National Train Day (USA)

[cteno4]

Just visited the National Train Day exposition here at Union Station in Washington DC. The event was busy but pretty uninspired. Sad to see what could be a real educational event be pretty low on the education. They did have some equipment tours but decided not to get in line for that, but Pilotfish can report on that, he and his family went on one of the equipment tours.

 

they put up a full band stand out in the main hall with a huge classic dome ceiling. Talk about the worst possible place to try amlified singing! it was absolutely awful with the acoustics there. why they thing they need poor quality live music in a space that is acoustically the most awful place to listen to it i have not a clue or what it had to do with trains (the singing was total am idol style) is another mystery. they must have spent a fortune for the whole stage setup with lights, superstructure and the works! pity.

 

Amtrak had a few small exhibits about refurbishing rail and equipment, really a boring trade show exhibit and a trade show art exhibit on sort of futuristic amtrak future (read 1970s japan!). Few rail and tour companies with brochures. Northern Virginia Ntrak was there with a small look along with the garden rr folks. Those drew the most crowds, but they were crammed into a corner of a waiting area and had really bad flow so not the event it could be!

 

Hard to put on a show like that in the middle of a large, functional, and busy train station though!

 

JRM was asked last year if we wanted to show there at the first one they had, but it turned out to be too last minute. the layout with bullet trains whipping around would have been a hit and maybe given a bit of future vision to the event! Maybe once we get the sectional layout dont thats easier we can try the event if it continues to be an annual thing (this is the second year), but it would not be fun to be crammed into the corner of a waiting area! would be wonderful to be out in the big main hall, but that appears to be reserved for the music unfortunately!

 

The great thing is I got to meet PilotFish (scott), his wife, and son in person! Was nice to put more of a face on someone from the list! not all 1s and 0s! They came up on the train for a visit for the Train day event and have fun in DC. Nice thing about living in DC is everyone seems to eventually come by for one reason or another!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[roomd]

The very amount of people there just sucked. Standing in line for 25 minutes to get inside the Acela with two restless 3 and 5 year old boys is not for someone weak of heart. We decided we won't go into the other trains.

 

What a contrast with the Union Station centennial last fall! Same place, same exhibits, no people (lack of advertisement then?). We had a leisurely walk everywhere, that was so much fun, so I felt sorry about my friend whim I dragged in with his 3 year old boy expecting the same this time.

 

I did not take any pictures this time, but here are some from virtually the same event in fall: http://roomd.homeip.net:8057/album/Trains/Union%20Station%20Centennial/index.html

[cteno4]

Did they at least let you see something of the trains other than what you get to see if you ride on them?

 

I am glad i did not try to do the tours as my own 5 yr old w/in me would have driven me up the wall!

 

I was really astounded that most of the stuff that was interesting was shoved into the small waiting areas where all the train traffic also is, but the huge main hall was virtually un-used!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Roomd - Great photos and it looked like the family had a lot of fun. Too bad the exhibition was a let down.

 

Jeff & Scott that must have been interesting to meet after months of discussing things on the board.

 

When I commute to work the train passes through Sunny side yard and you see the Amtrack trains getting ready to go into Penn Station. Sometimes there is an Acela waiting in the yard, the photos make it look like a comfortable train.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Guest ___]

It's like that every year Jeff, I'd go if not for the fact that I'm banned from Union, and for the fact that I recall last year it sucked when I snuck in. In years past they had Train Day (no national) it was held by Union but they'd have one model train layout and a cab from a GE ES44 on display that you could walk in. Pretty uninspiring, that was in 04, when Amtrak Police busted me for taking pictures and having a press pass. Just happened I was down there to meet Kenichiro and was also the same day of the Madrid attacks.

[cteno4]

 

Jeff & Scott that must have been interesting to meet after months of discussing things on the board.

 

 

It was really nice to meet Scott and his family! I hope they had an enjoyable trip up and fun meeting up with us!

