travel and having a meal in a dining car. From the late 1980s into the 1990s Amtrak sent their chefs to the Culinary Institute of America for enhanced training, and the quality of dining car meals did markedly improve. I worked the Cap a couple of different times, first when it connected to the Broadway at Pittsburgh, turning with the lounge back to DC. Having a dome car over Sandpatch grade was a great amenity. Then for several months in 1996, I worked the Superliner lounge. It was a very busy and usually full train back then. Maybe someday it will be again. I Enjoy the videos, Thom.
@@Thom-TRA To tell you the truth, Thom, I really didn't enjoy working the Cap very much. I worked it because at those times it was either the only job I could hold or the least bad job I could hold. My preference was always to work a cafe car in the NEC by myself. It's not because I'm anti-social, it's because LSAs are responsible for the revenue of the car, and have to pay out of pocket for any losses, and it's bad enough when I made a mistake making change, but then I also would have to worry about an assist and maybe a server as well. I had a waiter on the Cap with a drug habit who cost me a couple hundred bucks over a couple of months and I couldn't figure out what was happening for some time. That and the layover for the Pittsburgh turn was four hours in the middle of the night, and when I went to Chicago early on, because the turnaround there was short Amtrak said we didn't rate a hotel room, so we had to stay in the filthy, vermin infested crew "lounge" in the basement of Union Station. The second time I worked the Cap in '96 we got a hotel room, but again it was a short layover in the middle of the day. My favorite run was the old Atlantic City express because it was four days on and four days off and I only had to work about 3 1/2 trips a month, and it paid overtime. The attendant followed the equipment cycle, which covered all of the trains to Springfield, MA and Richmond, VA from DC, and included laying over a full day in Springfield, MA and getting a day's pay for it. It got to the point that I really don't enjoy sleeping on a train anymore because I always had to get up after a few hours and reopen the cafe. One of the reasons I left to become a freight engineer was to get the 12 hour on duty time limit for operating crews.
Nice trip report! I remember around 2 months ago, I was on the Capitol Limited but we stopped at Brunswick, MD due to a track fire in Harpers Ferry so we really didn't get around nowhere. But anyways, nice trip report!
“Flex dining” is pathetic when you’ve experienced the previous dining car set up with real food. While this isn’t the only reason why we’ve started flying to Chicago, it is definitely a contributing factor.
I had one brief experience with Amtrak about 40 years ago. Mom decided that we needed to get away from home after my dad passed away. My brother was living in the Bay Area at the time so California was the place we were bound for. It started out on the Empire Builder to Portland and then we transferred to the Coast Starlight for our run to Oakland. I admit that it was fun, but mom wasn’t as happy as it did not have the atmosphere of a train trip she took back in the Golden Age of rail travel (the 40’s and 50’s). But we survived and I didn’t have to drive. On the way back, we went on the Coast Starlight again, but we went to Seattle so we got to ride the Empire Builder from there back to Spokane. You know what a thrill it is to depart and arrive at your hometown train station at 2 in the morning? Not much of one. If I can come up with the bucks to do a long trip on a train, I would fly to Seattle and board the Empire Builder and roll to Chicago and then go from Chicago to D.C. and I would do it all in a tuxedo because it would be fun to do it all in formal wear. And yep, that would mean bow tie tightly tied and all the accoutrements. It’s just a dream, but one I think I could do.
Back in the 60s, when I was going to college in KY, I drove from MD (where I picked up a roommate who lived there) to KY. I noticed the same thing you did, how the route went from MD to WV to MD to WV, over and over again. Weird!
I traveled on The Cap in the 1980's when it combined with the Broadway Limited in Pittsburgh. The DC section had a Dome Coach, Coaches and a 10-6 rebuilt sleeper. It only had a Lounge Car with the forerunner to FlexDining, tv dinners for Sleeping Car passengers. But for breakfast I ate in the Broadway diner. Awesome service and food.
The first time I rode a long distance train I rode the capital limited as well, however, I had family room accommodations cause I live in a family of four
Doing the roomette becomes the sort of thing that's more necessary as you start getting older. I used to do overnights in coach, and be fine, but being able to get horizontal overnight became important for being able to function the next day after I reached a certain age (above 40). Same with airline flights - no longer doing overnights without a lie flat.
My father worked for the B&O and we travelled all the time. I still travel on the rails as a retired individual. You missed the C&O canal site along your route. The C&O canal ended in Cumberland, Maryland.
11:20 according to a local historian I spoke to who rode the train in the 90’s, the tracks were in poor condition and had slow speeds. And Fort Wayne has been trying to get passenger service back for a while now. Maybe they will again, if the corridor ID process goes ahead. Ps,if you haven’t stopped in Elkhart to visit, you may have missed the National New York Central Railroad museum across from the station (opposite side of your roomette/coach I believe) The volunteers and staff are doing renovations to the site, and it’s well worth a visit.
I'm so glad that you did a trip report for the CL. I love the attention to detail in this trip report, too. I have never ridden the CL, but it's one of the trains that I watch/track online, as well as watch come into the station when it gets to Pittsburgh when I take the Pennsylvanian (which I do appreciate you gave some homage to as well).
WELCOME TO MY WORLD! I always take roomettes or bedrooms. Yes, they are expensive but I love having your room serviced by an attendant, and food is included. I'd sleep easier on a lay-flat bed also than in Coach.
The scenery is much better if you take the Capitol Limited during peak foliage in the fall. It's been 5-6yrs since I last rode the CL. Back then, there was an observation car.
