an_asker

Son has an internship in the National Capital Region, so he needed to go from Orlando with his car. However, having recently done the drive, he was not too enthusiastic of doing it once more for now. So, he decided to take the Auto Train which would save him a lot of driving time, though it would be a bit more expensive.

As I had never before taken the Auto Train - the facts that I love driving and that the auto train is not inexpensive combined together outweighed by love for travelling by train - I decided to take the plunge because now my only incremental costs would be for the train and flight tickets, as the car cost was already a sunk cost.

Since returning, I have learned that tickets can apparently be had for as low as $29 if the stars align together for you lol. But we had a specific date in mind so he got there in time and I didn't have to waste a precious work day. So, we purchased tickets for the car and for both us for under $600. That was for the coach (sitting) car seats - I would assume that the sleeping cars would be priced exorbitantly for our budget). I also used some miles to purchase my flight back on Southwest airlines.

D-day was a Saturday - the train was to depart at 5 pm for Lorton (from Sanford); the earliest we could show up and drop off our car for loading was noon and the latest was 3pm;. We decided to split the difference and planned to get there before 2 pm so we had some time to relax and check out the train. It took us about an hour to get to the station and we were there comfortably on schedule by 1:30 pm, even after a stop to pack something for me to eat at dinner (we didn't plan to eat at the diner).

guv1976

I'm confused: Lorton is in Virginia. If you were trying to get from Florida to DC, wouldn't you have boarded the Auto Train in Sanford?

an_asker

Sorry that was my mistake. #facepalm

I should have said "to Lorton" or "from Sanford". Let me see if I can fix it!

dat4life

One of the guys at work just did the auto train from Florida to DC as well. Interesting to see another experience too.

CurbedEnthusiasm

I hope you had a good journey. I did the Auto Train around a decade ago and it was one of the most disappointing travel experiences I’ve ever had. I can only imagine that with Amtrak cutbacks it’s gotten even worse.

an_asker

Sorry for the silence. Just completed one more trip, and need to start that off as well :-)

Antonio8069

I agree Amtrak's Auto Train is a fantastic experiece. I had done it twice - from Lorton to Sanford - and can supplement:
- the scenery S of Lorton is fantastic;
- meals are complimentary on board;
- after dinner, they have games and (as I recall) a movie:
Offloading vehicles is quick and easy.
Overall, it is a cost - effective way for a family to get to/from FL theme parks.

an_asker

I hate to disagree with you, but CurbedEnthusiasm is correct. You probably travelled o the Auto Train a while back. Nowadays, the meals are complimentary only for those who have purchased pricey sleeper coach reservations. I don't know if they have games on the sleeping coaches, but there definitely weren't any in the cattle class coaches. From what I have read, compared to Canadian trains, USA trains are still relatively inexpensive.

moondog

Who (in this thread) are you agreeing with?

T8191

Just asking … when does the Trip Report start?

an_asker

Sorry - my apologies. I will start it tonight. I got caught up with our latest trip!

an_asker

Let me start off the report with a quick summary and a few photos. It was essentially a two-day trip - we left Sanford at about 5 pm, and got to Lorton at about 9:30 am, which was ahead of schedule. After spending some time at the postal museum, for about half an hour, I met up with an old dorm mate from India who runs an escape room as a side hustle. Then, I took a metro to the Ronald Reagan National airport, from where I returned to Orlando via Atlanta (thank you Southwest lol!!).


Downtown Orlando as we drive on I-4 towards Sanford

A train was passing through Orlando right around that time

We pulled up into the auto train terminal in Sanford

Our train was waiting for us, although it was chopped into several pieces that needed to be assembled before we could be oughta here!

Entrance to the terminal building

Views of the coaches from just outside the terminal building

Train personnel were directing newly arriving cars, so they had staff ready to take the vehicle into one of the cargo coaches

Sanford train station building

We needed to check in upon arrival

Here is the back of one of the segments of the auto train coaches

The engine that was used for shunting operations

Some of the cargo coaches

an_asker

Our train started on time; rather, it started before the time of 5 pm departure that we were aware of. I am assuming that all cars and owners/occupants were accounted for and so we got the green signal. Unlike in other countries, my understanding is that Amtrak schedules are governed by the freight trains and their companies and most of the route - at least through Florida - is single tracked.

Therefore, as long as there is no other train ahead for the foreseeable distance and none coming from the other side, we would get a green. Elsewhere of course, there have to be many other factors weighed into consideration; merging of different routes, random trains coming from all all directions, etc. Here, until Jacksonville at least, we were going to be masters of our own single line lol.

One unique aspect of the Auto train which caught my fancy was that it goes nonstop from origin to destination - at least from the commercial standpoint, in that passengers don't get on or get off until the final destination. And that makes perfect sense as it would be a pain to load cars on and (especially) off at multiple intermediate locations. As soon as we got underway, we learned through announcements that we would have a stop overnight in Florence for crew change, and but for that, we would be stopping only at our destination of Lorton.

Another thing that caught my attention was that these coaches were al uniformly different from the regular Amtrak I was used to - the northeast corridor. These "superliner" coaches were all double deckers and had restrooms (toilets) at the lower level for convenience of the folks travelling on the lower level (some of whom were on wheelchair and needed more space as well). Son had previously travelled on such coaches before when he did a cross country trip on Amtrak a few years ago, but it was the first time for me.

