AMTRAK JOURNEYS

Following the Footsteps of ‘The Most Famous Train in the World’

A trip aboard Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited, following the Water Level Route of the famed Twentieth Century Limited

In 1938, New York Central’s famed Twentieth Century Limited left New York City at 6 pm and arrived in Chicago at 9 am.

Today’s trip takes 4 hours longer.

And yet it is still the fastest of three rail routes connecting New York City and Chicago.

I have made this journey three times and, before the first ride, I immersed myself in the history of the Twentieth Century Limited— advertised as “the most famous train in the world” — even ordering New York Central timetables from the 1920s and 40s.

New York Central called this “the Water Level Route, so you can sleep,” distinguishing it from the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited, which jostled riders through the hills of Pennsylvania.

The history is fascinating but, for me, the allure of train travel has always been about the present, not just the scenery rolling by, but the people I meet along the way.

American trains are social spaces.

As I boarded my first Lake Shore Limited journey in 2015, a middle-aged woman with glasses, blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and an inside-out gray sweatshirt looked back at a passenger behind her and said, “I’ll be writing my thesis on this train.”

“I really am,” she added, with pauses, expecting her fellow passenger to react. “I’m finishing my thesis on this trip.”

(It is amusing to me that eight years later, I would in fact write a master’s capstone project about train travel, completing it partly while riding Amtrak.)

An unsuspecting woman took a seat next to her, and the thesis writer began to talk: New York Times writers had stolen all her ideas, all her research. People had become billionaires off her work. She was once worth $70 million, and now it was all gone. This is communism. She never gets to see Obama, but she drops things off with his friends. She has spoken on the phone with Al Gore.

This talk continued nonstop to Albany, as we traveled along the east side of the Hudson River.

From November through March, much of this ride is under the cover of darkness, but the summer months offer beautiful views of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers well into western New York.

In the meantime, I enjoyed a plate of cheese, olives and crackers, along with some chilled Chardonnay that I drank discreetly through a bottle of Vitamin Water (unless you’re in a sleeping car, Amtrak prohibits the consumption of alcohol not purchased in the snack car).

Albany offered not just a letup from her talking, but also an opportunity to step off the train for about 45 minutes. Here, the train from New York City links up with a train from Boston, and the two make the journey to Chicago together.

The Albany station is actually in neighboring Rensselaer. It is clean and pleasant but, built in 2002, it is neither historic nor architecturally interesting.

Across the street from the station, I found June’s Restaurant, a small tavern that caters to train goers like myself. There, I had a quick Jameson’s on the rocks, chatted with the kind bartender who carded me and wished me a happy almost-birthday and headed back to the station.

It would be my first of three visits to June’s on Lake Shore Limited layovers.

After Albany, the Lake Shore Limited crosses the Hudson and begins its trek West, running along the Mohawk River and Erie Canal, through Utica, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo — the latter cities in darkness.

Prior to 2018, the Lake Shore Limited included a dining car where one would be paired up with fellow passengers for a hot meal, served on real plates, with real silverware, on a white tablecloth. (Today’s dining car is not the same, serving a “flexible menu” to sleeping car passengers only.)

The dining cars were pricey, but to me, always worth the experience.

After waiting a good 15 minutes for a table, I enjoyed a steak, baked potato and veggies between Utica and Syracuse. The ride here was rough, prompting me to grab a quick hold of my half bottle of Cabernet a few times to keep it from falling over. Others at the next table did the same — and we had a good cross-table laugh over it.

Back at my seat, I found that I had an empty seat next to me, giving me more room to stretch and sleep. The conductor told me we would have a lot of passengers boarding at Toledo, which wouldn’t come until almost 6 am — plenty of time for me to sleep.

Two years later, making the trip in November, I spent much of the evening in the cafe car, playing Cards Against Humanity with a random gathering of passengers, some of them traveling to Chicago to celebrate a 21st birthday.

But on that original journey, I dozed on and off for much of the night, waking for most stops — Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo, where we could step off and stretch a bit as the sun rose over the modest skyline. In between those stops though, the train moved at a brisk pace, making good time along the shore of Lake Erie.

I had been looking forward to a good glimpse of Lake Erie just beyond Sandusky, but the sky only offered the faintest hint of light at that point in, enough for me to see the lake, but not enough for a decent photo.

The fiery pink sunrise wouldn’t come until closer to Toledo.

It was 5 am, and weird as it may sound, I began to think of the small package of Roquefort packed in ice in my bag. Surely it wouldn’t survive the 90-degree temperatures of Chicago.

I dug it out of my bag, along with crackers and the last bits of truffle honey, and enjoyed a pre-dawn European-style breakfast as we crossed the farmland of the Midwest.

After Toledo, the rising sun illuminated large stretches of farms, interrupted only by occasional barns, grain silos and empty roads.

Though the Roquefort breakfast had filled me, I still wanted the experience of breakfast in the dining car. There, I was seated with a woman from Rochester who was en route to visit her daughter in Chicago. Having grown up on a farm in downstate Illinois, she could identify many of the crops we passed and how close they were to harvesting.

As we approached Chicago, farmland gave way first to suburbia, and then to industry that reminded me of the port areas around Newark Bay.

The train slowed to a lurching crawl, and I monitored our progress on Google Maps, waiting for the moment when we would have a good view of Lake Michigan.

Soon we were in the city of Chicago, and an attendant was picking up trash.

I played Sinatra’s My Kind of Town over and over, the sound blasting in my headphones. I wanted to unplug the headphones so that everyone could hear: “Why I just grin like a clown, it’s myyyyyyyy kiiiiiind of town.”

Before I knew it, we were in Union Station, where 16 Amtrak routes converge.

My first rail experiences were on the giant, two-level Amtrak Superliners, but not having been on one in 12 years, I was amazed by the immensity of the Superliner that sat on the track opposite the single-level Lake Shore Limited.

That train would soon be on its way to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles or New Orleans. Seeing it there on the tracks, knowing that it would soon be chugging its way through the vast western plains made me want to hop aboard one in the near future. (Five years later, I would in fact be climbing aboard the California Zephyr, riding from Chicago’s Union Station all the way to California.)

In the meantime, I was looking forward to the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s 90-minute river cruise and a good weekend with my family.

Interested in riding the Lake Shore Limited?

The westbound Lake Shore Limited leaves New York’s Moynihan Train Hall at 3:40 pm, and Boston’s South Station at 12:50 pm, meeting in Albany around 6:20 pm to link up for the ride to Chicago, arriving there at 10:12 am the next morning.

The eastbound Lake Shore Limited leaves Chicago’s Union Station at 9:30 pm. The train splits in Albany around 3 pm the next day. The New York portion arrives at 6:42 pm, and Boston at 8:32 pm.

This train uses single-level Viewliner equipment. Passengers can choose between coach seats, a roomette or a full bedroom.

There is no sightseeing lounge, though all passengers have access to a cafe car to purchase sandwiches, salads, microwaved pizzas and hamburgers, chips, soda, alcohol and other snacks.

Sleeping car passengers have access to the dining car, with meals included with the price of their ticket.

Thoughts? Questions? Interested in reading more?

I have traveled more than 40,000 miles on Amtrak. I love to hear your comments, and if you would like to read more, check out these stories: