Hoosier State ... another trip!

Another trip ... just a short one. Chicago to Indianapolis and back on the Hoosier State. Primary reason for taking this trip was because it travels through much of the portion of Indiana where I spent my childhood in Attica. The railroad runs through Lafayette, Crawfordsville, and Monon, among others.

What's really neat on the four hour journey is that by taking Business Class (there is no sleeper service) one gets seats in the dome car, with our own private chef and made-to-order meals -- dinner on the evening train to Indianapolis and breakfast on the return trip to Chicago. The service, offered as an Amtrak train, is provided by Iowa Pacific, and uses vintage cars, repainted in the color scheme of Illinois Central passenger trains of yesteryear, for no other reason than the railroad owner likes that look. Our dome car, for example, was ex-Santa Fe. Power on the train was a pair of GP 40s, one from New Jersey Central, and the other probably from the New York Central.

We left Chicago at 5:15 pm, and arrived in Indianapolis shortly after 11 pm. After a really short night in a nearby hotel, we returned to the train for the return trip. I would recommend spending at least one day in Indianapolis; the station is right down town in the shadow of Lucas Oil Stadium and other points of interest. Nice trip.