I really loved this video. I would like to know more information about the freshly cooked meals that Amtrak provides in its Florida route and which line it gives it on, either the silver star or silver silver meteor
Thanks for the trip. Nice editing in your videos, btw. I don't know if anyone else has commented on South Bend (comment #408 here!), but there's an entire Wiki entry on relocating a station downtown or the airport (albeit for the South Shore Line). A downtown station conceivably could include Amtrak as well, instead of that current bleak industrial west side location- which is where the SSL was truncated when they were kicked off of city street-running to downtown SB.
@@Thom-TRA Here's what I get from the Wiki entry: South Bend wants a downtown station; Norfolk Southern owns the right-of-way, is not interested; then feasibility studies say it'll cost $$$$, have to take houses, playfield; airport station re-location is least resistance; still need $$$$ to make anything happen. Good news: the airport re-route will still allow a downtown spur- and there's a transportation center built with provision (hello, NS) for a rail platform.
I really love your channel. And you are more than blessed to have a wonderful wife who supports what you love to do. I’m addicted to your channel. I have my own channel with over 1 million subs and it’s about firearms. I’m a former cop and military guy but I really like your train. I’ve loved train since I was a kid and still love them today. Your channel inspires me. Keep going. You really matter. Thank you for showing your love for trains.
You are so blessed to have such support of your love for trains with Lindsey.
She is the absolute best
@@Thom-TRA I am now watching the Capitol limited trip
@@Thom-TRA She does seem like a very fun person.
So so glad, you guys finally got a roommate.
Umm, "a roommate" is one of the major benefits of marriage, or even a committed relationship. "A roomette" can be booked solo, and the upper berth was, in fact, one of the innovations Amtrak added. 😄
Historians say they were roomettes.
@@rikkichunn8856great response! Haha
Yours is one of the best train videos going. Your grasp of history and its importance/influence upon the rail road is outstanding. You’re so appreciated…Thank you for your efforts. If the Capital Ltd is combined with the Silver Star, it will be a great option. I’ll be one of the first persons to travel it as an all viewliner train.
I appreciate this! Spread the word!
If that rumor is true about Capitol Limited and Silver Star being combined into one consist and a one seat ride, I have mixed feelings about this. I hope combined these 2 trains does work. But to me I personally don't like the fact that combining these 2 trains would eliminate the one seat ride on Silver Star that riders have from say like Tampa, Columbia(SC), up to NYC. This is considering that Star is the ONLY train stopping in say like Tampa and Columbia, and other Amtrak trains cutting through the Carolinas(Palmetto, Silver Meteor) do NOT stop in Columbia, and use a more eastern route in SC through Florence and Charleston. YES I am very aware you could transfer to a NEC train in DC to go to NYC, but I still don't like eliminating the one seat ride that Tampa(or Columbia) riders have to go up to NYC.
And for Capitol Limited, I would be disappointed if Amtrak took away Superliner railcars from this train. That said since a combined Silver Star and Capitol Limited train would not be running into NYC, they could still decide to run such a combined route(including on the Star) with Superliners.
Honestly though, I am waiting to hear an Amtrak press release to figure out the future of both trains, around November 10-ish. Since they still haven't clarified in any press release if any big changes are about to occur, with these 2 trains.
I'm so glad you make these videos. Great Writing, editing, "B" reels, and informative narration. You have a gift for this
What a great ride, and Thom and Lindsey’s narration made it most enjoyable.
Thank you so much for this generous gift!
If they have the Koftas, get them. They’re the best thing on the flex menu
My family has done this trip a few times and loved it. We did find the food to be mediocre, but the ambiance in the dining car is amazing! Staff has also always been incredibly kind and accommodating.
Once going to DC (2015ish) I let my husband sleep in and spent 2 hours sipping coffee in the dining car with our kids. I told the kids “you can go to any table that hasn’t been set for lunch”. The attendant said “they can go to any table. If we have to reset one that’s no big deal”. I still insisted that the kids only sit at tables that hadn’t been cleaned/set.
The showers in the train we were on where a bit dated but seemed perfectly clean and adequate. We found the beds to be very comfortable too.
I’ve had the flex and full dining food on the same trip from NYC to Omaha, and I enjoyed the full a lot more. My group was in coach the whole way, so weren’t expecting to get the dining car on the California Zephyr, but a fire shut down the BNSF line before we got to Naperville, delaying us 3 hours. I appreciate that the staff offered the dining car to coach to mitigate the hard feelings from being delayed so much, even though it 100% wasn’t their fault.
Back in pre-Amtrak days, even lowly coach passengers could eat in the dining car, though they might have to wait in a long line that snaked up the train into the next car for the privilege. But it was worth the wait, as the railroads competed with each other to provide the best food, regional specialties and so on.
But my best dining car story comes from early Amtrak days on the Sunset Limited in Arizona. The train came around a curve, with "Highball Casey" at the throttle. He took the curve a little too fast, and all the table settings in the dining car--table clothes, food, silverware, everything--tumbled into the aisle. A complete wipeout! Needless to say, the dining car staff was pissed!
It's good that you are a channel that mainly covers coach seating. Because all other people care about traveling in top class. I've seen videos of people who get a roomette or bedroom, and they don't even spend the night on the train. Like traveling from Chicago to Kansas City.
Appreciate it! That’s why I earned this little treat haha
Sometimes it can be worth it for a daytime upgrade, especially if multiple people are in the group. Chicago to KC includes dinner, and at least right now coach passengers can eat in the dining car on a space-available basis and pay $45 for dinner. Because food is included in a sleeper, it can work out economically even for that short distance. You have to look at your city pairings against the schedule.
I've strongly thought about a daytime sleeping car from Los Angeles - Emeryville because that includes two meals, plus you have a private space to get some work done or take a nap.
@@mikeschumacher I used to do that from Kansas City to Chicago. Roomette for 2, especially if it was on time got us breakfast and lunch; was just a bit of a splurge for the price. Now it’s way too much.
