Utica is my home town. I was there maybe a month ago visiting my mother. I took the train from the nearest airport in Syracuse. The train station may be the best part of the town. Patterned after Grand Central. My late father, from whom I get my foamer genes, was a volunteer brakeman on the Adirondack Railway, but I have never ridden it. My first chance to see it was in your video, so thank you.
And this is why transit or excursions like this are the way to go to see special events, whether it's a solar eclipse like here, concerts, sports, or seeing the implosion of the Georgia Dome when a MARTA bus stops to watch the implosion and blocks a Weather Channel livestream! The Adirondack Railroad is quite cool, though a shame they removed the trackage between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid. NYS bought the line in 1974. There was a short-lived tourist railroad to Lake Placid between 1979 and 1981 meant to serve spectators for the 1980 Winter Olympics. But then it was dormant until 1992 when restoration of the line began. Originally they wanted to revive service to Lake Placid, but a funded group called for replacing the Tupper Lake-Lake Placid section with a rail trail. However the NY Supreme Court sided with the railroad and prevented it in 2017. Despite this though, a multimillionaire who had a lot of influence in Albany successfully led an effort to circumvent the ruling to change the definition of a travel corridor, and the trackage was removed in 2020. Like other cities in Upstate NY like Rome, Troy, Ithaca, and Syracuse, Utica is of course named after an ancient city, an ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian city in what's now Tunisia! This is thanks to the classically trained surveyor Robert Harpur who was a professor in King's College (today part of Columbia University), as while working as a clerk in the office of the New York State Surveyor General, he was the one who named these places in Upstate NY after classical places! During the 1850s, Utica played a major role in the Underground Railroad for those fleeing for freedom to Canada by way of Upstate NY. Utica was once extremely wealthy thanks to its location on the Erie Canal and the railroads, supporting industries like textiles, furniture, and lumber, leading to waves of Italian, Irish, Polish and Lebanese Maronite immigrants working in the city's industries in the early part of the 20th century.
I’m seething about some 1%-er’s workaround that eliminated the Lake Placid rails. Local authorities in VA seem to cave, too, whenever there’s some rail elimination project despite the success of the reinvigorated Roanoke-Lynchburg corridor on Amtrak. (Sigh)
I took a screen shot of google maps with the traffic turned on and it was red and yellow lines all along the path of totality. Posted it on Reddit in r/f***cars
yes, waiting 2 hours to traverse like 10 miles on a side road that connected to the freeway in NH was awful - overall 18 hours in a car for a 48 hour trip
Wow I can't believe Jeremy was a jock who teleported from the 1980s this whole time. 😂 Thendara is part of the New York Central Railroad Adirondack Division Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Thendara's Historic District itself was added in 2010. The first tomato pies in the United States were sold in NYC at Lombardi's which opened in 1905, while Joe's Tomato Pie (now defunct), which opened in 1910, was the first Trenton-styled tomato pie, and it was of course brought to Philly as well! The crust is based on a focaccia-like dough popular in the city of Palermo with the sfincione palermitano. Although unlike the tomato pie, the sfincione palermitano is meant to be served hot and has toppings. It doesn't cheese besides a dusting because tomatoes and olives were more plentiful than dairy cows during the time it was created. And during its transatlantic journey, a Sicilian pizza shed the onions and anchovies and became the Ellis Island-style tomato pie. My favorite moment was when the Moon said "I'm Mr. Moon, this is my show, I eat the Sun", ate the Sun, then said "This is the end, I love you"...solar eclipse of all time. And yes as pointed out at 4:47, Mattawa is in northeastern Ontario while Témiscaming is in northwestern Quebec. Témiskaming was taken from Lake Timiskaming, and in turn came from the Algonquin tim or "deep" and kami or "open water". The name Mattawa is derived from the Ojibwe language, meaning "meeting of the waters", a reference to the confluence of the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers. It's over 77 km between the two places, and line between them was built in 1923. Mattawa station ended service on the Canadian in the 1990s and its 1890s station sits disused while Témiscaming's station from 1927 is now a museum.
"Cananada" - Miles 2024. While everyone else had a lot of fun, us firebenders lost our firebending and we faced an invasion! Thankfully I took Dai Li agents from Ba Sing Se ahead of time to protect me! 😂 Utica's a pretty cool place! Went there back in 2019 for a robotics competition at SUNY Polytechnic Institute and had a lot of fun! Utica's beautiful station was designed in an Italianate style and was built between 1912 and 1914 by New York architects Stem and Fellheimer. Alfred T. Fellheimer was the lead architect of Grand Central Terminal and he also worked on Buffalo Central Terminal, Cincinnati Union Terminal, Morris Park station on the NYC Subway's IRT Dyre Avenue Line, and the Hamilton GO Centre! Eight columns that originally adorned Grand Central Terminal were brought to be used in Utica's design! Its large benches are heated by steam pipes and vents incorporated into the benches themselves!
