| In June of 2017 I did a 7,510 mile trip on Amtrak from Alliance, Ohio, all the way to the west coast, and back to do some railfanning. We arrived into Chicago Union Station on Amtraks Capitol Limited just under four hours late on Monday June 19, 2017. "The Great Train Trip" was off to a tardy start, but we did not care, as we were able to ride west out of Alliance, Ohio in daylight, a rare occurrence. After we checked into our hotel, we went back to Union Station to take Metra out to the suburbs on the BNSF line to do some late afternoon railfanning. The first train that we caught was westbound Amtrak train #3, the Southwest Chief. For the 40th Anniversary of Amtrak in 2011, Amtrak painted four units into heritage paint schemes. The last Amtrak heritage unit out of the original four that I needed to catch was phase four. At 3:25pm on Monday June 19, 2017, westbound Amtrak train #3, the Southwest Chief passed through Hinsdale, Illinois with AMTK #184 (P42DC; Phase IV Heritage Unit) and AMTK #158 (P42DC). The trip was off to a great start! |