@nembird, if you purchase the roommate like 9 to 11 months ahead you will have a cheaper price since Amtrak raises the prices when each roommate is booked so the cheapest roommate will be the first one booked in that car and the last roommate on that car will be the most expensive.
@ 17:38 As geeky as it sounds, I would be saving those little Coca Cola food boxes as souvenirs but then again I collect Coca Cola stuff and the added train on the box is pure gold...
I have some!
Surprised, no one in Amtrak management can see what a miss the food service is and how important food is when marketing more expensive accommodations/tickets. I eat McDonalds out of a bag, not when paying a premium for a roomete. I appreciate you gently pointing out its deficiency. Having a shower is definitely a plus.
Amtrak management comes from the airline biz.
@@erik_griswold exactly, that explain the airplane meals you may find on some trains such as the Capitol Limited.
Yes the food is so dreadful now, a McDonalds on the cafe car would be an improvement. Airline food.
The younger you are the more you like processed food (which explains Hot Pockets and the popularity of fast food)
I'm stunned that you guys had such a bad experience with the food on Amtrak! The Experience going west from Chicago is very different! Dining cars have tablecloths, and the steak dinner is actually well renowned served on China! Meals include a cocktail and dessert
Just absolutely loved this video!!! I truly appreciate all of the hard work you put in to giving us the history of the train and the railroad as well as the settings and all of the details of the train. In addition, I really enjoyed Lindsey’s commentary on everything. An absolutely awesome video!!!!!!!!!
Thank you from both of us!!!!
ck4426 +++ the history that thom tra provided is amazing. youre about the only person that noticed the focus on the history of the line. Top level Amtrack video Thom and Lindsey !+!
@@rootzandbranches4656 thank you!!
Congratulations on your first roomette ride. When Amtrak equipped the Capitol Limited in the 1990s it did have an observation “Sight Seeing Car 35:54 ) as well as a longer consist They also had chef-cooked meals. Service has gone down to over the years and hence ridership. Yes there is a discussion about reequopping the train with the new viewliner sleepers and diner. This may bring an upgrade. My parents were regular customers during the mid-80s through the 90s visiting my brother and his family in Frederick, MD, less than 30miles from the Harpers Ferry Station. You and your wife are so cool-not as negative as some older railfans.
Thank you!
The look on your face is exactly how I felt the first time I rode in a sleeper. I really like the Capitol Limited, and I also like the even more scenic Cardinal.
If you have some free time while in D.C., you might find it fun to take the Capitol Limited (in coach) up to Harpers Ferry for a nice little getaway. You can also take MARC, but Amtrak is often cheaper and always quicker.
Unfortunately the MARC schedules necessitate an overnight stay in HF, otherwise I already would have done it
@@Thom-TRA I plan to do that sometime. It looks like a great place to stay over!
On the Silver Meteor in '23 I got to have Flex meals prepared by a dining car attendant that was part of the first training session on how to use the convection ovens. The difference in quality is significant vs. the microwave preparation. He took a lot of pride in the extra time needed to prepare our meals as such and was very keen to discuss it with my daughter and I.
I'm late watching this vid, but it's so great seeing you and Lindsay enjoying things the way the OTHER other - half does .... at least once ... twice ... maybe a few times in your life. :) You two deserve it.
Thank you :)
I love Lindsay! It looks like you and her had a good time on the Capitol Limited
Amtrak needs to stop Flex Dining and return the gourmet chefs to the service system-wide.
One of the best steaks I've had was on the Auto Train which still serves gourmet meals in the East.
I need to rent a car (and win the lottery) to ride the auto train someday
I can get better food from Uber-Eats than with Flex Dining on Amtrak...
You and Lindsey make a nice team
We sure do!
Also my first and only Roomette, also upgraded via bid. I was traveling the day before Christmas and figured the train would be empty, but I did bid just over the minimum in case other people did exactly the minimum!
I just stumbled upon your channel having watched your electrified Caltrain video. Thank you so much for your work. And now I must comment, that at the point where you guys had to throw out the prior passengers trash, Lindsay gave what I think was the most enduring “ew” that I have ever heard. Best regards to both of you.
Haha it was pretty gross 😅 thanks for commenting! Have a great day
We rode the Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago with our kids (ages 3 and 7) waaay back in 1994. Our "roomette" had its own bathroom (essential, with little kids), and the bunks were laid out crosswise. (Your roomette looked like the roomette we (just the parents) had on the AutoTrain, returning from Florida.*) Of course, the CapLimited still only offered 2 bunks, so each parent had to "sleep" head-to-toe with one of the offspring. We departed DC at 4:35 pm.
Two hours later, dinner was served: apparently real food on china plates, with wine in glass glasses and a cloth tablecloth... and flowers in a vase on the table! Very luxurious, by USA standards. Unfortunately, while we dined in splendor, the train was creeping through the WV panhandle, past extremely humble houses mere meters (1.09 yards) away, where people sat out front watching the train creep by. I felt like Louis XVI, riding his coach over beggars. In the middle of the night (can't quite say "while we slept"), a freight train roared by in the opposite direction, cutting loose with its horn right outside our roomette window. I had to make sure all my teeth stayed in, but least I got a look at Toledo, Ohio, at 2 a.m.
But in the morning, after a real breakfast, we enjoyed the wonders of the Indiana countryside from the sightseeing car with dome. Yes, there was a dome car. The kids were fascinated--me, I'd seen Indiana before. Not a bad trip, but clearly we could use a high-speed line from my birthplace (DC) to my college town (Chi).
* -- We dozed off on our departure evening and expected to be about an hour out of Lorton when we awoke. Turned out we were still in South Carolina--a freight train had broken down somewhere to the north, and apparently it took all night to fix it.
It is sad to think how much the quality of service has downgraded on the Cap in just a short timespan. Glad this video brought up good family memories!
