27 December, 2005: Coming up on Train #285|30 December, 2005: Coming back on Train #280

I am dropped off at the Syracuse Train Station at 7:30. The morning is very dark, and very overcast. There is Eastbound CSX Freight train passing the station I see it from the parking lot. I enter the station waiting area, and am speechless at how crowded the station is, every chair is full, a lot of people are standing. There is a long line at the ticket window for people purchasing their tickets (Evidence that I am one of the few people on their return to New York; most people seem to be tourists that are coming to New York for the long weekend). I say at least a hundred people. I look out the window where the same eastbound CSX freight I saw in the parking lot is still passing through. I see some cars that look like bi-level passenger cars; I squint out the window and see that they are four new MBTA Commuter Rail Kawasaki BTC-4C Bi-Level cars, making their way to Boston from the Kawasaki plant in Lincoln Nebraska. I walk over to the bus station portion of the transportation center, it isn't that crowded, but I notice an Amish family sitting their waiting for a bus or train. I stop at the Dunkin Donuts that is their (the station also has a Subway, which is closed at this hour). It's quite crowded and the staff is working as slow as molasses. Finally, at 7:45, I have my coffee and a muffin and make my up to the platform, which is as crowded as your average subway station at Rush Hour. I've never seen this station so crowded. There are two freight trains on the tracks in the station: one is running eastbound and another is just stopped half-way passed the station. I get my camera out, and have this feeling that this train won't be as punctual as the one coming up with so much freight traffic around, but before I snap a single photo Train #280 comes in at 7:56. I'm not quite ready for it. No photos, oh well, anyway the quality would have been terrible since this morning is so overcast. The train looks quite crowded; I get on the last car which was closed until this point. I'm the first one on and choose a seat in this recently refurbished blue Amfleet car mid-way through. There is only one outlet at each seat, unlike the very newly refurbished car I took up that had two. The passengers keep flooding into the car until at least every row has been taken, but no one is doubled up yet, I take bets with myself on how long I will have my own seat. Good thing this train's fully reserved otherwise their might be people sitting in the aisles and vestibules in Albany. We leave on time at 8:00

The Consist of Empire Service Train #280:

• Genesis P32AC-DM Dual-Mode Locomotive #702
• Amfleet-I Club-Dinette #48172-(Half the car is business class, with a curtain separating the section, The center café, and then tables)
• Refurbished Blue Amfleet-I Coach #82574-Most of this car has yellow seat checks for Albany.
• Red Amfleet-I Coach #21094
• Red Amfleet-I Coach #44279
• Refurbished Blue Amfleet-I Coach #82517-my car

We leave on time at 8:00. It's slow running, as we exit the station, waiting for freights to pass. There are actually two at once westbound. The conductor comes in chatting with all. I give him my ticket and get a blue blank seat check. It's the first time to New York for some ladies behind me who really want to see the ball drop. I hear them throughout the rest of my ride although I learn that they are total strangers to one another. Their seem to be a ton of eastbound trains.

• 8:17-Pass the fright train with the new MBTA Commuter Rail cars, its pulled over to let us by. Now were off at full speed, at one point on the line now three tracks, its that and a westbound, on both sides of us. Nice to see CSX pulling itself over to let us go first full-speed
• 8:28-We wrong-rail a little, getting switched to the westbound track to pass another eastbound freight. Were running slow now.
• 8:32-We switch back to the normal eastbound track I feel like their more freights then usual
• 8:54-Rome-15 minutes late-The station's bigger then I thought, an island platform between the two tracks, with an underpass and a tiny station house. Lv. 8:57
• 9:14-Utica-16 minutes late-old station and platform with the Adirondack Scenic Railroad My last car doesn't platform, but people make their way back. I go for my consist walk. I count 6 rows of empty seats on the entire train and one car that will be almost empty after Albany. I predict it will be a zoo then, and a lot of unhappy people in single seats. Most of the general train population seems to be young people, lots of them on their laptops and portable DVD players.
• 9:46-Go through the dead-looking manufacturing town of Little Falls. We run slow for awhile, trailing another freight before being switched onto another track to pass a freight.
• 10:18-We keep running slow and then stop somewhere, were behind another freight. The conductor announces That we are stuck behind a CSX freight train and that we will fallow it until Amsterdam, and that its CSX's fault, not Amtrak's. We pass a westbound freight and continue slowly, fallowing a river.
• 10:38-See sign "Amsterdam 1 Mile"
• 10:40-Amsterdam-45 minutes late-Lv. 10:42. Conductor makes announcement: "Please make all seats available, This train is sold out." We continue running slowly outside the city of Amsterdam, its another industrial wasteland. A westbound freight seems to be passing every ten minutes as we fallow Route 5. We finally regain full speed as the freight were trailing is switched onto another line.
• 11:00-We go across the large Mohawk River, that we have been fallowing for awhile and into the "Electric City of Schenectady".
• 11:01-Schenectady-46 minutes Late-station is an island platform on a viaduct in the center of this city-Lv. 11:04
• 11:15-We start to slow down again at a large highway interchange of I-90 and I-787. We see downtown Albany and cross the Hudson River into Rensselear. Announcement is made not to leave the platform during the stop. We curve around the large train yard and facility.

