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Nov. 1st, 2009 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI wrote this on the Amtrak, mostly sitting in the second floor lounge and looking out the windows on a dark landscape rolling by into the night this past Friday. There is much squeeing about trains, buildings, and other things.
--About 7:40 last night--
*SQUEEE* I just went across the Canal Street railroad bridge!!
That's what went through my mind as I was waiting for the laptop to boot up. I got to look up through the overhead windows of the second floor of the lounge car and see the steelwork stretching out overhead and those distinctive angular counterweights. So awesome!
And now it looks like I'm running along the south shore tracks out toward Gary, behind all the factories and refineries. We just passed Harrah's casino. How awesome would it be if we went right through Gary next to the old Union Station there?
Wow; neat concrete stuff was happening too quickly there to write about neat abstract stuff!
Abstract stuff. This is awesome. The train is so great. My assigned spot is on the second floor of a passenger car. I got lucky and scored a window seat. But even if I'd been in the aisle it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm typing this in the lounge car, where I have an angled seat that looks forward out a huge window affording an excellent view of scenery that's mostly, unfortunately, too dark to see. And the window wraps up overhead too, extending out directly over my chair. I can't wait to get some pictures of the train in daylight. I think I'm going to set my alarm and try and get up before dawn. I wonder when dawn will be.
Ooh, another big iron bridge! *bounces*
The train left about half an hour late, but no biggie. I hear that just means that some scheduled stopover we had is going to be shorter.
Oh wow! And some kind of train is whipping by in the opposite direction right out the window! This rules!
I took some shots of Union Station while I was waiting. Most of the grand hall was closed off for some event, unfortunately, but I got a few shots of a grand barrel vaulted ceiling swathed in blue light.
I circled the lower levels and checked out the tracks and platforms a couple times. I spent about half an hour doing that, then camped out in the waiting room.
Ok; we just passed US Steel! That means we just went right by all the abandoned places I know in Gary, Indiana. Neat!!
The crowd of people waiting for the train was really neat. Such a diverse group! There were businessmen in suits, travelling teenagers keeping their parents updated by cell phone, and a whole amish family; seven or eight folks from toddler to elder, long beards and bonnets aplenty.
And now we're in a stretch of track with featureless black enveloping both sides of the train, broken only by an occaasional set of car headlights that recedes swiftly into the murk and vanishes.
While I've been sitting in the lounge typing, I've exchanged a few comments with another traveler. He was wodnering aloud whether it was Gary we were passing through. I was able to point out the US Steel plant as we cruised by. "See that big blue building that says Number One BOP Shop? That's US Steel. I have a picture of it from the top of an abandoned Sheraton hotel." *laughs* We talked briefly about how he's seen so much poverty and abandonment in the midwest, and I talked about how US Steel's work force has declined due to automation.
And prior to that, I had a little talk with the guy in the seat next to me. I mentioned it was my first long trip by train, and he talked about his. He used to live in Detroit, and traveled down to South Carolina in the sixties. So of course I had to ask him whether they left out of Michigan Central Station. He wasn't sure; he was young at the time. But he thought so. Oh, how wonderfully coincidental to meet someone who saw Michigan Central in better days!
Well, the scenery at this point is fairly unremarkable. Partly because it's too dark to see much, and partly because I have no idea where we are at this point. We're in terra incognito, as far as this dog is concerned.
Dinner reservations were being taken earlier, but I think I'm going to pass. Instead, I'm going to sit here and look out the lounge window for a while. Maybe do some picture editing. And then maybe go back to my seat and sleep. I'm feeling a little bit nappy. *yawns*
--Finished yping this about about 8:09 last night--
--About 7:40 last night--
*SQUEEE* I just went across the Canal Street railroad bridge!!
That's what went through my mind as I was waiting for the laptop to boot up. I got to look up through the overhead windows of the second floor of the lounge car and see the steelwork stretching out overhead and those distinctive angular counterweights. So awesome!
And now it looks like I'm running along the south shore tracks out toward Gary, behind all the factories and refineries. We just passed Harrah's casino. How awesome would it be if we went right through Gary next to the old Union Station there?
Wow; neat concrete stuff was happening too quickly there to write about neat abstract stuff!
Abstract stuff. This is awesome. The train is so great. My assigned spot is on the second floor of a passenger car. I got lucky and scored a window seat. But even if I'd been in the aisle it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm typing this in the lounge car, where I have an angled seat that looks forward out a huge window affording an excellent view of scenery that's mostly, unfortunately, too dark to see. And the window wraps up overhead too, extending out directly over my chair. I can't wait to get some pictures of the train in daylight. I think I'm going to set my alarm and try and get up before dawn. I wonder when dawn will be.
Ooh, another big iron bridge! *bounces*
The train left about half an hour late, but no biggie. I hear that just means that some scheduled stopover we had is going to be shorter.
Oh wow! And some kind of train is whipping by in the opposite direction right out the window! This rules!
I took some shots of Union Station while I was waiting. Most of the grand hall was closed off for some event, unfortunately, but I got a few shots of a grand barrel vaulted ceiling swathed in blue light.
I circled the lower levels and checked out the tracks and platforms a couple times. I spent about half an hour doing that, then camped out in the waiting room.
Ok; we just passed US Steel! That means we just went right by all the abandoned places I know in Gary, Indiana. Neat!!
The crowd of people waiting for the train was really neat. Such a diverse group! There were businessmen in suits, travelling teenagers keeping their parents updated by cell phone, and a whole amish family; seven or eight folks from toddler to elder, long beards and bonnets aplenty.
And now we're in a stretch of track with featureless black enveloping both sides of the train, broken only by an occaasional set of car headlights that recedes swiftly into the murk and vanishes.
While I've been sitting in the lounge typing, I've exchanged a few comments with another traveler. He was wodnering aloud whether it was Gary we were passing through. I was able to point out the US Steel plant as we cruised by. "See that big blue building that says Number One BOP Shop? That's US Steel. I have a picture of it from the top of an abandoned Sheraton hotel." *laughs* We talked briefly about how he's seen so much poverty and abandonment in the midwest, and I talked about how US Steel's work force has declined due to automation.
And prior to that, I had a little talk with the guy in the seat next to me. I mentioned it was my first long trip by train, and he talked about his. He used to live in Detroit, and traveled down to South Carolina in the sixties. So of course I had to ask him whether they left out of Michigan Central Station. He wasn't sure; he was young at the time. But he thought so. Oh, how wonderfully coincidental to meet someone who saw Michigan Central in better days!
Well, the scenery at this point is fairly unremarkable. Partly because it's too dark to see much, and partly because I have no idea where we are at this point. We're in terra incognito, as far as this dog is concerned.
Dinner reservations were being taken earlier, but I think I'm going to pass. Instead, I'm going to sit here and look out the lounge window for a while. Maybe do some picture editing. And then maybe go back to my seat and sleep. I'm feeling a little bit nappy. *yawns*
--Finished yping this about about 8:09 last night--
