The Capitol Limited

Journey to the Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part A: The Journey There I

Well, we left New York City and traveled back to Washington DC on the 11:00 AM Acela in order to catch The Capitol Limited to Chicago, our first stop on our way west. Now some of you may wonder:

"Why DC?"
" Why The Capitol Limited??"
"Why not The Lake Shore Limited (Amtrak's NYC to Chicago train)???"

Ah, all good questions, and here are the answers.
1. I took the B&O version of The Capitol Limited as a "kid" and college aged traveler. Thus, even though this routing varies somewhat, it was a trip down memory lane.
2. I took the Amtrak version of The Capitol Limited several years ago, when it was celebrating its 75th Anniversary. However, on that trip the Potomac Valley portion, to me a vivid memory from my past trips on The Capitol Limited, was marred by a terrific thunderstorm. Thus, I was hoping for good weather this time (which we got).
3. CSX and MetroNorth are both doing track work this summer in New York State (CSX under an Federal Railroad Administration mandate, their 2nd in 10 years) and I knew that this would give the dispatchers all the excuse they needed to tie the train up (ironically, on the day we arrived in Chicago the Lake Shore beat the Capitol Limited in by about half and hour).

The weather for our trip over the Capitol Limited to Chicago was beautiful, the first of many days of beautiful weather. And so, we got to see it all, the C&O Canal, Harper's Ferry WV (pictured), the old High Line/ Low Line routing through West Virginia and Western Maryland, and even, in the dimming light, "Sand Patch." In short, it was everything my trip a few years ago was not.

We woke up in Ohio west of Cleveland, on the way into Toledo. And yes, because of "freight congestion" we were 2 hours late. But hey, the farms we saw as we got up and went to breakfast were beautiful. One of the benefits of traveling in August is that many of the farm fields are full and obviously ready for the harvest. It makes you realize that the ability that we have to grow food in this country is important, not only for us, but for the world. If we are smart, and good stewards to boot, we had better preserve this ability. The country, and the people of the world, needs it.





Indiana came next and it too started off as a continuation of the parade of prosperous farms that had begun in Ohio. But as we moved further west, the "landscape" changed until by the time we arrived in Gary Indiana, we knew that Chicago was not far away.


And indeed it wasn't. For shortly after Gary we pulled into Chicago Union Station and the next part of our journey. But that will have to wait for another day.