On your next Amtrak adventure come out west book a roomette for a better appreciation of the service.
I wouldn’t get a roomette out west. There’s observation cars so coach is fine for me.
@@Thom-TRA Yes but the food is much better, real chefs, fresh cooked, not TV dinners
@@dvdosterloh yes but also extremely expensive and out west as a coach passenger I can still eat in the dining car.
Not during the peak season coach passengers will not be able to get traditional dinning by purchasing it at that time. You still could bring your own food and non- alcoholic drink in coach or purchase Amtrak Cafe food for coach passengers.
I really enjoyed the two previous train trips that I've taken. I've taken Amtrak 91 Silver Star from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station down Tampa Union Station. The First Time was Round Trip and Second Time was one-way with roomettes. If I do book a trip this year, I would like get a UNIDEN BCD160N scanner, so I monitor all radio communications from the crews to dispatchers
There is a pretty Famous song about how wonderful that part of the Appalachian Mountains are. Life is old there. Older than the trees. Younger than the mountains. Swaying in the breeze.
Did you know that song was written in Georgetown, Washington DC? I’ve been in the house where it was.
Very informative update. Such a prestigious train needs upgraded service. The B and O even out fresh cuttings of Holly on the dining car tables during Yuletide. They had an arrangement with a homeowner along the route to take cuttings. The railroads once took great pride in top notch service. Glad you got a room next try the deluxe room. 😊
Roomette car experience is very unusual for me, because I haven't seen before such space organization in two-bed room.
Two-bed rooms are less common in Russia, they are located in special more comfortable and the most expensive sleeper cars. Beds are situated on the right and left sides from the room door. Bathrooms and WC are mandatory in these cars. Sometimes TV are also installed in passenger rooms. Air condition system may be centralized, but also we have some cars with private air condition which could be controlled by passengers in their rooms. Such cars we name as СВ (SV) - спальный вагон (sleeper car).
In Russia sleeper cars usually have four-bed configuration - two beds on right and left side from the room door and the second pare are just upper the first ones. Bathrooms exist in modern cars only. WC are always in car. Air condition system is usually centralized, but may don't work in older cars. Such train car type name - купе (coupe).
Have you four-bed sleeper cars in the USA?
Sleeper cars without doors and with additional seat places on the other side are cheaper then two previous variants, but they are less private and more noisy. WC are included, but no bathrooms. Sometimes this type of cars can be used for suburban service in very remote places, upper beds are tucked up and lower beds are just seating places. Air condition system could work/not work just the same way as in "coupe" cars. These cars are плацкарт (platzcard).
Seating cars or coach cars are extremely rare in Russia and they are the cheapest, but also the least comfortable - cramped seats, poor centralized air condition, chatty passengers all these factors make your travel unpleasure, but if you use it as "intercity" or even "suburban express" for 2-4 hours, it is okay, but my overnight experience from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow (8,5 hours) just made me exhausted...
I would never have chosen such a train, especially in a direction where there were high-speed Sapsan trains (250 km/h) or at least coupe cars, but they were all sold out, and I urgently needed to return from St. Petersburg to my native Moscow, so I decided on this desperate experiment , especially since I had never traveled in such carriages before. But it was terrible.
My subsequent trips to Kaluga and Yaroslavl in such carriages were, on the contrary, wonderful, only 3-4 hours in seat that is more comfortable than in commuter train and speed is 130-140 km/h like regional express. We call these cars - сидячий вагон (Seating cars).
Thank you for such interesting travel report and for animals which you are depicted, it was so cute! I should say Lindsey is very professional reporter, too! It is so nice when you travel together.
Also, Thom, you told about sleeper train extinction in Europe, I agree with you... It so sad, because, even many lines were modernized, there are still many places where at least 1-day train trip still needed.
Although this is becoming less and less with the development of a network of high-speed railways and aviation. Sleeping trains are significantly more expensive for passengers than seating trains, and many passengers are not willing to overpay, especially considering that many use trains to travel distances of 100-600 kilometers; for longer distances, they often choose an airplane.
This makes seated cars more versatile in Europe, where distances are relatively short. The situation is the same in Japan, they generally have one sleeping train left for the whole country, although some 10-15 years ago blue sleeping cars could be found even at the Osaka station.
In Russia, the USA, and China, sleeping cars are common due to the long distances. I think this is the reason.
By the way, did Thom and Lindsay came to South Shore for testing the improvements of South Shore electric interurban line? 😉
Great video Thom! I never rode the B&O Capitol Limited, but I did see the B&O's special White model 1136 buses running from the B&O's Columbus Circle office in Manhattan. The buses took a ferry from lower Manhattan to the train in New Jersey. Luggage was checked through from the time you got on in New York. Because of tight clearances, there was a bus turntable in New Jersey. Buses ran from hotels in Manhattan too, and they had stops in Brooklyn as well.
How cool! I wish I could have seen the bus operations in action
Glad you had a good trip! For some very nice scenery, the eastbound Capitol Limited goes through Pennsylvania's Ohiopyle State Park (just east of Connellsville) during the daylight. Sit on the right side of the train if you can.
What an excellent entertaining, informative, and yes, educational trip report, Thom. My wife and I prefer a sleeper compartment when traveling by rail, most often starting in a Viewliner 2 roomette in Ashland, Kentucky and making connections in New York, DC, or Richmond. An advantage of a Viewliner 2 sleeper over a Superliner is that the V-2’s upper berth has more headroom and its own set of windows. The V-2 upper berth is not as claustrophobic as is the Superliner. Much appreciated was your B&O history. Also worthy of notice was Lindsey’s solo segment. Good job Lindsey. In regard to Flex Food…yes, it could and should be better, especially when paying the full sleeper price. This was a video where your and Lindsey’s enjoyment of the ride and the accommodations came through very clearly. Thanks again for the content you offer.
