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Other Trips of
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The Night I almost Died |
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I’ve
been many places. I’ve been to Washington D.C, Phillipsburgh,
New Jersey,
Scranton Pennsylvania and many other places. This Chapter will
describe places
I’ve been that are not big enough to get their own Chapter. During
the Summer of 2013, I took Amtrak's Northeast Regional down to
Washington D.C.
I’ve been there once before but that last time was a Disaster.
My father
was in a crappy
mood the whole time and
it was hot and muggy. Me, my brother, and my mother decided to
go back and we
stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn in Down Town. On the way to
D.C on the Amtrak
Train, I was checking out the cars and Elliot called. I
answered the phone and
talked low since the car was quiet. Eventually, a lady got up
from her seat and
said “You know this is the Quiet car, Right?” I was so
embarrassed I said
“Amtrak has quiet cars? Oh my god I’m so sorry!” and I left
and went back to my
seat and watched the scenery pass for the rest of the trip.
Subways
One
of the days that I was in D.C, I dedicated to going to the
Library of Congress
for the entire day. I had to sign up for the card and
everything which I
did. I went
over to the Library and
ordered books that I could read for the day in the library.
I read a few
railroad accident reports along with one of my favorites,
“Railroad Mergers and
the Coming of Conrail” by Richard Saunders. I also became
friends with the
Librarian there. She was a very nice lady and helped me find
books. Turns out
that she grew up in Pennsylvania a few blocks from where the
Pennsylvania
Railroad ran and she remembered the Pennsy well. At about
5:00 I was reading my
book and listening to music on my iPhone when someone
started calling, I had it
on vibrate so it was quite loud. Keep in mind I had just got
it so I was still
figuring it out. They called once, twice, three, four FIVE
TIMES! At the
second ring everyone stared at me as I
frantically tried to figure out how to turn it off, second
time the guard
stared at me, third the main guard motioned the others over,
fourth they
started walking over, and the fifth, he firmly grasped my
shoulder and said
“Son, I think you should leave now.” I was so upset. I left
and went straight
over to the L’Enfant train station where the Virginia
Railway Express runs
trains and hung out there for a while.
ABOVE: The
inside
of the massive library in the Library of Congress.
Biking
Problems
I’ve
been to Phillipsburgh, New Jersey a few times. There are a few
Railroad
attractions there. There is the old Lehigh Valley and the old
Central Railroad
of New Jersey bridges across the Delaware River. There is the
Bel-Del Railroad
that runs on the old Pennsylvania Railroad line. The Bel Del
runs a Chinese
Steam locomotive imported straight from China. There is also
the old Lehigh
& Hudson River Railraod bridge. Both the CNJ and LHR
bridges are still used,
but the Lehigh Valley Bridge has been abandoned for a number
of years. One
particular trip to this place stands out in particularly
because I walked the
old Lehigh Valley bridge. Keep in mind this bridge has not
been maintained in
over 20 years at least. I walked all the way to the
Pennsylvania side of the
bridge to where the old yard used to be. It was quite the
walk, the fact that
the Delaware River was at flood stage did not help my fear of
heights. I
eventually had to go back. And so, on my way back. James was
sitting on the
bridge. He originally followed me to the other side but he did
not get off the
bridge like I did. I sat on the bridge for a while and we saw
a few trains.
ABOVE:
The
view from on the New Jersey side of the bridge
The
main point of the trip however was to see the Lackawanna
Railroad historical
societies Rare Electro-Motive F3s, Which we saw after the stop
in Philipsburgh.
It was quite interesting . After we saw them near Water Gap,
PA, we headed over
to an area with a restored station. During our wait, Me and my
friend Pete took
a mile walk on the railroad tracks. We passed a lumber mill
with some cars on a
siding, we got through one curve and got to another, after
that one, it was a
straight run for about a mile. We walked to about in 100 feet
of that tangent
section of track when we decided to rest for a while. We then
proceeded to look
for Insulators on the Remaining telegraph poles. By the time
we went on this
walk however, I wasn’t feeling too good. I may have had too
many fries for
lunch. Lets just say I had to use the bathroom…. BAD… Anyways,
after about an
hour, Pete and I started to head back to the station area. We
started to round
the first of two curves when suddenly we heard a *HOOOOOOONK* in the distance. We looked at
each other and started
running. We got through the first section curved track on our
way back when we
heard the roar of the engine, so we hauled ass even more!.
Eventually we took a
break and *HOOOOOONNK
HOOONK* the
train came into view and we waved at every one on the train.
We even got a
special horn salute from the engineer. As soon as the last car
passed, I tried
to keep pace with it and the conductor and Brakeman in the
rear of the train
were yelling “C’mon you can do it! Faster! FASTER! FASTER!”
eventually I lagged
behind however because I saw Pete was tired. We ran back to
the car just as
Ronnie and James got to the car. We then hauled ass to Moscow,
PA, Where Pete
and I got drinks and refreshed ourselves. After the train passed, we headed
over to Scranton to see
them pull into the Station. After they did, I saw the guy who
taught m how to
operate the locomotive at Railcamp. I got to talking to him
and it turned out
that they were positioning the locomotive for him to get a
shot of it and he
let us come with him to take pictures too, and so we did.