We also learned from the announcements that the train could have up to fifty coaches to transport cars and had a capacity of 300 cars and about 600 people (I might need to amend that once I listen to the announcement - which I recorded - once more). Ours was relatively empty and left a few of the car coaches back in Sanford. But it was still long enough; easily the longest train I have travelled in. Though I had heard about super long freight trains in Arizona, etc I had been wondering about how the acceleration and braking would be on this long train, given that it was still driven by only two locomotives.

I need not have worried. The journey was quite comfortable and we hit speeds of about 70-80 mph (per my memory) at least during a good part of the trip. Obviously, it was balanced by slow running through cities such as Jacksonville, Richmond and especially when we got close to Lorton the next morning, because - I assume - they didn't want to get the train there before the station was staffed up to offload all the cars.

Overall - as a biased train fan - I liked the journey. Needless to say it was a bit uncomfortable (and cold, as they ran the air conditioning very good lol), but we got what we paid for lol. We hadn't splurged on a sleeper coach which there were a couple of, up front, and had to be in a sitting position for the journey. But what I didn't like was the windows. The panes appeared not to have been cleaned regularly and so were quite grimy and so many of my world class photos reflect this :-( In the morning, everyone got to pick up food from the food car and while the selection for vegetarians was sparse, it was better than I expected and there was more than enough to go around. I helped myself to a couple of individually wrapped crumb cakes and a banana and got hot tea with milk. For the night, I had gotten some to go food from my favourite fast food joint aka Taco Bell :-)

Also, and this is key based on what we hear on the news reports usually, this train was way ahead of schedule (like I alluded to earlier) and even after going very slow into Lorton, we got there about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The loading and offloading of the cars was quite quick and even though we hadn't paid extra for priority offloading, we got our car within about half an hour of alighting from the train. It gave us some time to take in the slightly more refreshing (but still quite warm) air of Virginia and walk around and do more railfanning and watching the cars being offloaded.

I will add more comments on the photos as I add them, as they will help me add some more context.

an_asker

While driving through downtown Orlando, we saw this Amtrak pass us by, going towards Tampa

When we arrived at the Sanford station, we were greeted by this sight. Our train - a small piece of it, to be precise - was off to our right.

I vaguely remembered that the station is not a 24/7 station (needless to say); a few months ago, we had stopped by it right after 5 pm and everything was closed, the train having already departed

As I stayed undecisive, Amtrak staff were beckoning us to come forward

So, we followed instructions and moseyed forward

One, and only one, member of a group was permitted to come in to check-in. I have no idea how strictly they enforce this, but as son had purchased the tickets under his name, I let him go and check both of us in, which took hardly a couple of minutes. By this time, we had already been relieved of our car and given a receipt for it. A member of Amtrak staff went all around the car taking a nice video for CYA purposes.

The rear view of one of the pieces of the train that were parked. If I recall correctly, there were two of these, one on either side of the platform structure (I say this because in most countries, they would be counted as two platforms). Each coach was identified by a number and we were instructed which coach was ours (based on the check-in information). As it turned out, this was our very coach. The three coaches here would be attached to the rear of the ones on the platform to the right.

The engine used for shunting the coaches around

The freight coaches which carried all of the vehicles would be attached to the back of our coach.

One more view of the Amtrak station front. I was walking around - where permitted - taking photos and videos (I was not permitted to go too close to the car loading area)

Another view of the coaches with some Florida scenery thrown in

One of the auto coaches - from afar (I could have gone a bit closer than this, but not too much)

The waiting hall

Another view of the waiting hall

Our two huge locomotives

I didn't face any opposition when I came to the front of the locomotives for this nice shot with the clear blue Sunshine State skies

More trainfanning...

... brothers in arms :-)

Menu on tap for folks who have paid for the privilege

Meanwhile, the cars were still in the process of being loaded

While I was still walking around, boarding was announced. Unlike Europe (and definitely unlike India), this is a very closely monitored process. I had asked son to message me when it was time for me to get back in (i.e., when they made the final boarding call)....

... and when I got his message, I took one final photo of the auto coaches which had been almost completely loaded by now and went in - he was the only passenger left in the waiting area and was relieved to see me walk in.

In a few minutes, we were inside (aka imprisoned, because we had been informed that once inside, we weren't going to come out until we reached Lorton), but not before we had taken a few selfies outside. For the next few minutes, this was the view from the back of our coach.

A view of the upper deck of our coach

Shortly, I saw the auto coaches being pushed towards us and knew that my beautiful rear view was going away in a couple more minutes

Once the entire train was assembled, the road that crosses the station was impassable. I noticed a couple of cars that - unaware or not - waited for a few minutes each, then made a U-turn and went someplace else

Road blocked by train

an_asker

We got underway at about 4:45 pm .. I need to apologize for the quality (or lack thereof) of most of these photos because of the windows :-(

... through typical Florida scenery

Florida green!


Crossing the St John's river soon after

More Florida greenery

I don't think we had a dual track ... but I might be wrong

I think these photos are near Palatka

Crossing one of the roads through town

The rate sheet at the dining car. I got a tea - I had already had my Taco Bell grub

Crossing Jacksonville

Folkston - I have been in that lookout area with son about a decade ago (haven't had the chance to revisit)

Folkston GA

The dining car I passed through to get breakfast

I think I took this photo for the rear of the train but the window doesn't let me show it well


The sun and the water bodies as we get close to Quantico, VA

Once more, my apologies for the photo quality...

.... as I tried for my favourite sunrise over water photos.


This one is not too bad


More sun photos