Truly is there anything better than traveling by train with your loved one?
I had the exact same sleeping car attendant, Nick just a few months ago!!!!
He’s great!
@@Thom-TRA and @coleallen3895 Please be sure to let Amtrak know this. Did you get a survey a few days after your trip? If not, I would leave the positive feedback on Amtrak's social media.
You haven’t lived until you’ve gone by sleeper. You’ve finally lived!
I guess this is what being alive feels like
@@Thom-TRA you were living the life. My first sleeping car ride was as a 4 year old on the CB&Q Denver Zephyr and after a week or so stay at a buddy of my dad’s house in Arvada it was off to San Francisco on the original California Zephyr by sleeper.
Great recap of the sleeper experience of today. Kind of disappointed at what has become of the food service but yours looked pretty good. My first sleeper was a roomette aboard the Panama Limited from Chicago to New Orleans, about the same distance, in the late seventies. I can’t sleep on airplanes but I sleep great on the high iron! I was even dozing off from Chicago to Michigan this week. The repetitive clack-clack and gentle rocking is very soothing to me.
Amtrak used to have Rachel's brownies which were phenomenal, and had some lore to go with it. The vendor that had been providing brownies were a no show about an hour before the some sleepers were to depart. A employee that was a native of Brooklyn, NY recommend a local industrial bakery they had worked at, the bakery filled the order, on time, and became the official vendor, replacing the failed pastry vendor. Though their excellent performance they went system wide.
That’s such a cool story!
I had the same food issue on the Lake Shore Limited, and have for the past 7 years. I wish they would have real food again, considering the trip only requires one full service meal per trip (dinner west and lunch east) and one breakfast service. They did it to reduce ticket prices and cut costs, mostly under Anderson's leadership. Having the pancakes or french toast outside Niagara was the highlight of the trip!
Nice score on the upgrade bid. When I travel on Amtrak overnight I always pay for a sleeper upfront because they are almost never available for BidUp, so it's good to see the process working.
I usually have problems sleeping on a train the first night but I get much better sleep the second night or if I've done a sleeper train recently. A sleep mask helps too, especially if you get stuck at a station with bright light for some time.
On the Eastbound Cap, you get to see the Youghiogheny river as you leave Pittsburgh and the C+O canal that runs along the Potomac river. Sadly, on the Westbound Cap, you do the Youghiogheny after dark so you don't get to enjoy it as much. The Pittsburgh skyline is always amazing as you go through. Both ways you miss the crossing of Sandusky Bay along lake Erie...which I think would be spectacular...but it's always done in the dark.
I've showered many times on the WB Capitol Limited in PA... it goes nice and slow and allows for much better showering than the next morning at 79 mph
First time viewing your channel. I was very impressed with your detailed knowledge of the route's history and even the topography of the rivers bordering MD and WV. I'm glad the glazed Asian salmon has returned to the Flex menu. It was replaced with another salmon dish for a while, which was inedible in my humble opinion! Very well done video. You've just earned a new subscriber! 🙂
Welcome aboard! Glad you enjoyed the video, and hooray for slightly more edible salmon!
There are plans to move the South Bend station to the original South Bend downtown station. Maybe you will get to see it.
Loved this! Thanks for sharing with us as always, Thom and Lindsey!
Our pleasure!
I'm a big fan of the paper-and-ink map at 11:10 or so, what an unexpected touch!
Thanks! It’s because my computer was in the shop 😂😂
@@Thom-TRA Seriously impressive-- it's charming as hell, I wouldn't blame you for bringing it back some time just for kicks!
@@jkang7265 thanks for the kind words! I may just do that!
I am glad you made this video, normally I ride a sleeper class by myself but now I feel 0 worry riding a sleeping car with my mum. I am not 100% pro coach but if you are on a low income it's a godsend. Capitol Limited had the dome car until like 1999 and Lakeshore Limited until 2019
Thanks for great coverage of the Capitol Limited! Glad you enjoyed the trip. 😀
You're right, the B & O's Capitol Limited was far different. There was a real dining car with waiters, and fresh cooked gourmet meals, served on B&O china! There were tableclothes and fresh flowers on the tables. We traveled in something called a slumbercoach, where you paid a coach ticket and a seat upgrade. Two passengers rode in a room very much like the one you and Lindsey shared. One passenger rode in a room with one bed, either upper or lower, and a coach seat. The car attendant gave you the key to your room, which you could lock when you went to the diner or dome car. There were two dome cars, which meant that you could see not only out to the side and up, but also forward. For a young railfan like me, that meant I could watch the B&O's unique color-position signal lights go by, as well as watch breathtaking scenery. I don't understand why Amtrak doesn't have an observation car on today's Cap. The drawbacks? Well, the B&O's Cap didn't have showers.
No showers? That must be why they called it the BO!
@@Thom-TRA Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! 😄
Amtrak pulled the observation car from the Capitol (as well as the Texas Eagle between CHI and San Antonio) because they were not funded well enough to keep all the cars rolling. The four "premier" long-distance routes (Empire Builder, Zephyr, Chief, and Sunset) are all longer and more popular. Amtrak pulled the observation cars from the Capitol and the Texas Eagle so that they could keep observation cars on the four others.
In the 90s these overnight AT trains through Harpers Ferry had a proper dining car(s) with waiters and kitchens. It wasn't 1955 quality tables, china and service....but it was on stoneware (china) and proper flatware and glasses.
I stopped riding them as much as the dining service started to degrade or dissappear.
Coach riding, I just carry beverages and cold food in my bag...and use the club car if I feel like a microwaved heatup or a cocktail.