Welp, you nailed it. From our beautiful train station with its untasty, lake Hinkley, water to the DMV in the corner. I'm surprised that you didn't point out the probation office on the second floor 😅. Glad you had fun.
We DROVE to Burlington, VA from NYC and got 3+ min of totality under essentially clear skies. It was MIND BLOWING!!! It took 11h to drive back due to traffic.
I took the Capitol Limited from DC to Cleveland and I experienced absolutely no traffic whatsoever. But I did experience a full 4 minutes of totality. 😛
I drove from Northern New Jersey up to Syracuse, with an overnight stop in Sherburne. Aside from a pretty bad jam on I-81 heading out of Syracuse, aided by the fact that the interchange between 81 and 481 is currently being rebuilt so that 81 through downtown can be demolished, traffic was more or less fine. Totality was pretty brief since Syracuse was at the edge of the path, and the sky was pretty cloudy, but even so, the effect of it shifting from night to day was incredible. I'll admit, sitting there with one of my best friends and watching it happen, I cried.
@@michaelimbesi2314 How was the weather in Cleveland on eclipse day? I took the Pennsylvanian from TRE to PGH then the Cptitol Limited to CLE to get the eastbound Lake Shore Limited to BUF then took 2 buses to get to downtown Buffalo (on Sunday morning) to scout out places to view the eclipse from. By the time I first tried to book tickets to BUF, all trains to Buffalo were sold out so I had to take the route that I did to get there.
Yes, but they didn’t have Steamed Hams because you were near Utica and not Albany. Next two total eclipses in North America: August 2044, but only visible in Montana and the western part North Dakota before the sun sets (better to go up to Alberta, Canada to see that one.) But then August 2045, an eclipse will cross the entire US from Northern California arcing down towards Orlando to Miami, FL. (August 2045 Disney ticket pricing will be insane.)
There was also an amazing train from Rutland vt to Burlington Vermont waterfront. Sold out in minutes! Also a heritage train but served a purpose for the eclipse!!
I went to Hamilton, Ontario to watch the solar eclipse, and I have to say that GO Transit and CN did the best they could to handle the crowds, placing extra trains and buses where needed. One surprising fact was that 40 extra bus trips were added to the Hamilton-Guelph-Waterloo run, mostly because of uni students! The crowd in Hamilton was cheering when the skies went dark, and I think I'll only get that experience again at a pop music concert. By the way, when I saw that heritage train at the train station in the beginning of the video, I was reminded about how I saw the 1940s Budd cars on VIA trains passing our GO train, but they actually run in regular service, which is very sad. Thankfully that won't be the case for long!
In Austin we had two trains to the eclipse, a the local heritage line ran out furthest into the path of totality, and CapMetro ran extra service for a picnic at the furthest out station.
I was not expecting to see my dad's hometown being mentioned in this video! So cool that a car that ran between Témiscaming and Mattawa is still around. It would be nice to have even half of the rail routes that we once had here in Canada.
Very nice! !!! But wrong time of year alot of what I saw was in the spring!! The canal was still drained for the winter trees were bare! I'm glad you All had fun and got to enjoy it
Now thats got to be the most foamer way to experience the eclipse. I love it. For the record, I drove with a friend of mine up from northern New Jersey to Syracuse, stopping overnight at an AirBNB in Sherburne. Sherburne reminded me a lot of the towns you've covered in your least used Amtrak station videos, which was fun. But anyway, despite some heavy cloud coverage in Syracuse, totality was pretty incredible. I'm glad I got to see it, and experiencing it with a very close friend made it all the more special of a moment.
I rode the 77 express bus from Buffalo to Niagara Falls New York and walked over the Rainbow Bridge into Canada to watch the eclipse with a great view of Niagara Falls in the background. It was great despite the clouds.
Really a trip of a lifetime. One downside of transit is that you had to iron out a destination in advance not knowing what the cloud cover would be. I had to switch destinations at the last minute to avoid the clouds which I couldn’t do if I wasn’t driving. Yes the trip was long, but those two minutes was worth it!
I just love everyone's excitement over the eclipse. It really is something kind of pure and heartwarming when people will gather to see something all together and be excited over it. I'm usually fairly cynical, but every eclipse viewing I've seen makes me feel like maybe people are kind of okay....sometimes.
