Monday, August 25, 2014

Reflection

As I reflect on this vacation, I first reflect on what did I miss. First I missed Nashville and Memphis, TN. This was a planning thing as I chose before leaving not to go that direction. Nashville may never be seen, as the closest Amtrak stop is almost 200 miles. Memphis would be interesting. Overnight to Chicago, overnight to Memphis, overnight back to Chicago and overnight back home. I had speculated that hitting all my railroad targets in Chicago could be done in one day. Memphis could be done in less than a day but could be stretched to a full day if I explored Mudd Island. Of course I could expand Chicago to two full days, if I included some train riding as a part of the targets.

Atlanta streetcars just were not running because of construction delays. Interesting that in my first plans, Atlanta was a stop because it was on the way. It was only later that I learned of the streetcars. This remind me of one of my first chases. I learned that Amtrak had ordered the SPV2002 for use on the New Haven to Springfield run. The SPV2000 was an update RDC, styled like Amfleet. They were designed for branch operation and afterward be connected behind Amfleet, for through car service. They speculated they would be online by the end of April. I arrived in New Haven on April 22 and was to return on April 24. I arrived to find the old RDCs still in use and nothing of the SPV2000s to be found. I arrived home without seeing them. My next issue of Trains had pictures of the SPV2000s in service, on April 26, two days after I left. PS. It was a great excuse to go back a year later. And I did get pictures of the RDCs.

RDC

SPV 2000

When I began watching trains, the train chase was when I would watch a train pass, taking pictures as it passed. Than I would jump in the car and work to get ahead of the train so I could take more pictures as it pass by again. This was repeated often, for a particular consist. When I first used the title The Great American Train Chase, I was using a railfan's title, but not a real train chase. As I was thinking about, a train chase is anything that we view a runby and run to catch another, such as my overnight to Boston. Even that three days in CT and MA

The streetcars are projected, now, to start operation at the end of  November. I could return to see them. Atlanta is an easy overnight from Washington, DC. I have done it a couple of times before. The first was when Southern was still running it and again a couple of years later, when I wanted to go to Atlanta to take a steam excursion. I might even find other targets to see when there.

I did miss the SunRail in Orlando and the Skyway in Jacksonville, FL. I had done a projection for a Northern Fl, chase via Amtrak and found Tampa to Orlando to Jacksonville would be a problem. After getting home, I did the projection for Jacksonville to Orlando and found it to be tight, but when I change the projection for Orlando to Jacksonville, the chase became very doable.

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