Very informative historically, and as practical advice for train travel in America now. I enjoy and subscribe to your channel. Thank you!
Thank you very much! Welcome!
Unfortunately, in the USA about 90% of the tracks that Amtrak operates on are owned by freight companies. This means they have to rent the tracks and sometimes those freight companies cause delays as they sometimes make trains go slow in certain areas
I like that the beds are arranged parallel with the the hall. The only time I've ever taken a sleeper was between Munich and Venice, and the beds were perpendicular to the hallway, which made them feel very cramped. I'm 5'10" and my feet were touching the window. Though the biggest problem I had with that train was that it stopped like every 45 minutes all night. So every time I started to drift off, the train would slam to a stop and the light & noise of a train station would stab in through the curtains. We had a shower in our roomette, but never used it. It seemed complicated & small. We left Munich so late and were in Venice so early, we just went to our hotel and showered there.
I want to try the sleeper (starting in DC) between Chicago and San Francisco sometime, as it seems to go through the night without stopping much, on account of the long distances between stations. But we haven't done it yet. Not sure when my wife & I will have a chance.
I was told by other railfans Cumberland MD is a lightly used Amtrak Station. Also the ground in OH is very troublesome.
The michigans best pizza comment made me giggle. That’s a take lol. 😂
To answer your question on how the Amish get to the train station, the answer is most likely they had a van driver drop them off.
In Lancaster, PA they might take the bus to the train station but I don't know if Elkhart has good public transit.
Nice trip report! When I saw this posted, my first thought was “Hey, that’s not ‘Always riding Amtrak in coach!’” Glad the bid worked out well!
Props to you for paying attention to details like that!
Thank you for this most enjoyable video ! Glad you had the upgrade to a Roomette, and enjoyed the use of the Amtrak Lounge, and on board food. If Amtrak change the type of stock on the Capitol Limited, I expect there will be a couple of Viewliner sleepers in the consist. I really like the roomettes in the Viewliner, and although I have solo occupancy, the Viewliner has windows for both the main bed, and also the upper one ! Good to see Lindsey enjoying spotting the animals too !
I have yet to try a viewliner!
Good to see! Iyndsey keeping an eye on you lol...brilliant though!
An addon to your history of the B&O. The first ever line to open on the B&O went from Baltimore to Ellicot City. The line still exists today and has been extended and meets with the line you are on at Point of Rocks. It is known as the Old Main and follows alongside the Baltimore subdivision and the beginning of the Capitol subdivision until it splits off where the old Relay train station was.
Thanks!
Thank you!!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thanks! Really enjoyed your video, never knew about the bidding for an upgrade. Liked the B reel footage, made the station stops more fun to watch, did you use the footage from previous rides or have friends shoot them? Anyway, loved the video and the Alien travel buddy!👍
Thanks for the footage! And I filmed all the footage on different days. You can tell because the locomotives are different.
I also did my first roomette trip this year, the complete inverse of yours, Chicago-DC on the Cardinal.
I've tried all of the Amtrak options as a solo traveler except family bedroom, which I don't need, and the roomette. Thanks for taking us along.
Fun fact: on the cardinal Cincinnati Ohio is the only Ohio stop, and the cardinal is the only line that serves Indianapolis Indiana and Cincinnati Ohio
Did that count as a **POOR BID** for the roomette upgrade?
I really don’t get these transit jokes from other channels lol
@@Thom-TRA You and Lindsey should do a collab with Miles and Aleena.
@@jonathankleinow2073He did include a *MENU SHOT, MENU SHOT, RIGHT NOW YOU’RE LOOKING AT A MENU SHOT*.
Love it! I have been wanting to take this train to be able to ride Acela for the first time. I live in Minneapolis, so looking to take the new Borelias train to Capital Limited!! Thank you!!!
That would be an awesome trip!
The Cap used to be a full-length train, complete with dining car and observation car.
I'm so glad you make these videos.
Im about to do my first solo trip in a roomette, from TX to CA! Loved your video.
Have fun!
First ever singing in the Amtrak shower on UA-cam? Elkhart has a webcam to watch on UA-cam Capital and Lake Shore pass by, with many Norfolk Southern freight.
I remember noticing that Virtual Railfan camera, for Elkhart. Erie(PA) also has one, which shows the Lake Shore Limited passing by. This is east of the Cleveland split(when both routes separate, Lake Shore runs northeast and Capitol Limited runs southeast), so you only see Lake Shore pass by the Erie webcam.
Glad to see y’all are now trying out Amtrak Sleeper accommodations. And I can’t wait till my time comes to travel overnight on an Amtrak train. Be it the Silver Service and Auto Train.
Entering Pittsburgh at night is worth seeing and Cleveland as well.
I have a roomette on an upcoming trip going out west on the Southwest Chief and coming back on Texas Eagle. But I have to travel the Lakeshore Limited to and from Chicago from Boston, and that's in coach. I also put in the very lowest bid for an upgrade to a roomette on the Lakeshore Limited. My attitude was like yours, if I get it, cool! I have a couple more weeks until the trip.....we shall see! If the lowest bid worked for you, I hope it works for me! I've done the Capital Limited a couple of times. My favorite part of that line is Harpers Ferry.
It really depends on the season and how busy it is
You are so lucky to have such a beautiful and sweet travel mate. 😊
She’s the best
My first Amtrak overnight train was the Capitol Limited from Chicago to DC back in Winter 2010. Back then, the train was longer in length and had a sightseer lounge which offered great views of the snowy landscape. Even though I rode in coach, I was able to pay and eat in the dining car and they prepared and cooked onboard. I can only hope that one day, they'll bring full dining service back.
