Lake Shore Limited

South Bend Cubs are an easy uber from the station. From there you could ride South Shore line through Gary for the railcats, downtown Chicago via South Shore, and Metra/Uber to see the Joliet Jackhammers and Kane County Cougars. Does the South Shore count as it's within eyeshot of the LSL for miles and the ROW's are no more than 2 miles apart except for around LaPorte?

bostontrainguy wrote:

bratkinson wrote:

bostontrainguy wrote:Looks like the Lake Shore schedule will be 30 minutes shorter westbound this summer leaving Boston at 1:20 PM, but no change eastbound.

The only NYP-CHI options available involve the Capitol Limited and optionally via the Pennsylvanian connection at PGH. Way to go, Flyboy!

Reminds me of a recent proposal by Fred Frailey from Trains magazine:

Eliminate the Lake Shore Limited (New York/Boston to Chicago), the Silver Star (New York to Tampa/Miami) and the triweekly Cardinal (New York to Chicago), and convert the Capitol Limited to single-level equipment. Use the equipment from these discontinued trains to run the Pennsylvanian from New York and the Capitol Limited from Washington as full-service trains (probably three sleeping cars apiece) and combine them between Pittsburgh and Chicago.

So that would have direct service between Philly and Chicago again? Sign me up! In addition the Cardinal gone! But I'm not in favor of the LSL and Silver Star gone. Fred would replace the LSL with a CHI-BUF train. Essentially BUF would be the new PGH. Sure Pennsylvania would win but why can't PA and NY both win?

Here's the full article: http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey ... mtrak.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amtrak released it's Great Dome schedule for this year:

https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/fall-tra ... e-car.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems like a great opportunity to put the dome on the Lake Shore Limited over the Berkshires. It has to get between the two assignments doesn't it?

P.S. Note the obvious mistake: The "Great Dome" car offers a rare and unique fall travel experience to view this season's brilliance on the Adirondack and Cardinal train.

Not sure if it will clear the wire between Back Bay and South Station.

Railjunkie wrote:Not sure if it will clear the wire between Back Bay and South Station.

I’ve been told that it will not clear.

Private car MOONLIGHT DOME will clear on that route to and from BOS but it has a slightly lower profile than other domes. In the world of physical clearance profiles, one inch matters a great deal.

Could run from North Station via the Grand Junction!

P.S. Looks like Moonlight Dome is 15' 5" - even lower than the Kawasaki bilevels which are 15' 6". I believe the Amtrak Great Dome is 15' 10". By the way I once saw a Kawasaki car coming out of Boston with some type of flap/cover open on top of the car that added at least 6" or so to the car height. It cleared everything when I saw it around Beacon Park/Comm Ave.

bostontrainguy wrote:Could run from North Station via the Grand Junction!

Not this summer it couldn't. MBTA is "helping" Pan Am get the Worcester main line in good enough shape to take over for the Grand Junction while bits and pieces get fixed starting this summer.

Talking the Fall here.

Railjunkie wrote:Not sure if it will clear the wire between Back Bay and South Station.

They could attach it in Worcester

Where would you store it? Then there is also the question of who is going to make up the hoses and 480 cables.

No mention of how this is going to affect the Lake Shore or freight trains for that matter:

MBTA announces summer weekend bus replacement service phases staggered between Worcester and Boston:
https://mbta.com/news/2018-05-21/worces ... ins-may-26" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BTW: Amtrak has finally posted the LSL summer schedule with this note:

Dining*: Contemporary and fresh dining choices for Sleeping car
customers onboard. Meals can be ordered with the Sleeping car attendant
and delivered to Sleeping car passengers through enhanced room service.
Sleeping car customers choose from a variety of quality, fresh and readyto-serve
meals. A Kosher meal is available with advance notice. Sleeping
car passengers have the option to dine at available seating in the Lounge**
car or served in their bedrooms or roomettes.

* I wonder if it should say "First Class Dining"
** I think this also should say "First Class Lounge

Also the NYC connection has over a TWO HOUR WAIT in Albany!

Terminating at Worcester poses a logistics problem, just as it does for adding the dome at the end of the foliage season this year, as suggested by someone. If they're going to truncate the run, I'm afraid they'll do it at Springfield where there's more support to take care of the train, and turn it for the run back west. That's a 100 mile bus ride if that happens.

I'm taking that train in July and noticed the same thing, re: the long transfer in Albany. At least there's a nice bar right nearby.

ryanov wrote:I'm taking that train in July and noticed the same thing, re: the long transfer in Albany. At least there's a nice bar right nearby.

There is also the option of taking the new CT Hartford line to Springfield, which gets there at 1:05 pm, but then with that you have 2 transfers and another 2 hour or so wait in Springfield for the LSL.. That is if you want to be a little more adventurous!

A 2 hour wait in Albany will probably be a tight connection on many days due to CSX handling of the LSL.