The Great Circle Trip
Map illustration by Otto M. Vondrak ©2012 Carstens Publications, Inc. Not an official map. Not all routes and stations shown.
Erie CLEVELAND 49 (18) CHICAGO South Bend 30 (24) Galesburg La Plata KANSAS CITY to Los Angeles KEY TO TRAIN SYMBOLS Number in parentheses refers to day of month.
6648 - NJ Transit 49 - Lake Shore Limited 3/4- Southwest Chief
30- Capitol Limited 94- Northeast Regional
6653 - NJ Transit, with connection to 881
Toledo PITTSBURGH Cumberland 30 (24) MD. DEL. WASHINGTON, D.C.
49 (18) Syracuse Rochester BUFFALO Mt. Olive
6648 (18) Dover
6653 (25)
Croton- Harmon
NEW YORK N.J. PHILADELPHIA Albany- Rensselaer
TOP: The Depot Inn & Suites has a motor car and other railroadiana on display out front (the BNSF truck is not on display; railroaders stay here as well). It’s hallways are a mini-museum with display cases full of railroad history lining the walls. MIDDLE: Henry Kisor and Carl Morrison check out a railroad video and ATCS Monitor in the lobby of the Depot Inn & Suites. Both the videos and dispatcher display screens are also avail- able on the television in each guest room. ABOVE: The author cheated on this one — rather than get there on foot or by rail, he borrowed the Inn’s shuttle van to get to a bridge about three miles east of La Plata for some shooting.
the La Plata depot. The Depot Inn & Suites has in-room ATCS Monitor on the television, so a couple of after- noons I would work in my room until I saw an approaching train get about 15 miles away; I would then grab the Inn’s golf cart and bounce along the Wabash right of way to the overlook for a photo or two. The Inn also has railroadiana lining the hallways in display cabinets, and out back are two ex-Amtrak material handling cars that house a museum dedicated to the passenger carrier. It’s a great place for a railfan to stay.
La Plata is a typical midwest heart- land town with the one-story row of
businesses flanking a main street and the town square, along with a grain el- evator. The highway has long bypassed downtown, so it has a feeling that time stopped a few decades ago. I quickly be- came attached to the town. All too soon, though, it was time to board Amtrak and head back east. On Wednesday, October 24, I was once again in a Su- perliner roomette for the ride back to Chicago. Lunch was spent with a young couple making their first train trip from their home in Kansas City into Chicago for a weekend getaway.
During the week in La Plata I had
some time to evaluate my photos from the CTA junction that I had shot on
Friday and decided I would go back there during my Windy City layover and try again if it was cloudy; there would be too many contrasty shadows to deal with between the buildings if the sun was out. Well, the sun was out, so Plan B was to ride the Blue Line back out to get some of those skyline shots I had seen on Friday.
Western Avenue was my first stop, which showed the Sears Tower (I don’t care what it’s officially called now — it will always be the Sears Tower) quite nicely. Next up was California, which also presented a nice scene from the end of the outbound platform. My time was growing short to get back to Union
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M I S S O U R I
3 (19) 4 (24)
94 (25)
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