Derailed!

I had hoped that this post would be an exuberant recap of the adventure I alluded to earlier this week. Alas, the trip was derailed. Here's the story.

On Tuesday, I had the tremendous opportunity to travel from Cincinnati to Washington, DC on a private railcar called The Chapel Hill, originally known as Hussar, was built in 1922 for Marjorie Merriweather Post (familiar with Post cereal brands??) and E.F. Hutton. This was a different time when train travel was THE way of traveling for prominent Americans. If you had private railcar, you would use it the way people use private planes these days - for business or pleasure. The Hussar was no exception. This couple would use the car to travel between New York City, the Adirondacks, and Palm Beach. Tough life, right?

Almost 100 years later, this car, renamed the Chapel Hill, is now available for charter trips and excursions. The railcar can go anywhere in the country that Amtrak travels to and has traveled extensively throughout the continental U.S. That said, the Chapel Hill is at the mercy of the Amtrak schedule, which is quite limited in the Midwest. The Cardinal Route, which travels from Chicago to NYC, only passes through Cincinnati three times a week...and arrives at Cincinnati's Union Terminal at 3 am! Here was our proposed itinerary for the trip:

Tuesday night: Cocktails and dinner on the train after which we all adjourned to the private bedrooms on the car.

Early Wednesday morning around 3:00 am: Hook up to the Cardinal train coming down from Chicago and start the eastbound journey through Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. Wake up to breakfast in the formal dining room and enjoy the ride for the rest of the day.

Wednesday evening: Arrive at Washington's Union Station and enjoy cocktails and dinner on the train, followed by post-dinner drinks with friends in DC.

Thursday morning at 7:00 am: Delta flight 2081 to CVG from DCA. Back to reality.

We managed to get through Tuesday night but early Wednesday things went awry when Amtrak decided not to bring us to DC. Politics and bureaucracy stood in our way, and when we woke up on Wednesday morning, we were not cruising through the countryside of West Virginia. Instead, we were still in the train yard in Norwood, Ohio! Disappointing, to say the least, and there was no Thomas the Tank Engine to pull us to Washington.

That's the story. I don't completely understand the reasoning behind Amtrak's decision, but it certainly highlights an organization that seems to have some MAJOR issues. Another thing to point out - the Cardinal was slated to arrive in Cincinnati around 3 am. As it turns out, it was running late and wouldn't be picking us up until closer to 6 am!

In the end, I have to say that I'm lucky to have enjoyed about 30 hours on the Chapel Hill. I also should mention that I did get to ride up in the engine prior to dinner on Tuesday night (for about 100 yards), and the railcar did travel a couple of miles down the track before being denied by Amtrak. I immensely enjoyed the company of my fellow travelers so the trip was not a total loss. I do look forward to another opportunity to travel on the Chapel Hill; hopefully, we'll be able to make it out of Ohio!