Actually, it is almost as much fun to plan as to take these excursions. I have done many plans, one that takes in all the railroad interest in the country, a bit out dated. If I took it I would be on the road for two or more months. Most recently, I explored a trip to Florida. I planned three versions. One to northern Florida and another to Miami. The third took in both. That has been put on hold for now. I am not going south during the summer, for one thing. The other is the building of Brightline fast train. It caused a change in plans when it was opened between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. But, it had to be altered again when Brighline opened its service to Miami. Eventually, the service will extend to Orlando. I may wait until then before taking that excursion.
There has been several excursions in the past that were based on the news. My first was an overnight from Washington, DC to Atlanta, GA and back. That came from projections that Southern RR was giving up on the Crescent. That was a very long time before Southern and NW merged to be NS. Southern eventually turned the Crescent over to Amtrak.
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The next was an two day excursion to Springfield MA to watch Amtrak, between Springfield and New Haven, Conn. It was to see the new SPV 2000's that Amtrak was planning to run between Springfield and New Haven. I arrived and they were not in service, yet. I did watch trains on that line as well as in New Haven and Springfield. I got home and in my next issue of Trains, there were pictures of the New SPV 2000's in service. The pictures were taken the week after I was there. If I had waited a week or two for that trip? Actually, that gave me reason to do that trip again.
As I was exploring options for trips, I tested out a possibility from Cary, NC to Chicago. That required a transfer in Washington, DC to overnight to Chicago, on the Capitol Limited. However, the connection in Washington lacked the full hour for Amtrak to grantee the connection, meaning an overnight layover in the Washington area. It would mean 8 hours to explore Chicago, OK, a part of Chicago. I could go to Navy Pier and up the Willis Tower, and more.
My next destination to explore was Memphis, TN. According to my information, there is one of the few hanging monorails, crossing the river. Add to that streetcars around the city. My research told me that I would have to go to Chicago, spend the day, overnight to Memphis, spend the day in Memphis before returning to Chicago, overnight, than back to Washington, overnight, before returning home. That created two days in Chicago. Hold on, there is more to this trip.
In looking at this trip, it would be a shame to have to stay in a hotel in Washington. Instead, I could do the overnight to Boston, transfer to the Chicago train: the Lake Shore Limited. No motels, overnight to Boston. The train leaves Boston around noon. OK, an interesting side trip is found.
There is another train between Washington and Chicago and goes through West Virginia. It takes longer but impractical for the outbound trip, poor timing on transfers. But saints be praised, I found the return trip would be more accommodating and interesting. The Cardinal goes though Charlottesville, VA and northward to Manassas and Washington. The Virginia Railway Express commuter line goes to Manassas along with the Crescent. So the overnight and most of the day trip from Chicago could give us an overnight motel stay in Manassas. The Manassas to Washington trip could be on a Northeast Regional (to Roanoke VA), the Crescent (from New Orleans, Atlanta, etc.) or the VRE. Of course that would include watching them at many points. This trip will result in stopping at the last train station, build by a major railroad, before Amtrak took over: Prince, WVA and it looks more modern that stations traditionally look.
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