I went to just south of Plattsburgh, NY. Totally incredible, and then the 8 hour drive back to Philly. I was super sick, no regrets, would repeat . Doctors, meds and now 3 plus days in bed. we have over 3 min and had a little cloud cover, and the moon covering the sun, was mind-blowing
Good train and eclipse report! In Buffalo, the weather was perfect for the eclipse (completely clear with no wind and temps in the mid 50s F) on Sunday, Apr 7. On eclipse day, it was a lot of clouds (but fortunately no wind and the temps were about the same as they were the previous day) and the sky conditions where you were were better than in Buffalo but worse than they were in Buffalo on Sunday. The clouds did part briefly a few times and was able to see the eclipse at those times. Totality where I was lasted for 3m 45s. It was bright one second just before totality then it got totally dark and stayed that way until totality was over then it got bright again. I was in a park and the lights in that park that would normally come on at dusk came on just as totality began and stayed on until a few seconds after totality was over then they went out. Video of going into totality and back out after it's over does not do it justice and one has to actually experience it in person when seeing a total eclipse.
I went to Cleveland and honestly it was awesome. The weather turned out great and the Rapid actually works as a transit system. Also, Cleveland has some pretty cool old urbanism.
2:01 this is very beside the point but I saw that exact Amtrak locomotive pulling out of the Sunnyside yard in NYC on my way to work that morning! Just fun to find out where it ended up hours later (ETA my God you did a fast turnaround on this video)
Good old Utica - my younger brother spent many years at SUNY Poly ( _I remember when it was SUNY IT!_ ) so I made many trips through the lovely Utica train station. We used to have a D&H themed heritage railroad over on this side of the state between Saratoga and North Creek, but it's currently a railbike trail (RIP SNCRR). The Adirondack Railroad actually used to have more trackage, but more and more upstate rail is getting converted into rail trails if there isn't CPKC or CSX freight on it.
Totally jealous you got to take a train to totality! I had to drive from St. Louis to Carbondale to watch the eclipse in the SIU Saluki stadium. Which was a very good format as they had scientists on hand, the university band, dancers, artists and all sorts of people to really bring it together. However, the 4.5 hours of traffic due to the 2 lane state routes was not fun. I kept thinking, if only I could have taken the train to Carbondale, I would have skipped the traffic. Alas, I'm not going to take the Lincoln service to Chicago to then take the Illini or Saluki back down to Carbondale.
This was such an amazing and unique experience, especially with all of your friends. I was in totality in southeastern Illinois and it was indescribable. So thankful you were able to be on the totality train!!!
Absolutely no shot Miles just dropped a train video in my beloved (but mostly transit-less) homeland of the North Country! I have surely passed by the Thendara station well into the tens of times. They recently (finally) extended this line from Old Forge all the way to Tupper Lake, passing through some of the most beautiful, remote terrain and old growth forest in the Adirondacks. What's really cool is that means one can now take the train to the hamlet of Beaver River, NY, a community of only 4 full time residents that is completely cut off from the road network. The only ways to access it are by boat, seaplane, snowmobile, 7 mile (one-way) hiking trail, and now this train! If the Adirondack Railroad had run all the way to Tupper Lake for the eclipse, you would have had clear skies and an extra 42 seconds of totality to boot. Hope you were able to enjoy some chicken riggies and utica greens for dinner that night, and thanks for sharing the experience! P.S. I look forward to your review of the least used station in NY / the Adirondack, I don't see much documentation on youtube for what looks like a really beautiful line
I viewed the eclipse in Niagara Falls, it was cloudy that day so it was so disappointing to miss out of the full view. Of course it got dark but we didnt see anything else
Utica station is very impressive for a station in a small town. The heritage railroad was quite scenic. I would definitely like to see more of them on this channel.
70's era heritage train, now thats something. Plus the fact its a 2 hour+ trip each way! Like holy moly, that stuff is rare back in Denmark where I'm from. There's only a single society that does stuff of that length, and yet they're also the one preserving 1970's era DSB Intercity equipment and a single Scandinavian-ified EMD F7 to pull them (though those are still quite common in Scandinavia in freight service).
I've got the same chair at 9:52! I bought it so long ago (at least 12+ years ago) that I can't recall why I needed it. Possibly for picnics since I used to do that a lot.
20:16 I was able to catch the Amtrak 350/355 Wolverine train this evening with those four company cars in tow! They ran from Chicago to Pontiac this morning/afternoon on Amtrak 350, and headed back to Chicago tonight on Amtrak 355 (same train, they just turned on a wye at CN Pontiac Yard) to run inspections on the Michigan Line. I spent way too long editing and posting a short and dumb foamer video of it on my RU-vid ❤
So it was probably actually you I saw in Albany during the lake shore limited stopover! Your videos encouraged me to seriously consider Amtrak as a travel option. I ended up going Boston - Buffalo and had a great time. The train really emptied out after Rochester. The Buffalo station was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but I convinced the hotel to pick me up in their free “airport” shuttle.
