Next Trip Approaches, Part 1

I have train tickets in hand. Well, not literally in hand, In the older days, you would go a station and have the clerk do up you ticket which was a slip of paper with the information on it. Eventually these were computerized to give you a printed ticket. Than online ticketing began. You would order and pay for your ticket, online than go to the station to print out the final copy. Now you have etickets that come as attachments to email and you just present your phone with the ticket showing and the conductor scans it. So my eticket is at hand, on my phone.

I choose as my first transfer, north, Fredericksburg. Richmond has the Amtrak station too out of the way, with no public transit directly to the station, You have to walk to a computer stop that is limited in times and frequency of buses. Besides, I drive to Richmond, twice a year, to visit friends and just hang out. Alexandria would be a nice place, but I have toured most, except for old town. I did discover an new landmark. But it might be better to see that, outside of a layover. Washington would be good and plenty to see. Again, it is a place I have seen many times either having parents living close, many years ago, transferring trains there, and taking day trips in and out.

I can walk down to to river in Fredericksburg and take pictures of trains crossing the bridge. Even from the platform, I can take pictures, and mostly in daylight. This means that I will be taking train 80, Carolinian leaving Cary 10:02 am and arriving in Fredericksburg at 3:06 pm, providing it is on time.

I will be boarding Train 66, Northeast Regional at 7:57 pm which will go overnight to Boston and arrives there at 7:58 am. This give another advantage of using Fredericksburg as a layover, time. 66 leaves Washington at 10:10 pm or Alexandria, VA at 8:55 pm. That is very late in DC and late in Alexandria. Alexandria closes the station at 9, so if the train is late you have to sit in the dark on an cold platform. Getting on earlier, means settling in, getting a bite to eat and a long nap before arriving in Boston for a full day of sightseeing and rail watching. (to be continued)