The Capital Limited

Chicago's Union Station

For our trip home from Chicago to Washington, D.C., Tim and I chose a slower, more civilized way to travel by purchasing tickets for a ride on Amtrak's Capital Limited.  Our train departed from Chicago's Union Station at 6:10 p.m. on Sunday evening.  We arrived an hour early so we could enjoy the station's holiday style.

Completed in 1925, Chicago's Union Station boasts a imposing portico for its entrance.  The columns are gloriously illuminated by white lights throughout the year, but for the holiday season, red lights alternated with green for a festive effect.






Inside, the magnificent Great Hall becomes even more splendid when a Christmas tree is set up in its center.

No doubt, architect Daniel Burnham, who once stated "Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood," would have approved the magical look these banners and Christmas lights gave to his Great Hall's north wall.

Because we hoped for a decent night's sleep while the train rolled eastward through Indiana and Ohio, we bought tickets for a roomette, a compartment with two facing seats that convert to a lower bunk with an upper bunk that folds down from above.  An additional reason for purchasing sleeping accommodations instead of a coach seat was the use of Union Station's comfortable Metropolitan Lounge while we waited to board the train. AmTrak passengers with a layover in Chicago may store their luggage here while they sightsee in the Loop.  We checked two large suitcases into the baggage car, but kept a small bag packed with overnight necessities to carry onto the train.  In addition, we made arrangements with the lounge attendant for the 7:00 p.m. seating in the dining car. 

Then Tim settled in to watch the Denver Broncos defeat his beloved Bears while I was drawn to the warmth of the fireplace. 

When our train was announced, we walked out to the south concourse to board ahead of the coach passengers. 

After marveling at the compact efficiency of our roomette situated on the upper level of a sleeper car, we quickly made our way to the Sightseer Lounge car where we could enjoy the city lights as the train pulled out of the station promptly at 6:10 p.m. 

Along with way, we walked through a Deluxe sleeping car with bedroom compartments that feature a private restroom equipped with a shower and toilet.  These accommodations are an upgrade from the roomette we purchased, and not one that I deemed necessary.  I planned to spend my time tomorrow in the Sightseer Lounge where I could enjoy a panoramic view of the scenery.

Dining aboard an AmTrak train is much more civilized than chugging down a beverage on an airplane.  Seated at a linen-topped table, we tucked into our steaks, potatoes and lettuce salads after introducing ourselves to our dinner companions.  Dining car booths seat four so we shared a table with two ladies, each traveling alone.  The minister's wife from Wisconsin was traveling to Pittsburgh to visit her daughter.  The other woman was an Amtrak enthusiast who has ridden most of the routes the company offers.  She gave us helpful tips for riding the rails and told us which routes offer the most gorgeous scenery.  Thanks to her glowing review, I now hope to someday travel on AmTrak's Empire Builder from Seattle through Glacier National Park to Chicago.

Returning to our roomette, we found that the attendant had made up our bunks so we prepared for bed.  The upper level of each sleeper car is equipped with a restroom similar to those found on a commercial airplane, but much cleaner.  Additional restrooms are available on the lower level as well.  Passengers are encouraged to leave the restroom in good condition for the next person to use; however, should someone neglect this courtesy, the attendant also cleans the restroom periodically throughout the trip.  Train toilets are an experience!  They have no handle or button to flush the contents away.  Instead, one must close the lid of the toilet to flush it automatically.  As it flushes, a red light will come on and remain on briefly until the toilet is once again ready for use.  If the red light starts flashing, this is a signal that the toilet is jammed which could easily happen if one uses an excessive amount of toilet paper.  Therefore, when riding the rails, go green and use t.p. conservatively! 

There is something soothing about the swaying of a railroad car that lulls one to sleep.  Both Tim and I fell asleep quickly; I even slept through the stops at Toledo and Cleveland.  However, the passing of a high speed freight train woke me up around 4:00 a.m. and after that, falling back to sleep eluded me. 

