USRJ S3 Ep12 Philadelphia to Washington on The Crescent

Philadelphia to Washington on The Crescent – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 12

In ‘Philadelphia to Washington on The Crescent’ I continue my journey 0n  The Crescent as we travel towards New Orleans.

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Philadelphia:

The Dining Car staff are making up boxes whilst we wait in Philadelphia for the passengers to board. These boxes will be used for the passengers wanting ‘room service’. They’ll miss out as the Dining Car is the place to meet fellow  travellers!

The driver is soon hard on the horn because we are late leaving Philadelphia. Our path takes us past houses and industry and then the Delaware River. We make fast progress to Wilmington.

Wilmington:

Our stop in Wilmington is an opportunity to see a bit of the station opened in 1908. It’s dedicated to Joe Biden who took over 7,000 round trips to Washington when he was in the Senate.

As we continue our journey south the speed reaches 105 m.ph. The train rattles loudly; when these carriages were built I’m sure that this was an exceptional speed!

The first dinners start to be taken to the passengers using room service as we pass Newark in Delaware. Unless they are getting off soon it seems very early to eat!

We slow to almost a stop as we change track round maintenance work. Once we have passed it we speed up.

Baltimore:

We stop at Baltimore, say goodbye to some passengers and greet others. Soon we pass the short platform of Baltimore West station. Then we pass through BWI, a station built for passengers flying from Baltimore – Washington International Airport.

Our journey into Washington takes us past a number of carriage sidings for both Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express.

Washington for our loco change:

We make good time into Washington where our Siemens ACS-64 locomotive, also known as an Amtrak Cities Sprinter, leaves us. As I watch the loco detach I realise I’m not the only interested observer.

Lets hope our GE Genesis power arrives quickly.

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as I continue my journey south on The Crescent towards New Orleans.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and The 50’s V12 for use in this podcast.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2019 – 2023

Author: Tim D

In the early 1970s Mr Timothy & his Phonograph was a popular mobile disco around Leeds University and Tim was known as MrT. Tim also spent 9 years broadcasting a weekly programme on Hospital Radio in Wakefield. He worked for more than 40 years for large industrial organisations and spent his last 15 years in global commercial management roles. Following retirement he started making podcasts in 2017.