So with the rest of the crowd I waited to see what 'Track' the train was on. They board 10-15 mins before departure, which doesn't seem enough time to get everyone on, but of course it was and we left on time at 3.40pm.

I had booked a 'roomette' and was welcomed and had all explained to me, by James an attendant for the sleeping carriage. There's a bed which he'll put in place apparently, 2 seats, a toilet, a pull-down sink, and lots of switches for lights and air.

It was a lovely evening and we chugged up-state, along the Hudson River. An on-board leaflet guide told me of the places I saw through the window - the Harlem River, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Croton-Harmon, Peekskill, the crenellated West Point Academy, Pollepel Island, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff-Kingston, Catskill, Hudson, Castle-on-Hudson. All these place names a mix of the unusual and the familiar, with stories of the British, electricity, and American history, lying behind them.

Then we reached the state capital, Albany-Rensselaer when we stopped and were allowed off for nearly an hour, as the train from Boston was attached for the onward journey.

As I took my place in the restaurant car we passed through Schenectady, and an elderly couple joined me, on their way back to Rochester after a family w'end in up state New York. We talked of family, life in Rochester, and ate Lake Shore fare and passed through a dark Utica. Then time to head for my sleeping compartment where the bed had been put in place at head height and I lay and watched the dark and the trees pass by, listening to the sounds of the train and songs with America in the title.

Til midnight we were in New York State passing through Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. In the early hours and the rest of the night we passed through Erie in Pennsylvania, Cleveland Ohio and more Ohio with Elyria, Sandusky, Toledo, Bryan.

By morning we were entering Indiana, watching farmlands go by, passing through Waterloo, Elkhart. After a shower I had breakfast - Railroad French Toast - and conversation with an elderly ex-Amish and Mennonite chap, talking about Cleveland & Ohio where he'd boarded at 4am, and he and his wife on the way to Seattle & Alaska for a holiday. Apparently Amish can't be connected to the outside world with pipes and wires, but some are now using mobile phones and tablets.

Passing through South Bend we put our watches back an hour as we moved from Eastern time to Central time. Soon it was time for this part of the journey to end as we pulled into the grand Union Station, Chicago.