Instead, I opened my window curtains and watched the full moon cast its glow over the countryside. Christmas lights strung on farmstead fences or the shubbery of homes in small towns twinkled their cheer, but my favorites were the single candlelights placed in each window of a home. Those beacons seemed to say that the family inside was safe, warm and waiting for absent members to return.  I wish I had a decent photo of one of these homes, but as you can see from the following picture, taking photos from a moving train is a tricky proposition.  By the time you encounter a photo op, you are already past it.

Soon I could see the Ohio River shimmering under the moonlight as it flowed next to our train tracks and along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.  I traced the river's path back to its beginning in Pittsburgh where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers join to form the Ohio.  Tim woke as the train pulled into the Pittsburgh station at 4:52 a.m., after crossing the river, and stopped for 20 minutes so passengers could disembark or board.  When the train continued on its way, we watched Monday brighten into dawn beyond our window.

Shimmying into our clothes, we were among the first to enter the dining car for breakfast. Over omelets and bacon, we visited with a man employed as a reference librarian at the Library of Congress. He, too, is a frequent AmTrak traveler, preferring the process of seeing the country as he travels across it.

After breakfast, Tim headed for the shower room on the lower level of our sleeping car, but the thought of keeping my balance on a slippery, soapy floor while rocketing down the tracks held no appeal for me.  Instead, I claimed a prime seat in the Sightseer Lounge.

There I tried to improve my ability to capture photos of the beautiful Allegheny mountains as they swept past my window. I wasn't very successful; too many of them turned out fuzzy and blurred. 

Fortunately, AmTrak trains are often sidetracked whenever a freight train commands the right-of-way. Freight companies own the railroads, not AmTrak; consequently, AmTrak engineers must frequently pull their passenger trains onto side spurs to allow the freight trains to pass. 

Thanks to these delays, I was able to capture some decent photos while our train was stopped. 

However, Tim had planned to work a half day once we reached Washington.  As our trip lengthened with these delays, he had to revise his plan.

The train wove in and out of the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, crossing state borders frequently before passing through the Cumberland Gap.  

At the Cumberland, Maryland station stop, I snapped this photo of the "Queen City of the Alleghenies."

Cumberland, Maryland

We journeyed through several tunnels that morning.  The most memorable one was the 1,592-foot-long Graham Tunnel. Entering and exiting the tunnel, we were in West Virginia, but while we were in the tunnel, we were under Maryland soil. West Virginians joke that you see the best of Maryland's scenery inside the tunnel.

Tim doesn't look very impressed with Maryland's scenery here!

For additional entertainment, we tracked our train's route using the GPS on my cell phone. Watching that pulsing blue dot move slowly along the GPS map was a battery-draining activity, but luckily the train was equipped with electrical outlets.

Lunch was another part of our ticket's benefits.  Once again our dining companions were two women traveling solo.  One was an expectant grandmother whose first grandchild is due after the holidays.  She was traveling from Oregon to Washington, D.C. to begin a second career as an art teacher.  The second was a Southern lady from Alabama who had been visiting family in Cleveland.  We arrived at the Martinsburg train station in West Virginia just as I polished off the remaining potato chips that had accompanied my deluxe hamburger.

The Martinsburg, West Virginia station is the oldest working train station in the United States. Built in 1847, it was one of the few buildings in the town to escape destruction during the Civil War.

Martinsburg Train Station

Our route passed near the Civil War battlefield of Antietam and through historic Harper's Ferry where the borders of West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia meet in the convergence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. 

Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

From this point on, the railroad tracks followed the C&O Canal along the north bank of the Potomac River. George Washington first envisioned this canal as a way to connect the Potomac and the Ohio rivers to provide transportation for settlers moving into the Ohio River valley. Although Washington never achieved his goal, the 184.5 mile canal was built between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland.

In this photo, the C&O Bike Trail separates the C&O Canal in the foreground from the Potomac

Instead of arriving at 12:40 p.m. Monday afternoon as scheduled, our train pulled into Washington, D.C.'s Union Station at 2:40 p.m. Tim hurried on to work, but neither of us resented the lost time for we had enjoyed the time of our lives on the Capital Limited.