Rail Paul

The last photo was of the charcoal kitchen. There's also a gas kitchen and another for wood! 

 

re Europe, we had a fellow from New Zealand on our trip, borders be damned! As for beans in Europe, we can hardly keep up here. It's a few years away. 

So we'll have people smuggling RG beans to Europe?  The way some of us used to smuggle Coors beer back to the states beyond the Pale? That was in the early 1970s

The on-time performance of the route averaged 62.7% for the year ending February 2009. According to Amtrak, 47.4% of the train delay was due to track- and signal-related problems, especially along the Delaware & Hudson (CP Rail) segment.

 

Even without the delays it's incredibly slow. 

I believe I worked out the end to end speed to be about 35 mph.  Customs can be either a breeze, or two hours. I've experienced both.

The big issue is that the line is mostly single track. That means trains have to duck into sidings and then wait to allow an oncoming train to pass, etc. There's also a lot of time built into the schedule to allow the train to regain the expected timing. An hour for what should be a 20 minute segment, etc. The D&H segment from Schenectady to (almost) Montreal is the major culprit. Parts of the line to Albany are rated for 100 mph

It's a pleasant ride, and the crew / passengers are friendly, but it is LOOOONG

The train from NY Penn to Montreal would be a very delightful five hour trip. Unfortunately, it takes about 11 hours, which is grinding for most people.

We flew one way and took the train from Montreal for the return.

How are you planning to get to Montreal, Sneak?

Porter Air has been running $120 one way fares from Newark. Change planes in downtown Toronto.  We found it quite easy.

I had forgotten about the guy who was ruled a suicide after he apparently shot himself five times.

 

Whatever happened to the great generation of American swindlers like him, Tino DeAngeles (the salad oil king), Robert Vesco (the insurance crook) etc? Will America ever recover its spunk?

 

Bernie Madoff?  We can still turn out world class swindlers.

my faith is restored