The line from Cleveland to Chicago is the former New York Central main line, the Pennsy ran through Crestline, Fort Wayne, and Valpo. It's a minor issue except that it could piss off a ton of devout Pennsy and NYC fans on line. If you've ever seen clips of CSX engineer Rodney Kantorski online you'd know what I mean. My first overnight train trip was a roomette on the CL from Pittsburgh to Chicago so it'll be a little sad to see the train in its present state go in November. I also made the mistake of not showering on the train which I rectified on my Auto Train trip later that year (and haven't done a Roomette since).
Longtime B&O fan and former Washington Amtrak OBS employee here. I got to ride the original "Capitol Ltd." as a kid, a few years before Amtrak, from Chicago to Akron, with my grandmother and her sister and brother-in-law. It was a great trip to LA and back on the Santa Fe "Super Chief" and Union Pacific "City of Los Angeles", with dome cars on both of those trains (including a dome diner on the UP "City of LA" (a 34 car train with 5 or 6 E-Units when combined with the "City of San Francisco" and "City of Portland" east of Ogden, UT). The daylight B&O train to Chicago was a glorified mail train called "The Diplomat", which was mostly baggage and express cars, with a coach and a coach/cafe. Didn't have a dome on the Cap, but I did get dinner in a real B&O diner, and got to go through Chicago Grand Central Station before they tore it down, as well as Dearborn St. station.
About the route. The eastern panhandle of WV exists because of the railroad. It was vital to the Union for the Civil War, so when the western part of Virginia split from Virginia, they made sure to include the counties the B&O ran through. Early in the war, the Confederates captured the railroad and stole equipment to take South for their use, so getting it solidly into Union hands was critical. The original B&O facility in Martinsburg, WV is now a museum. It used to be a double roundhouse, but one of them burned down before the complex was preserved, so only one of the roundhouses survives. The part of the railroad that crosses between Maryland and West Virginia several times is called the Magnolia Cutoff. The original line closely followed the winding Potomac River. The cutoff shortened the route by 14 miles, and saved a lot of curvature and some grades. There are four tunnels and two massive trestles that are part of the cutoff, Graham Tunnel being the only one in Maryland, with the two trestles over the Potomac on either side of it. Originally, the cutoff was only supposed to be for freight trains, but all traffic was consolidated on the cutoff in 1961. The original right-of-way is now dirt road access to private property along the Potomac. You briefly showed a bottle of Deer Park Spring Water, but didn't mention that Deer Park, MD is a town on the Mountain Subdivision on the original line that ran to Wheeling and had the spring the water came from. Deer Park water was a staple on B&O dining cars.
As a former Amtrak food service employee, it's really sad and infuriating what management has done to food service in the last 25 years, but much of it is because the Republicans in Congress keep picking away at Amtrak, trying to make it so unappealing they can eventually discontinue it. Before I worked for Amtrak I used to enjoy overnight train travel and having a meal in a dining car. From the late 1980s into the 1990s Amtrak sent their chefs to the Culinary Institute of America for enhanced training, and the quality of dining car meals did markedly improve. I worked the Cap a couple of different times, first when it connected to the Broadway at Pittsburgh, turning with the lounge back to DC. Having a dome car over Sandpatch grade was a great amenity. Then for several months in 1996, I worked the Superliner lounge. It was a very busy and usually full train back then. Maybe someday it will be again. I Enjoy the videos, Thom.
I didn’t know that about the panhandle! Thanks for sharing these stories! What was your favorite thing about the Capitol Limited?
@@Thom-TRA To tell you the truth, Thom, I really didn't enjoy working the Cap very much. I worked it because at those times it was either the only job I could hold or the least bad job I could hold. My preference was always to work a cafe car in the NEC by myself. It's not because I'm anti-social, it's because LSAs are responsible for the revenue of the car, and have to pay out of pocket for any losses, and it's bad enough when I made a mistake making change, but then I also would have to worry about an assist and maybe a server as well. I had a waiter on the Cap with a drug habit who cost me a couple hundred bucks over a couple of months and I couldn't figure out what was happening for some time. That and the layover for the Pittsburgh turn was four hours in the middle of the night, and when I went to Chicago early on, because the turnaround there was short Amtrak said we didn't rate a hotel room, so we had to stay in the filthy, vermin infested crew "lounge" in the basement of Union Station. The second time I worked the Cap in '96 we got a hotel room, but again it was a short layover in the middle of the day. My favorite run was the old Atlantic City express because it was four days on and four days off and I only had to work about 3 1/2 trips a month, and it paid overtime. The attendant followed the equipment cycle, which covered all of the trains to Springfield, MA and Richmond, VA from DC, and included laying over a full day in Springfield, MA and getting a day's pay for it. It got to the point that I really don't enjoy sleeping on a train anymore because I always had to get up after a few hours and reopen the cafe. One of the reasons I left to become a freight engineer was to get the 12 hour on duty time limit for operating crews.
Nice trip report! I remember around 2 months ago, I was on the Capitol Limited but we stopped at Brunswick, MD due to a track fire in Harpers Ferry so we really didn't get around nowhere. But anyways, nice trip report!
Did you have to bus the rest of the way?
@Thom-TRA No. We actually wye near Point of Rocks and then we headed back to DC and the train got canceled after that.
@@RailfanningMaryland I was on the eastbound Train 30 not too long after the fire, once they had reopened the line!
“Flex dining” is pathetic when you’ve experienced the previous dining car set up with real food. While this isn’t the only reason why we’ve started flying to Chicago, it is definitely a contributing factor.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Why didn’t you go all the way to Chicago?
@@davidaldinger113 because I wasn’t going to Chicago? Seems pretty straightforward to me
The Pete Buttigieg Express (Washington, D.C. - South Bend, IN). In all seriousness, great video! Very glad to see you again.
I wish he’d spend some more money on making it better!
