St. Louis Metrolink Eclipse Guide - August 21, 2017


Yesterday I received a phone call from a fellow Washington University employee who worked at West Campus asking what was the best way to watch next Monday's eclipse since he was coming in to work that day. The university is actually sponsoring an Eclipse watch event on our campus (with ice cream), but unfortunately none of our campus is within the range for totality so it would only be a partial eclipse party. Our campus further west is extremely close to the edge of totality so the West Campus employee was asking if he could just walk across the street and down the block to see the full total eclipse. I told him he could, but he would likely only experience a few fleeting instances of totality and it would be better for him if he could get further south and possibly further west for a better experience. However, since West Campus is located very close to the Forsyth Metrolink station and all employees can receive a free Metro U-Pass, I realized the easy solution. Hop on the Metrolink and take it to Sunnen and Shrewsbury to easily see a full minute of totality without having to drive anywhere.

Anyone can find how long their totality will be by using NASA's nice interactive eclipse map. I found the time for each of the six Metrolink stations that will experience full totality on Monday:


-->
Clayton25 sec
Richmond Hts41 sec
Brentwood46 sec
Maplewood55 sec
Sunnen1:00
Shrewsbury1:05

So the  easiest way for anyone with a U-Pass is to just hop on a Metrolink train to Sunnen or Shrewsbury, spend some time watching the eclipse (totality around 1:17 to 1:19 pm St. Louis time on Monday) and then take a train back to where they came from without having to deal with the expected "eclipse traffic" on Monday. One way to insure you will make it to your desired stop in time is to go out to a long late lunch that day! There are a bunch of places walking distance to the Richmond Heights station (P.F. Chang's, Maggiano's, Nadoz), Brentwood (Mai Lee, the Brentwood Dierberg's, Subway, etc.), Maplewood (Joy Luck, Popeye's), or Sunnen (Cousin Hugo's, McAlister's Deli.) There is not much near the Shrewsbury station without a bit of a hike unless you are happy with convenience store food on the corner. Sunnen is actually not a bad choice since Cousin Hugo's is next to Deer Creek Park which should be a nice place to hang out with some shade on a hot day when you are not eclipse gazing. In fact the south end of Deer Creek Park is actually at 1 min 2 sec of totality so it is only 3 seconds shorter than what you would see at Shrewsbury. 



Note that after the eclipse, I bet the 1:39pm train leaving Shrewsbury will be packed since NOBODY will be riding the 1:19pm (or doing much of anything in the St. Louis area.) You may want to wait until the 1:59 train from Shrewsbury which should hopefully not be so crowded. You would think Metro would have promoted Metrolink as a good way to view the eclipse but then schedule more blue trains heading westbound until 1:00pm and more blue trains heading eastbound after 1:30pm.
We will have to see in the aftermath how everybody got around post-eclipse. Until Monday...
Location: 7425 Forsyth Blvd Basement, St. Louis, MO 63105, USA

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi Hugh, Your site is the best. I always use it anytime I need to calculate anything. Thanks. James MC
10:04 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trying out the L'Ecole Culinaire Presentation Room restaurant

Image
We had been seeing the ads for the restaurant at L'Ecole Culinaire and since we live so close by we thought we would try it out. We had always enjoyed dining out at cooking or hotel schools like the CHIC in Chicago and the Statler at Cornell where we went to college. Since we still love to go out and eat here in St. Louis , we ventured over to their restaurant on the first day they were open for lunch. The first thing we noticed is that they do not have much parking! They really need to let patrons know where they are supposed to park. The restaurant itself is small but very well attended. There was one fellow who kept straightening all the centerpieces and place settings on the tables, and we always saw one or two student workers milling about. The lunch menu was small and the choices did not appear overly "gourmet". The special of the day was a bison burger stuffed with cheese, and other choices picked by my group included a club sandwich, a "margherita" pi...
Read more

BMI & BMR Calculator (Body Mass Index and Basal Metabolic Rate)

Image
My wife has been researching type 2 diabetes and recently checked a book out of the library which included a body mass index (BMI) chart much like the one pictured here. Whereas it is fairly easy to follow, I, of course, think it must be converted to an online calculator! However, when I checked the Internet, there were already a billion of them so I had to make one that was different. So my lovely BMI BMR calculator accepts either inches or centimeters for your height and pounds or kilograms for your weight and calculates not only your BMI, but also your BMR (basal metabolic rate) which determines how many calories you should consume! So I made a spiffy "all in one" healthy body indicator calculator which not only determines how underweight or overweight you are, but also tells you how many calories you should consume to maintain or improve your ideal weight. 
Read more

Not all Frosted Window Films are the same!

Image
We live in an older home with a lot of issues and one of them concerns our back door to our patio from our sunroom. The door has double paned glass on it, but unfortunately the seal has broken so you can see moisture collect inside of it. We decided the easiest way to "remedy" the problem was to cover the window with some "frosted" film so we did not have to see the moisture condensing between the panes. But the question was, what film? There are a bunch of them available so we had to select something to try on the door. The first place we tried was our nearby Lowe's store which had a bunch of Gila brand film. We selected what seemed like the typical adhesive based door sized  film that cost about $25 after tax. We thought it could not be that hard to put up and look nice on our door. So one day my wife ran out and purchased it at Lowe's and we commenced to install it on our door window. We made our own soapy water solution and followed the directions...
Read more