As I have time to spare I take a walk down to the front of the train where two locomotives are already attached to haul us west. The train is made up of two sleepers, a dining car (with bar area), an observation car and then two more regular seated carriages.

My carriage is number 2900, and on returning to it I find that the conductor has locked the door thinking everyone was on board. No need to panic, I have lots of time in hand. I wave through the window at him whilst trying to look calm. Once he has finished a speech on the PA he opens the door to let me in, helps me with my bag and introduces himself as Cliff. He seems very friendly. After showing me to my roomette on the lower deck (no 13) he checks that I have a table reservation for dinner and explains how things work. He also books in a time later on to make my bed up for the night.

Washington D.C. (departs) 16.05

Pittsburgh (departs) 23.59

Cleveland (departs) 02.59

Toledo (departs) 05.22

Chicago (arrives) 08.45

764 miles, 1230 km

My first thought is that I wish I was on the upper deck, but once we get going I realise the degree of sway up top is significantly magnified, and it feels like we have put to sea in a moderate swell up there. Instinctively – like being on a Boeing 747 – I aspire to be up top looking down, but I think the lower deck here has other advantages. Passengers walk between cars on the upper deck, so down here is quieter and less disturbed as there is a dead end at each end of the carriage – just the doors onto the platform half way along and the stairs up to the top deck. There are also two toilets and a shower nearby (but not too nearby) – there is only one shared by more roomettes on top. I shall update on this view as I will probably be on the upper deck for a later journey.

My roomette reminds me of the Australian (Indian Pacific) single room layout, as I will be sleeping in the direction of travel – in my opinion this is the most effective solution for good rail based slumber. It’s compact, but well laid out. It also has a second berth up top, but I will be using it just for single occupancy. I decide to unpack as best as I can in a space 6 feet by 3 feet, and wonder what to wear to dinner. I can’t help but think of one of my favourite train films, “Silver Streak”. All the cues of the film are around me, even though this particular type of carriage wasn’t built until a nearly decade after it was released. I have that film on my iPad, and will try to watch it later on. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

With no immediate tasks to attend to, I explore the train in the manner of a small excited boy at the start of a new term at boarding school. Climbing up to the top deck I walk straight through to the restaurant (easy to use the press button air powered doors), meet the chefs, then through a bar area and on to the observation car. The train feels quite empty and I think the passenger density is low for the amount of space we have. Can you imagine an observation carriage (or even a proper bar) on the train from London to Edinburgh?!

I enjoy a couple of Yuengling beers in the observation car before dinner. As we pass through Virginia the scenery at first appears to be the stuff of picture postcards. White washed wooden boarded houses with neat lawns and stars and stripes flapping in the gentle breeze. Eagles flying over lush forests and river valleys. But behind the trees I can spot hidden trailer parks, rusty cars and higgledy shacks.

We pick up speed after a short stop and I notice that other than the swaying motion, the ride is quite smooth. No rough points or clattering bogies most of the time. Hopefully that bodes well for some sleep later. On the subject of sleep, I purchased some combined painkilling and sleeping tablets from a local drugstore yesterday as I have been having a bit of foot pain, I took one last night and fell asleep almost instantly – I didn’t even manage to get out of my chair and into bed they worked so fast. A couple of glasses of merlot might have accelerated their effect!

I’m liking the mix of people on the train, and wonder who I will be sat with at dinner. It really does look like a slice across American life here. The college student on one side of me has a star intriguingly tattooed at the top of her right breast. The elderly couple on the other side of me are Amish and wear gowns and aprons. The man has a big white beard and is very friendly. Other than testing my knowledge of Chaucer he asks me questions like “What are your hopes for the trip?”. It’s a good question, and I have no immediate answer.

Dinner turns out to be a pleasant surprise – ranch salad, a carefully cooked steak and half a bottle of Cabernet. The price of the food is included in the cost of the roomette. The table policy is called “community seating” – you get to sit with people you don’t know, which is great fun or a disaster, depending on how you feel about that. I found it great, and we all agreed how people don’t even make eye contact on planes these days, but on trains like this you get to enjoy dinner together.

I retire early and when I get back to my room I see that Cliff has been busy, it’s now two beds with no space to do anything other than sleep. The bed is very comfortable and I fall asleep after watching the first five minutes of “Silver Streak”.  The driver toots his horn throughout the night, but I find it a soporiphic noise, more reminiscent of a Wild West film than a disturbance. I sleep so well that I rise well rested at 6am to have breakfast and watch the sun rise.

Breakfast is a bit weird, but I’m determined to try new things. I opt for Creole scrambled eggs with grits. I can’t really describe what this tastes like. It’s my first experience of grits, and combined with the spicy sauce, I might just as well have been eating spaghetti bolognaise for breakfast. Whenever I hear the very word “grits” I always think of a rather unexpectedly good film, “My Cousin Vinny”. Grits become a key part of the plot, and I won’t reveal why, but the film well illustrates the reverence with which some Americans treat their breakfast dish of choice. Having tried them with an open mind, I have to tell you that I’m not a fan at all. It will be French toast for me next time.

