Amtrak Capitol Limited Thread

[F40CFan]

My favorite stop is Harpers Ferry, WV., due in westbound around 5:15 pm local time. Beautiful little town. Be sure to look out the south side of the train (left in direction of travel) as you approach.

[jobtraklite]

Definitely snag a seat in the sightseer lounge for the segment through Maryland. I love the views through Harper's Ferry and the Cumberland Pass.

For this quick overnight trip I would probably be comfortable going with a Coach seat since the arrival into Sandusky is in the middle of the night. For the 12:40 AM departure be sure to check out the status of the train on amtrak.com. There might be a delay leaving Chicago.

The CL is a nice ride. Time keeping has improved greatly recently, except of course when there is an engine failure.

Eastbound I generally wake up around Connellsville; and I find the run along the Youghiogheny and Castleman Rivers in PA equal to the Maryland scenery. See if you can spot on the hillside across the river the former Western Maryland RoW, now the Great Allegheny Passage, a bike path between Pittsburgh and Cumberland.

Geogrophy.net alert: the Cumberland Pass and Cumberland Narrows are often mixed up. The pass is somewhere near the North Carolina - Tennessee border. The narrows is a tall canyon housing two railroads, a bike path, highway, and river as you descend into Cumberland, MD.

If you are traveling during the Winter truncated consist period, a reason to go coach would be the noise. I recently rode eastbound; and the only thing separating my bedroom from the horn were two other bedrooms. It made for a very unpleasant night. Unlike last year, at least you could escape to the sightseer lounge during the day.

[ThirdRail7]

If you are traveling during the Winter truncated consist period, a reason to go coach would be the noise. I recently rode eastbound; and the only thing separating my bedroom from the horn were two other bedrooms. It made for a very unpleasant night. Unlike last year, at least you could escape to the sightseer lounge during the day.

This shouldn't be an issue in June....I hope.

[Balerion]

Waterloo's historic depot has been moved to the current station.

[Woody]

Waterloo's historic depot has been moved to the current station.

An esthetic and historical victory for sure. Another article added meat to the depot story. Waterloo intends to staff the station at night when the trains make their stops. Instead of the modern open bus shelter design, the venerable depot will be heated, with toilets, more well-lighted parking, Wi-Fi, and electronic train status boards. It's a solid step up for Waterloo and Amtrak.

Neroden, a.k.a. Nathanael, posted that funding for longer platforms was lost in the infamous Sequester, so that improvement will have to come in the future.

[STrRedWolf]

Posting here because I'm contemplating taking the CL from DC for an overnight to Chicago for another convention. Yep, I used to fly but I think now the TSA needs time to actually do things right.

How is the ride up from DC? I'm going to assume it's worth the sleeper.

Also, on the racks for the bikes, there was a bit of an issue concerning FRA regulations on bikes that MARC initially ran into maybe a decade ago, but within the past year they were able to design a locking system that FRA approved of in an old MARC I-A. So I bet Amtrak had to do a rack system that would work to FRA regs, and this is what they came up with.

[Ryand-Smith]

So I am about to take the Capitol Limited to Sandusky this week because its a bit more expensive than driving, same time frame when safety stops are taken into consideration and very very cheap (the bus is 300+ USD for worst seating and comfort), and I have a question. How often is the Capitol late coming back to DC. I have a connecting Northeast Regional (It comes in 2 hours later), but should I push the return trip to a later time? I didn't spring for a sleeper since its only 12ish hours to Sandusky which means I will simply sleep until I get near my station stop.

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

If you miss your connection to the regional Amtrak will rebook you on a later train with no increase in cost (although waiting in line in Union Station for them to do so was tiring, especially after just getting off the CL from Chicago). I would try to get the earliest connection regional Amtrak will guarantee. If you push it too late you'll either be stuck in Union Station until your connecting train leaves or you'll have to go to the Amtrak counter and try to get an earlier train (although I would suspect there would be fewer passengers who would rebook in this case and the line would be shorter).

All I can remember about the CL getting into WAS was last time I took it it was delayed almost four hours getting into Washington. I'm pretty sure that's a rare case (I hope!)

[CNJGeep]

I would see if they could push it back. I buffed 29 & 30 every day from Wednesday to Sunday in MRB and they were only on time on Saturday. (20 mins early into DC too!) The other days, 30 ran between 30-125 minutes late.

[Ryand-Smith]

So the Capitol limited is a shockingly full train even though I suspect it's because a lot of people are heading to the same place I am. The train cars are like giant Amfleets but with all business clas seating (honestly I could do a 3 day trip in this), and it seems like they don't mind my giant bag of food which is also nice. I only wish we had a cross country HSR like this, I would never fly again (or get it down to 50 hours cross country).

You lucky guys on the west coast have such luxurious trains.

[bdawe]

I do love the superliners, but twice have I been on an overnight journey where they showed me their drawbacks.

Firstly, was the time that I decided to climb two mountains in a weekend, the Skypilot in Squamish, and then doing an overnight trip to Mount Baker in Washington. Friday - drive to the base of the Skypilot, mountain-bike up logging roads, scramble up to the summit, come down. Saturday - drive to Baker, climb to the bottom of the glacier, 2 AM sunday alpine start, traveling roped up over glaciers to the summit for 10 AM and returning to our vehicles by nightfall. Monday - get on the bus at 5:30 AM at Pacific Central Station to connect to the 9:30 departure of the starlight from Seattle.

This sort of workout was something that temporarily gave me the legs of someone much more elderly than I, and climbing up those narrow stairwells to get to the bathroom or the cafe was an unpleasant experience to say the least .

[electricron]

Maybe I lost your point, but for someone riding Superliners to get to mountain resorts to go hiking on trails in mountainous areas to complain about climbing and descending Superliner's stairs seems extremely picky to me. After all, there are coach seating and sleeper berths on the lower level of Superliners, where the restrooms are located.

[bdawe]

You did, but that's understandable, I was rambling a bit.

IN short, thanks to a weekend of strenuous physical exercise, I found superliner stairwells painful to navigate, and I imagine that for the elderly the experience may be similar. While the trains do come with downstairs accommodations, do recall that for the mobility impaired that accommodation does not have access facilities in other cars such as the lounge, the diner, or the cafe

[David Benton]

I know what you mean, after a day climbing ladders, the legs don't like any activity.
And I think the point is, for many people, that kind of pain is a daily thing, because of age or disability.

[farecard]

Considering taking the Capitol Limited in a few months, as it's 40% the price of SWA, and I won't be groped.

It's been decades since I was on anything outside the NEC so I thought I'd ask here if there was anything I should know first. In the past I've taken the Floridian, California Zepher, Lake Shore Limited, Auto Train and others.... including the Ghan.

Is there anything in particular I should know about this trip? How is the on-time performance? The food available?