I had one brief experience with Amtrak about 40 years ago. Mom decided that we needed to get away from home after my dad passed away. My brother was living in the Bay Area at the time so California was the place we were bound for. It started out on the Empire Builder to Portland and then we transferred to the Coast Starlight for our run to Oakland. I admit that it was fun, but mom wasn’t as happy as it did not have the atmosphere of a train trip she took back in the Golden Age of rail travel (the 40’s and 50’s). But we survived and I didn’t have to drive. On the way back, we went on the Coast Starlight again, but we went to Seattle so we got to ride the Empire Builder from there back to Spokane. You know what a thrill it is to depart and arrive at your hometown train station at 2 in the morning? Not much of one. If I can come up with the bucks to do a long trip on a train, I would fly to Seattle and board the Empire Builder and roll to Chicago and then go from Chicago to D.C. and I would do it all in a tuxedo because it would be fun to do it all in formal wear. And yep, that would mean bow tie tightly tied and all the accoutrements. It’s just a dream, but one I think I could do.
Back in the 60s, when I was going to college in KY, I drove from MD (where I picked up a roommate who lived there) to KY. I noticed the same thing you did, how the route went from MD to WV to MD to WV, over and over again. Weird!
Rivers rarely follow straight lines!
I traveled on The Cap in the 1980's when it combined with the Broadway Limited in Pittsburgh. The DC section had a Dome Coach, Coaches and a 10-6 rebuilt sleeper. It only had a Lounge Car with the forerunner to FlexDining, tv dinners for Sleeping Car passengers. But for breakfast I ate in the Broadway diner. Awesome service and food.
This sounds so great. Thanks for sharing!
**sees TRA ending the trip in South Bend instead of Chicago** Are y'all trying out the South Shore Line post-double track project 👀
I have a life outside the channel you know lol
@@Thom-TRA As someone who grew up in South Bend, what else is there to do in the Bend? hahaha
@@JuanWayTripsgottem
I’m about to do Cleveland to Chicago. Then taking the Texas Eagle to the Coast Starlight, then the Empire Builder!
Sounds like an awesome trip!
The first time I rode a long distance train I rode the capital limited as well, however, I had family room accommodations cause I live in a family of four
Best way to see the USA is by train in your own private room!
Love riding Amtrak roomette always, thanks for sharing
Love you two!
Great video!
Thanks!
These stations are HUGE with very high ceilings! I would be overwhelmed walking into any train station, looking like a fool gawking everywhere !
Doing the roomette becomes the sort of thing that's more necessary as you start getting older. I used to do overnights in coach, and be fine, but being able to get horizontal overnight became important for being able to function the next day after I reached a certain age (above 40). Same with airline flights - no longer doing overnights without a lie flat.
My father worked for the B&O and we travelled all the time. I still travel on the rails as a retired
individual. You missed the C&O canal site along your route. The C&O canal ended in
Cumberland, Maryland.
Great Amtrak video. You sold us on traveling on Amtrak.
I love hearing that!
11:20 according to a local historian I spoke to who rode the train in the 90’s, the tracks were in poor condition and had slow speeds. And Fort Wayne has been trying to get passenger service back for a while now. Maybe they will again, if the corridor ID process goes ahead.
Ps,if you haven’t stopped in Elkhart to visit, you may have missed the National New York Central Railroad museum across from the station (opposite side of your roomette/coach I believe) The volunteers and staff are doing renovations to the site, and it’s well worth a visit.
Whenever you do an Amtrak ride video I enjoy it and definitely learning the details of Amtrak travel, great video my guy! 😊
Glad to hear it!
I'm so glad that you did a trip report for the CL. I love the attention to detail in this trip report, too. I have never ridden the CL, but it's one of the trains that I watch/track online, as well as watch come into the station when it gets to Pittsburgh when I take the Pennsylvanian (which I do appreciate you gave some homage to as well).
Did that especially for you!
I'm usually on the NE Regional, but this actually looks like a worthy option to Chicago. Looks way more comfortable than I imagined.
WELCOME TO MY WORLD! I always take roomettes or bedrooms. Yes, they are expensive but I love having your room serviced by an attendant, and food is included. I'd sleep easier on a lay-flat bed also than in Coach.
Wow I really enjoyed your B&O history as I grew up with that railroad going through my hometown. It'a always fun to travel with you!
Glad you enjoyed it! It’s fun to live near such a historic railroad
my first time in the roomette was on the Lakeshore limited to boston back in January 2023. I caught it from depew station.
awesome video, Thom. enjoyed the scenery and narrative about the B & O.
Glad you enjoyed it!
The scenery is much better if you take the Capitol Limited during peak foliage in the fall.
It's been 5-6yrs since I last rode the CL. Back then, there was an observation car.
I really loved this video. I would like to know more information about the freshly cooked meals that Amtrak provides in its Florida route and which line it gives it on, either the silver star or silver silver meteor
It’s on both the silvers. You can find the menu online.
Thanks for the trip. Nice editing in your videos, btw. I don't know if anyone else has commented on South Bend (comment #408 here!), but there's an entire Wiki entry on relocating a station downtown or the airport (albeit for the South Shore Line). A downtown station conceivably could include Amtrak as well, instead of that current bleak industrial west side location- which is where the SSL was truncated when they were kicked off of city street-running to downtown SB.
South Bend is an interesting case. Not sure why they try so hard to keep their trains out of the convenient parts of the city!
@@Thom-TRA Here's what I get from the Wiki entry: South Bend wants a downtown station; Norfolk Southern owns the right-of-way, is not interested; then feasibility studies say it'll cost $$$$, have to take houses, playfield; airport station re-location is least resistance; still need $$$$ to make anything happen. Good news: the airport re-route will still allow a downtown spur- and there's a transportation center built with provision (hello, NS) for a rail platform.