It’s beginning to get light outside. Good morning Indiana! The timetable says we are due to stop at a place called South Bend at 07.51, and here the clocks go back an hour as we cross the state line and enter Illinois. Things are going too well though – Amtrak trains take second priority after freight, and we get delayed by around an hour before we can get going again. At 09.45 we arrive into Chicago Union station – and it looks very familiar. It doesn’t take me long to work out why. The steps on one side of the lobby where I exit the station were featured in “The Untouchables” (1987). Sean Connery at his very best!

I only have a day or so in Chicago before getting back on the rails. It seems like a very civilised city and I wish I had longer here. I shall report back from the Californian Zephyr  in a couple of days – next destination – Denver, Colorado.

The subterranean world of “Penn” is busy place, but not by Chinese standards. Wikipedia says that this is the busiest station in the Western Hemisphere, serving around 600 000 passengers a day. I think I have missed the rush hour though – there are no serious crowds and everything looks well ordered. I still wish I was setting out on my adventure from Grand Central Station, but that serves lines going in other directions, so “Penn” will have to do today.

The atmosphere is understandably sombre, as it is the morning of the 16th anniversary of 9/11. Small groups of soldiers dressed in disruptive camouflage uniforms observe the crowd, whilst the police hold a short parade in the concourse next to the lounge complete with pipers and drums. Around them a few people stop to watch and take pictures whilst others hurry on to catch their waiting trains.

I’m amused to listen to the two competing announcers on the public address system – it’s just like the opening scene of the classic disaster genre comedy film “Airplane”, with conflicting advice about where to wait and what is happening on various platforms underneath us. I’m not sure if I’m in the blue zone or the white zone.. My most challenging moment of the morning comes from my visit to the toilets just a few minutes before boarding. There in the middle of the room sits a man on a toilet doing his business without a care in the world, or any screening around him. He looks at me with a strange glint in his eye as I do my best to ignore him and find a safer place. Quite why I cannot work out, but I’m rather wishing I could un-see that.

My train today is a regional service, and I can see from the departures board that there is actually a faster train on the same route (the Acela Express), but I’m in no hurry. Being new to train travel in this country, I also realise that Amtrak is actually just one of several train companies operating on this line. In 1970, the Rail Passenger Service Act effectively amalgamated most of the separate operating companies into one, but a few remained independent. Today Amtrak is struggling to make money, and the current president has said that he wants to reduce long distance routes from 43 to just 23 states. That’s very sad news, and I hope it never happens.

New York City (depart) 09.35

Philadelphia (depart) 11.11

Baltimore (depart) 12.18

Washington DC (arrive) 13.05

Boarding of the North East Regional 141 service is civilised, as passengers descend via an escalator onto the platform once the train is ready on the platform. After ten minutes we set off (almost on time) with much bell ringing and tooting, perhaps more reminiscent of the Wild West. After a few minutes in the tunnel under the Hudson river, the train emerges into a bright New Jersey morning as we trundle through the outer suburbs.

My first impressions of the coach class carriage that I am sat in are that it is both clean and pretty comfortable. It is the equivalent of second class, but the seats are more roomy, the climate is good and the toilets are possibly the cleanest I have ever seen on a train. There are no reserved seats, but the system works as only so many tickets are sold in each carriage. Passengers are guaranteed a seat. The conductor folds ticket stubs and inserts them in different ways on the rail above the seats, but I can’t decode what this means. There is a new and slightly strange train dialect. Baggage can apparently be in the plural, things will happen “presently” and the conductor will “communicate to let the passengers know”.

Behind the carriage I am in is a “cafe car” selling drinks and snacks, but I don’t use it as I have had a big breakfast in my local Upper West side diner before setting out. Instead I relax and listen to the remastered version of “Animals” by Pink Floyd.

The journey gets a lot more scenic as we get further south, but as is always the way with trains, you also get see the worst and most run down parts of cities from the rails; Philly and Baltimore are not seen at their tourism best from my window. We arrive in “DC” nearly on time and emerge into a station concourse that I know Michael Portillo speaks highly of. It is grand and imposing, reflective of the city I’m staying in for the next couple of days before getting onto my first big train, the Capitol Limited.

Outside I jostle with a weird mixture of men wearing dark suits with secret service issue sunglasses and homeless people carrying all their possessions on trolleys or in bin bags. A beggar pursues me on his mobility scooter, so I have take evasive action, only to bump into a well dressed lady at the road crossing who wants to tell me all about her religion. Later, in the nearby Irish bar I drink a couple of pints with the locals, whilst watching both a football and a baseball match simultaneously on two screens. They are very friendly, and the social norm seems to be to say hello and introduce yourself on arrival at the bar. The only problem I’m having so far is getting any writing done, as it’s nearly impossible to get them to stop talking without appearing rude.

More news of my adventure when I reach Chicago in a couple of days.