It is a beautiful morning in our nation’s capital as the northbound Crescent, AMTRAK’s New Orleans to New York passenger train switches from diesel to electric locomotives. We are sitting aboard the train in splendid Union Station. About four hours from now, we will arrive in Penn Station, an undistinguished basement of a station that does not deserve to share the name of its predecessor, which fell victim to the wrecking ball many years ago.
Here are some images from the platform in D.C.
The weather here is gorgeous, unlike that at home. A good day to be at the Storm Alert Xtreme.
At 10 a.m. EST, it is 58 degrees in Washington under sunny skies with a light south wind.
I awakened to a beautiful sunrise just after 6 a.m. as the train rambled through the rolling countryside of Central Virginia. A shaved, showered and dressed in time to join a beautiful couple named Bob and Norma from Cape May, New Jersey. They had travelled to visit their daughter in South Carolina. With nine children, 23 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren, I would say they have lived a fine life! He is 82, she 81, and they have been married nearly 62 years. It was their first long distance train ride since their honeymoon in January 1945. Here they are in their sleeping car roomette, which is directly across from mine.
Shortly after breakfast, we pulled into beautiful Manassas, Virginia, very close to one of the first Civil War battlefields that I visited.
Yesterday was a beautiful spring-like day in Birmingham as I left on the train. Here is the Crescent pulling into the Amtrak station on Morris Avenue
Here is one of the Genesis locomotives…
Here is view down Nineteenth Street from the platform…
Here is the sleeping car attendant for my car. His name is Phil…
Trundling by Sloos Furnace…
A beautiful scene near Leeds…
Rolling across the trestle at Lake Logan Martin near Riverside…
More as I roll northward (just departed Washington at 10:20 a.m.) and a weather update shortly…
