Sept. 3-4, 2023: East to Boston

A 9:30 p.m. departure generally isn't ideal, but I was OK with it this time as they finally made the announcement for train #48, the eastbound Lake Shore Limited. I was long overdue for a good night's sleep. 

The Lake Shore Limited runs as one long train from Chicago to Albany-Rensselaer overnight. At Albany, the train is divided in two with half heading south to New York and the other half heading east to Boston. When I booked the train, Amtrak gave me the option of booking one sleeper all the way to Boston or booking one sleeper from Chicago to Albany and another sleeper from Albany to Boston. The second option saved me $170, so I went with it.

The sleeper we boarded in Chicago was in the back half of the train, so we didn't have to walk far. After pulling out of Chicago Union Station, I watched the bright lights of the city slowly fade away. And after about an hour or so, I turned in for the night. 

I slept soundly during the night and don't believe I woke up once during the night. When I did wake up, it was just after 7 a.m. and we were pulling into Erie, Pa. Since our room was on the right side of the train I could not make out Lake Erie, which our route parallels for a bit. However, I was able to determine the location using my phone's GPS and caught a glimpse of the station. 

Shortly after leaving Erie, Eric and I headed down to the dining car for breakfast. I had a tasty cheese omelet with potatoes, which left me satisfied. The Lake Shore Limited uses "flexible dining" -- meaning that the meals are typically prepackaged food that is heated up, as opposed to made from scratch as in the case on some Amtrak routes. Regardless, hot food somehow always tastes good on the train. 

Just before 9 a.m., our train made its way into Buffalo, NY. Unfortunately, the Lake Shore Limited swings just to the east of the downtown area, and then proceeds a bit east to the Buffalo-Depew station. This is yet another station that goes into the "janky" file, as it was built in the late 1970s and is not the most aesthetically pleasing. Buffalo has a second Amtrak station located downtown, which is used by the regional Empire Service in New York State, and the Maple Leaf, which runs from New York to Toronto.

From Buffalo we continued our journey east toward Rochester. This part of the route was slightly less interesting, as the scenery was mostly trees other than when we went through a city. Our train remained on time as we got to Rochester around 10 a.m. I didn't get a good look at the station unfortunately, but it is a nice modern facility built in 2017 with high-level platforms.

Our train continued east at a good pace, reaching Syracuse just before noon. Syracuse has a modern station that was built about 25 years ago as a multimodal transportation facility on the northeast side of town. 

As we rolled in and out of Syracuse, I savored my very tasty beef burgundy for lunch in the dining car. The rich, chocolatey brownie I had for dessert was even better. 

After the lunch the scenery began to improve. We stopped at Utica's beautiful old historic station about an hour later. I was only able to get a glimpse of the building, but it looked quite ornate and nicely restored. 

After Utica we entered by far the most scenic stretch of the trip: the Mohawk River Valley. The scenery was quite pleasant as we rolled along the river through the rolling hills with lush vegetation all around

Around 2:20 p.m. we reached Schenectady, NY, which is the train's first stop in the state's capital region. The Schenectady station is downtown, and was also build just in the last few years to replace its aging depot. A Burger King is located just across the street, and Eric remarked how out of place it seemed. After all, you wouldn't expect a commercial fast food establishment to be just steps from a historic train depot in a historic part of a city. 

From Schenectady it was a short ride to Albany, as we made our way through the eastern part of town and across the Hudson. The station, of course, is located in Rensselaer on the other side of the river from downtown Albany. 

My dad is from Albany originally, and up until very recently I still had relatives living there. When I was younger we took several trips there, including some on the train. 

Albany once had a grand station downtown used by the New York Central Railroad until 1968. Since then, there have been multiple station used on the other side of the river in Rensselaer. The current station was built just over 20 years ago, and is a beautiful modern facility with multiple raised platforms and a nice waiting area. Albany also serves as the point where switching operations are done for the Lake Shore Limited, as train #48 heads south and #448 heads east. 

At this point it was time for Eric and I to step off the train so that we could move up toward the front of the train. After getting some fresh air for a few minutes, we entered the first sleeping car on the train that was in the "Boston section." After settling in, the crew began the process of separating the train into two.

The Boston-bound train is the first of the two sections to leave Albany, and we did so promptly at 3:30 p.m. Most of the route east of Albany is rather slow going, as there is only single track in some parts and it winds its way through the Berkshire Mountains. I don't think we went much faster than 50 mph at this point. 

I enjoyed the scenery on this part of the route too, having never seen the Berkshires before. However, it was at this point that we began to lose time. A couple of times our train had to reverse onto a siding in order to allow freight trains to pass. This combined with the slow journey through the mountains caused us to lose about an hour of time. The last station I was able to photograph in the light of day was Springfield, Mass just before 7 p.m. 

Dinner was delivered to us by our attendant this time. I had the chicken enchiladas, which were quite tasty and had a nice little kick!

When we eventually reached the outskirts of Boston it had gotten dark. I was able to get a photo of an MBTA commuter train, with its signature purple paint scheme. 

We finally pulled into our destination of Boston South Station just before 9:30 p.m. -- about an hour late. All things considered, that wasn't too bad of a delay. After all, we made it all the way from Chicago to Albany without losing any time, and that in itself is impressive. As I stepped off the train and inhaled the fresh Boston air, I was once again filled with that sense of victory. Of having completed a long, but quite enjoyable train ride across a great expanse!

I booked a hotel near the JFK-UMASS station on the T, since it was considerably cheaper than any of the hotels that were downtown. It wasn't a long subway ride, but the T really crawls as it makes its way out of the downtown area. Anyway, another train ride concluded. One more leg tomorrow, as it's back to D.C. on the Acela.