An Amtrak Regional Service train slows to a stop and pauses briefly at the station in Ashland, Virginia, on the evening of August 2, 2008.

As the train was leaving, the last car caught me by surprise. The 'Mount Vernon' was originally the 'Pacific Island', built for Pullman service on the Union Pacific Railroad. It served Amtrak until its retirement in the mid-1990s, then changed hands and began private charter service as the Mount Vernon after a restoration in 2002. Two of its passengers witness the departure from the rear vestibule as the train continues north.