11:22-Arrive Albany-Rensselaer-37 minutes late-I step off the train to get a breath of fresh air with all the smokers. Another Train begins to pull in behind mind, guess it's the next one out. I get my two good photos of the trip, and get back on. There is mayhem, as new passengers board, all of them annoyed that only single seats are left, in my car. A lady sits down next to me.
We Leave at 11:32-32 minutes late-and begin to make our way down the Hudson, the conductor says we will be their in "2 hours and 20 minutes, by 2 o'clock". The conductor comes through collecting tickets, seat checks are not in use, now, but remain uncollected.

• 11:54-Hudson-We stop as I am walking through to the café car. I walk by the single vestibule that has been open towards the front of the train for new passengers. The conductors are getting out and collecting tickets on the platform from the dozen people boarding. This causes a small delay in the train leaving, as they all fumble for their tickets. We finally Lv. 11:58, theirs no need to stop for 4 minutes for just 12 people.
  I walk into the very crowded café car to buy my cheese pizza. Wait in line a bit, it busy, pity café cars have been removed from all shorter (NY-Albany only) Empire Service trains. I go back to my seat, and eat my pizza, as we go down the mighty Hudson that doesn't have its usual ice cover at this time of year.
• 12:17-Rhinecliff-one door again near front of train. Many people walk back trying to find seats thinking there is another car behind mine. Lv. 12:22
• 12:35-Poughkeepsie-One exit again, for boarding/mostly disembarking control. All doors could open at this high level platform. Lv. 12:37. I take another walk through count 5 empty seats. We head down MNR trackage passing a few MNR locals.
• 12:51-Pass the tiny hikers low-level platform Breakneck Ridge Station and wake our way through the twin tunnels under the ridge.
• 1:13-Croton-Harmon-one door again-Lv. 1:14-an announcement is made that Yonkers is next and the exit for the one person getting off is behind the café. One of these days, I'll get off there, hop on MNR a few stops to Marble Hill, and onto the subway. No wonder some trains skip the station.
• 1:22-Café car service makes an announcement that after Croton-Harmon it will close. A pause, then the head conductor comes on (the same lady who's made all the station announcements the entire ride). "It will be open for about 5 more minutes, Yonkers is next." Along the MNR Lower Hudson Line all the stops seem to be getting rebuilt.
• 1:32-Yonkers-for that one passenger we platform across from an MNR Local train. We have stopped at the same time, if only I had known. I would have hopped on and been home earlier. Lv. 1:33 "New York Penn Next, 20 minutes"
• 1:36-Riverdale, The Bronx
• 1:37-We just slow down and stop waiting for that MNR local to pass, so we can switch across it and onto the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge.
• 1:42-We go over the bridge and make our way down the West Side Line. I listen to the lady behind me who is in the military talking about what the military wants. We head under Riverside Park, that's above us. The diesel fume smells in the air. We do the no lights dance into Penn Station.
• Arrive 2:01 Track 7-36 minutes late

As we arrive Regional Train #83 to Newport News is boarding. I exit through the last door, of the last car, the platform very crowded, and in order to get to the mezzanine level, have to walk almost too the front. (This is due to #83 boarding and the fact an escalator is OOS.). I get on the A and go home

27 December, 2005: Coming up on Train #285|30 December, 2005: Coming back on Train #280

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