This is the travelogue of the fith and last segment of the 5 day Amtrak journey Dad and I took, this segment took us from Washington back to Raleigh via the Carolinian.
Baltimore-Dads friend dropped us off at Baltimore Penn Station so we could take the Marc back to Washington D.C., the commuter ride was pretty much uneventful.
Washington-We had a while before the Carolinian would be departing, the Carolinian is a New York to Charlotte coach and dinette train that also now runs with a special Custom class coach. To kill time we watched trains from the parking deck, this vantage point gives you a good view of the entire terminal. They soon announced the track our train would be leaving on, there was a very long line at the gate, there was also a lot of confusion because the Cardnal was to depart on the track next to us and people were getting in the wrong lines. After waiting in that line we were looking forward to a nice relaxing trip home, no deal! Amtrak had over booked the train, Dad and I could not get seats together! I was placed next to an elderly woman who was traveling with some family, I was not too happy, these trips our father and son excoursions and Amtrak has us sitting in different seats, I could not even see Dad. I later heared Dad arguing with the car attendant, it seems we were in the Custom class car by mistake, us and about nine other people were kicked out. We were all placed in an area in a coach that did not have any seats in it. We were all soon placed in the dinette car, this was not two enjoyable because we could here all the noise coming from the seating area. At leased Dad and I were given seats together.
Richmond-We decided to stroll out to the platform to seehow all this could have happened, this train was pretty short, here is the consist: one Genesis unit, one dinette, two coaches, one Custom class coach, and one baggage car. We think that if there was one more coach there would not have been any problems.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we got back to Raleigh twelve minutes late.
-Joshua Trower
