Journey to New York City

Given that the area around Niagara is so interesting our train journey to New York began in a surprisingly dreary fashion (from Alan) with nothing much to see on the line side. As we had noticed previously, track quality on the private railways here is patchy at best, and the ride on this first section through Buffalo was some of the worst that we had endured. The Maple Leaf actually retraces some of the  mileage we had followed through this region on The Lake Shore Limited from Chicago. The on-train entertainment on this first part included US Customs and Border Patrol Service inspections at both Buffalo and Rochester which constituted welcome diversions from our noticeably slow progress! To folk from Britain it seemed a little alarming to have officers with guns patrolling through the carriages, although the whole thing was pretty low-key. Unless the authorities have specific information about someone on board, these inspections must be little more than a token effort. On this section of the route the railroad follows the grain of the land and actually curves away from New York city to find a path towards the Atlantic seaboard. The inspections thus added  to the duration of an already time consuming  trip, and lateness was begining to build-up as our train lost its path in the mix of other traffic. After passing the stops at Syracuse and Utica it become clear that the line follows the route of the Erie Canal and later the Hudson River through pleasantly undramatic countryside which could be in England. All of this seemed to take forever, and it had gone dark by the time we got to Schenectady and the line began to turn towards the south.  I had hoped to see a bit of the General Electric Works and what remains of the American Locomotive Company  plant (where the Big Boys were made), but obviously the gloom prevented most of that.