Traxter 2

Step 2 on my USA Railpass runs from ROC to CHI, as Amtrak abbreviates the stations.  Since my train departed after dark, here’s all I have. 

I passed through Cleveland, and an area of Cleveland over the Cuyahoga I know somewhat, at 0400. That brightly colored tower is Terminal Tower.

Sunrise happened west of Toledo in Archbold OH.  Somewhere around here we left the Great Lakes watershed and entered the Mississippi River watershed.

Bryan OH is home of Spangler Candy Co., makes of Dumdums. 

Waterloo IN has personal significance, since I worked there one summer left in the foggy parts of my memory . . .  as a CDL instructor . . . summer 1986.  Yes, I was a CDL coach . . . double clutching forward  and backing into docks, before I left that very short career.

I had no sense until this trip of the scale of Elkhart IN as a rail center. 

Since I’m heading into more agricultural country on this trip, this is New Carlisle IN.

Whatever associations you have with Gary IN, here’s what I saw from the south side of the tracks.  Had I been on the north side, I would have seen Arcelor Mittal/Cliffs furnaces in Burns Harbor IN a bit earlier.

East Chicago IL hints at Chicago, a rail hub.

Chicago Skyway Bridge over the Calumet River.

Tugs– Tanner and Old Mission— in the Calumet River.

Bright Star, built in Sturgeon Bay WI in 2003,  is one of Shoreline’s many tourboats on the Chicago River.

An interesting mural inside Chicago Union Station.  I believe it’s an art deco- and WPA-influenced more recent print.  Leslie Ragan or Robert LaDuke influences?  Someone else?

All photos, any errors, WVD.

Traxter 1

Welcome to my March 2023 avatar . .  traxster, traveling my own defined 5000+ loop around the US on a USA Rail Pass, which gives me 30 days and ten steps as defined by Amtrak.  See here if you want more.  Background on Amtrak here.  Amtrak defines routes by names as here. Traxter 1 and 2 are on the Lake Shore Limited. They are two steps because I got off the train in Rochester NY for a personal side trip, before continuing to Chicago.  Last preliminaries are these:  most of these photos will be from my train seat,  one side of the train, through tinted glass, and with a “smart phone.”  Reason for this last point:  this camera is fastest focus.  Choice of photos is somewhat random . . . what catches my eye and stays in my memory.  I’ll do minimal writing in order to sustain the plan.  

Starting point was NYP, aka Penn Station Moynihan Hall. If you want more info, use google or some other search engine.

I’ll also use place ID as the “phone” gives it:  Fort Washington Park.  That’s Carolina Coast towing sugar barge Jonathan.

Peekskill looking toward fog in the Highlands.

Bear Mountain Bridge, in that fog.

Constitution Island looking at West Point.

Bannerman’s Island as seen from Beacon.

 

Tilcon from Poughkeepsie.

High Peaks from Germantown.

SUNY Plaza, from Albany . . .  actually from the bridge.

Erie Canal lock 10 from Amsterdam.

Mohawk River from Amsterdam.

Old Montgomery Courthouse from Fonda. 

NY Central No. 6721 from Utica.

Green Empire Farms from Oneida.

Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge from Savannah NY.

Huge farm retirement auction from drone in Marion NY.

auction by JMartin

All photos, any errors, WVD.