 

Nice especially as so many folks these days you meet online and never see them in person! I even have a few clients i have never laid eyes on, but worked closely with via email and phone over the years! as video conferencing settles in that will change a bit, then at least you can see someone's face and more of the monkey language comes through than via phone or email.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[scott]

Hi, all--yeah, it was great to meet Jeff and K(c?)urt in person--hanging out at lunch was more fun than tramping around the exhibits! I'm glad we got to meet up for at least a while--it'd be fun to get together again in quieter and less hectic circumstances.

 

The equipment tour was a bit of a pain--I really wanted to get our son Anders  (rhymes with "wanders"  :) )onto the Acela, since he was interested, but there was a huge line hidden out on the platform that you couldn't see from inside the station. Anders showed remarkable patience for a tired 6-year-old. We eventually got on, but ironically spent most of our time on the Acela sitting in various coaches and playing Uno--which is what we did on the Cardinal on the way there!  :)  But it was interesting to see--the vestibules looked like something out of a Star Trek docking bay.  :-\ 

 

Anders's favorite part was probably trying out the upper bunks in the Superliner sleeping cars. I got a few close looks at some AEM-7s, which I had been hoping to do, but there were no cab tours. As Jeff pointed out, not much to see that wouldn't see by riding the trains, except that you could nose around in the sleeping compartments. Anders had a good time talking to the Superliner lounge-car attendant and getting a private tour of the lounge kitchen with her--she noticed when he stepped into the car and said "Wow!".  ;D We didn't see the historic cars (but I'm not really into the "passengers trains are for nostalgia" thing anyway--I like traveling, not reminiscing).

 

I was disappointed in the inside exhibits, too--every time we came to something, we'd be there about half a minute, and Anders would say "can we go see something else?" Normally that drives me up a tree, but I had to agree. Having spent a good bit of money to get there and back by train, the scale of the stuff they had advertised was pretty underwhelming. They should have just focused on the experience of riding the train. The art exhibit that I expected to take up a room was just a few sides of trade-show display boards--I think it took longer to read the description of the exhibit on the website than it did to see all the pictures.

 

Some Europe-by-rail group had handouts, and Anders really wanted one of their squeeze-toy Thalys engines. We got one, but he managed to put it down while climbing around in the Superliner, and didn't realize it until just after we left the equipment exhibits, which were closing. So I had to talk my way back in--the Amtrak cop was being a hardass, but once past her, I found a Train Day staffer who took me back on the train. Fortunately I have a good memory for places, and could tell which compartments we had been in. Sure enough, it was on one of the upper bunks.....Dad saves the day again.  :)

 

So the highlights of the trip were meeting up with Jeff, the actual train rides there and back (including a really nice dinner on the Crescent on the way home), and just messing around in DC--after we burned out on train day by 3:00, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the nearby parks before going back into the station for our 6:30 departure. I imagine the night-time arrival back home was cool for Anders--I remember loving that kind of thing when I was a kid.

 

I'll post some pictures soon--we were busy with Mothers' Day stuff yesterday, and I never even downloaded the trip pictures off the camera.

[scott]

Here are a few photos from our National Train Day trip--the full set from the trip is here.

 

 

Electric locomotives in the metal (one HHP-8 and two AEM-7s)--a novelty for those of us who live south of DC.

 

Anders at the station.

 

Watching the N-trak layout.

 

Trying out the upper bunk on the Superliner

 

gritty Acela

[Bernard]

Scott - the last photo in your post says a lot, a gritty Acela. That is one thing I rarely saw in Japan or in any photos of the Japanese RR, dirty trains.

[scott]

Yeah, poor Amtrak is so underfunded they probably can't even afford to wash the trains. Certainly the windows on the Cardinal are always pretty gritty by the time it gets to VA from IL.

 

But the other thing was that Union Station just has a gritty atmosphere overall. I don't expect a train station to be a garden, but the platform area there was just gray stuff surrounded by gray stuff.

[SubwayHypes]

AMtrack is really a sad pathetic excuse for a train system, everytime i see one go past my neighborhood its always a mismatched 5 car train that is covered in dirt and grime.

 

 

The other thing that pisses me off is how they love to blare their horns at full volume, at 3am in the morning!  At least japanese commuter trains are a little quieter.