this looks awesome! i am enjoying living vicariously through your experience... we only had 97% totality in pittsburgh but the light was so weird. loved the humor in this video too, you guys are all so funny. ☀🌙🌑
What a great video. The Eclipse was really cool, much more dramatic than where I live in the Hudson Valley. Also amazing was Utica Union Station except for that DMV, but more trains equals less or even no more DMV time. That streamliner-era rolling stock on the Adirondack Railroad is so cool. Love the retro VIA equipment and the carpet and moquette are really cool , those interiors are amazing relics from the 1970s. The Amtrak heritage fleet car must be a somewhat more recent addition as the Beach Grove rebuild sticker features the current Amtrak logo not the pointless arrow. I definitely would not want to mess around with the misery of driving to see an eclipse, but if I can just relax on a train that's another matter. When you got a lot of people want to go somewhere at the same time it's tough to beat a train.
8:41 right before you said it smelled nice in that station, I had the thought "whoa, i bet that place smells like an old museum/school house we had in my hometown" no clue why, just gave me those vibes
I remember the last time I was at the Utica Station, there was a wedding taking place. It was a very weird place to hold a wedding venue but it was very beautiful.
Took the Texas Eagle from Los Angeles to Dallas to see the eclipse. Still had to drive with friends to SE Oklahoma just to get a good gap in the clouds and well worth it!
first off it must have been beyond exciting to be in the hometown of superintendent chalmers! we didnt get this fancy eclipse in south jersey but we got some of it i put on a welding mask and saw a part of it at work. farm ass farm sounds like a jackson statement btw.
Presumably the Utica end of the line sees more freight tonnage and thus rides more roughly - love how the tail lights of the Lakeshore eclipsed your fellow foamers \m/
With the big cuts at end of 1989, VIA Rail ditched all its ex CN equipment very quickly. It had received funding to electrify (head end power) and put in retention toilets for the ex CP transcontinental Budd cars, but not the CN steel rolling stock. At the time of their disposal, they were steam heated and toilets flushed direct to tracks. With transcontinental killed (except for occasional Toronto-Vancouver on the Super continental (ex CN) route, VIA used surplus coaches to run lower distance trains. Some of the ex CN equipment got total rebuild (such as single level cars on the Rocky Mountaineer), and some went to places like Adirondack railroad. Not sure how much work was done with regards to heat, electricity and toilets on them. (but Rocky Mountaineer is a total rebuild, including new windows that curve up etc.). The café portion on the coach was common on the Rapido trains between Montréal and Toronto but after the cuts, it all went LRC only where you must stay at your seat. Those would have been used on rural "essential" trains after the cuts. (though CP transcon is used on those now, for what they have left of it as they havce begu to cannibalize them for parts, unwilling to mahe new parts manufacturered).
Glad you all seemed to have a good time with Monday's eclipse. Didn't get up into the Adirondacks since I had to work, but the weather and nice and it got almost dark. Sadly didn't get any great shots of the 98% Totality here. Hope you all returned home safely.
This was an awesome video and honestly I would have never thought of a train excursion for the eclipse! I will have to explore options for 2045(if I'm not dead by then).
Cool trip. Yes, those were deer. Growing up in northern MN I remember a weird phrase "I'm a Canuck from Cananada and I'm going to caknife you in the caknee and the caneck and the canelbow." I've always wondered if that was a saying unique to my environs. Who knifes someone in an elbow? Thanks for sharing!
I took the Amtrak Saluki/Illini from Chicago down to Centralia for the eclipse. Amtrak rescheduled both to give more time for people to get to/from eclipse viewing, which was nice. Sold out train to Southern Illinois, which I assume is fairly atypical.
I wonder if those former Amtrak cars are the heritage cars that ran on Amtrak's Adirondack in the late 90s/early 2000s, I'm betting they are, since the rebuild had the newer Amtrak logo, and those were some of the last of the Heritage Fleet cars that were in regular service. I took it in October, 2000 from NYP to MTR at the height of fall foliage, the scenery was pretty spectacular.
Cananada! the senterre train is actually still in operation, using Budd DMUs (iirc), which are used on most via-train-to-nowhere services. I've been to Utica before but only by car, never knew Utica station was so cool!
The tax table thing... does that mean on trains, they actually take into account which state you're currently in and charge you the appropriate tax when you buy something from the cafe car?
@@counterfit5huh, strangely in Canada you're not allowed to bring alcohol across provincial lines for some weird reason (BC and Alberta are currently in a 'trade dispute' over this) so I wonder if that is a factor... but then again, certainly that would matter on planes too then? Just a funny thing to think about I guess.
I'm sorry to insert random Canadiana, but at 3'35 I think that the Trans Canada highway between North Bay and Ottawa was the place that inspired the plane, train, car and boat intersection question in the Trivial Pursuit game.
