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Trip Report: April 23 to May 8, 2003
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
TO PITTSBURGH AND GREENVILLE, SC
Friday, May 2, 2003. Harrisburg to Greenville.
Returning the Enterprise Cadillac DeVille was a simple task, and we were driven to the Harrisburg Amtrak Station at no extra charge. I sometimes wonder how Enterprise can offer so much service and so much automobile for so little cost. We paid $49.00 for the day's rental. We also elected to pay the $12.00 for Collision Damage Waiver as our TravelGuard insurance limits damage coverage to $25,000.00.
The Enterprise driver parked in front of the station and ran in to bring out the Baggage Agent, who unloaded our luggage onto a cart and stored it in the baggage room until the train was announced. He then took us down the elevator with our luggage and loaded it onto the train for us. The service available from Amtrak is phenomenal. Usually all you need to do is ask. Of course, I gave him a gratuity for this excellent service, a dollar a bag, (our luggage had now expanded to 11 pieces, as we had collected some gifts for the grandchildren), for which I was thanked graciously.
MEMORIES: It has been many years since I boarded a train in Harrisburg. I had arrived from Sunbury, PA, on the Pennsylvania Railroad's "Baltimore Day Express" in mid-winter of 1967 or 1968, only to read the headline, "NORTHEAST SHUT DOWN BY SNOWSTORM, Airports closed from Boston to Washington, Pennsylvania Turnpike closed." I had a ticket on the "General" to Pittsburgh. Was it going to make it though the storm from New York to Harrisburg? The PRR agent told me not to worry. As traintime approached, I peered down the tracks through swirling snow, to see a headlight and sparks from the pantographs of the two GG-1 locomotives that were bringing in the "General" on time. As I boarded, the two electrics uncoupled and pulled away to allow the waiting three General Motors E-units to back in and couple up. The entire process could not have taken more than five minutes, and we were immediately off to traverse the Appalachians. It was an exciting ride as the six V-12 Diesels roared over the mountains through an intense blizzard, bringing me into Pittsburgh on time. Just another routine night on the old Pennsy, Standard Railroad of the World.
We were on Amtrak's Pennsylvanian again, in Business Class, which was soon filled to capacity. It is a short, fast, ride to Philadelphia, 104 miles scheduled in 110 minutes, over some of the roughest tracks we have ever experienced. There were no announcements as we arrived at various cities.
"How will we know when we are getting to Philadelphia?" Sylvia asked.
It was up to us to figure it out. While the other train crews we had were great, this group successfully maintained invisibility. Arrival into Philadelphia was a few minutes late. Unlike our previous day's ride on the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, where we were offered every assistance with our luggage, in Philadelphia we were left to our own devices. All lighting was extinguished as the Genesis locomotive was uncoupled from the train. We needed our flashlight to find our bags in the dark piles of luggage, and had to carry them all the way to the other end of the car, along an aisle that was cluttered with coach passengers' luggage. Eventually we were able to account for all pieces and were standing on the platform wondering where to go, as an AEM-7 electric locomotive was coupling onto the rear of the train, in order to pull it backwards out of the 30th Street Station to New York's Penn Station.
There was no indication as to which way to go to find the waiting room, and no train crew to ask. Fortunately, a couple of hardhats appeared and guided us to the elevator which carried us up to the beautiful Art Deco main concourse. Here we found a Red Cap to take over our luggage and put it into storage until it was time to board the Crescent to Greenville. We didn't have long to wait in the Club Acela, (the new name for the Metropolitan Lounges in the Northeast Corridor) before our train was called, and our Red Cap appeared to escort us and one other passenger making the connection from the Pennsylvanian to the Crescent in Philadelphia.
Our Red Cap waited with us on the platform until the Crescent appeared, then she transferred our bags to Deluxe Room B in the Viewliner sleeper next to the dining car. Soon we began our first trip on the Crescent, and the dining car steward appeared to offer us dinner reservations. As we settled at a booth, a man with a very familiar face walked by -- Robert Osbourne, the Turner Classic Movies Master of Ceremonies. Vintage movie fanatics that we are, we've watched him introduce hundreds of movies. I invited him to join us, which he was gracious enough to do, and we had a fascinating conversation.
Osbourne lives in New York and was traveling to Atlanta, where the filming of his introductions takes place. He films about 115 segments a week there, returns to New York where he spends another week writing his own scripts, and writes on film-related subjects for various publications the rest of the time.
"I'm not afraid to fly," he said, "but I just don't like the hassle of security searches and delays, having to take off my shoes, and all that. It is much more relaxing to take the train, where I have time to read."
We turned in early, and after a comfortable night's sleep we arrived on time in Greenville, South Carolina before dawn where our son Mark was waiting for us.
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