 

 

 

its quite amazing how such a small country like Japan has 500% more trains (and better looking and functioning ones at that) than the entire United States.  It shows what a car culture the US is, none of us take trains..ever.  i have BART right near my house but i never take it because its 5 dollars a fare, the seats are stained with urine and weird smells, and robberies and shootings happen weekly at east bay BART stations...Id rather drive!

[SubwayHypes]

Japan really has, bar none, (and im sure all of you agree) the BEST functional train system in the world.  not only do they have a myriad of basic local commuters, but their manufactorers actually cater to train fanatics, releasing special edition trains and cars with special graphics.  Japan is such a train culture it amazes me.  Just thinking about how advanced Japan is in terms of railroad tech baffles me.  Here in San Francisco we have a bunch of dirty buses that are always late, alway dirty, our train system is a joke often hampered by delays.  Yet in Japan they have the Yamanote which literally runs every 3 minutes, multiplied by dozens of other lines that run on schedule every 5-10 minutes religiously.  HOW DO THEY DO IT??  What knowledge do us westerners lack about basic public transportation??  No wonder everyone in the US would rather drive their Chevy Suburban than take the train.  In japan, people balk at using cars because its too inconvenient.  My grandma was a millionaire english professor at Keiyo, they owned a jaguar and could have paid a chaffuer, yet she still took the train EVERYDAY to work, same as my grandpa who was board of directors at Mitsuya. 

[disturbman]

its quite amazing how such a small country like Japan has 500% more trains (and better looking and functioning ones at that) than the entire United States. 

 

That's the reason why. It's because Japan is so densely populated that train have so much importance over there. On the over side is really easy in the USA to just spread the cities around. In a scarse populated area train is no good, you can't massified the fluxes like you can in Japan, Belgium, Netherland...

 

That's also the reason why NYC have the best, or the most extensive, public transportation system in the USA.

 

DOn't underestimate the power of geography.

 

(this post could be even more detailed, argumented and complete but I don't have the time and/or the energy to go further).

[Bernard]

That's also the reason why NYC have the best, or the most extensive, public transportation system in the USA.

 

DOn't underestimate the power of geography.

 

Disturbman makes a very good point. I work in NYC and I tell everybody the quickest way to get around the city is by subway. NYC is a grid like a piece of graph paper and because of the population of the city, it takes 4 times longer to get around in a car/taxi and will wind up costing a lot more (Cab fares or parking)

 

The big stunner for me is the various designs of the Japanese RRs. It seems that in the US we have a fewer designs and even some of those (the LIRR & NYC Subways) were designed by Japanese engineers.

[cteno4]

Distrubman is right, It is an unfair comparison as japan is a country the area not even that of California, yet has a population almost 4 times that of california. california is only about 5% of the area of the continental US.

 

When you think of what it would cost in infrastructure to run bullet train lines all over an area 20x that of japan you start seeing the problem. As things expand and population density goes down it get less and less efficient and cost effective to pool people into trains like this.

 

I am not arguing we are not trapped in a big car culture here and heavily subsidize it way more than we do trains (even planes get more). its just our solutions here have to be very different as the area to cover and population densities are not comparable for the most part.

 

we have to focus on very specific rail solutions for very local areas (urban subways, suburban/urban light rail, etc) or critical corridors that get high traffic. we also see our biggest energy/environmental savings here in the us with trains via freight, again because of the distances involved.

 

Japan is also quickly becoming more of a car culture as the burb rise and downtowns start to loose population density. this then has effected some of interurban trams in japan.

 

While i am not always particularly proud of amtrak, they do have a very daunting task of operations over freight lines for the most part, a huge country to serve, and have to be a the end of the federal transportation bread line...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[scott]

While i am not always particularly proud of amtrak, they do have a very daunting task of operations over freight lines for the most part, a huge country to serve, and have to be a the end of the federal transportation bread line...

 

Exactly--Amtrak isn't the problem, it's just the result of a mix of deliberate neglect and poor funding. The Amtrak workers I've met have all done a good job (and generally been pretty friendly, despite the stresses), and I'd love to see the system improve.