Just returned so I thought I would give an update on our trip, though this thread does seem to get lost on this site, so don't know how many see it if not specifically looking for it. But here goes.
We left on Friday, May 13th and most of the previous week, the train seemed to be running close to time except for the one day. So odds were in our favor.
We arrived and could not enter the station as the train from Lorton was close to 2 hours late. But, wow, did they turn things around quickly and we left by around 4:10pm. Unfortunately, the train seemed to be going rather slow and finally just topped around 8pm. Later found out it was due to replacing a bad engine. Not too long a delay about 35 minutes and we were on our way. Then around 4:15am it stopped again, rather abruptly, felt almost like we had hit something. This time it was about an hour and a half before we were on our way. Next morning were told the replacement engine blew and they had to remove it. We then travelled on one and a half engines(?). Needless to say we arrived almost 3 hours late.
The train was full, which we have never encountered before, so I would say mid May is definitely a peak time for North bound trains. There were close to 500 passengers and around 242 vehicles. I spoke w/ a few snowbirds and they said most start heading home late April into May, though most are usually gone by the end of May. If we ever used train again at this time of year I would book way early and get rooms, or just not travel via the AT.
As there were only 3 of us, I got to sit w/ a stranger. Very nice guy and we made it work, but it does make sleeping in coach very uncomfortable trying to respect each others limited space. Last time, we went non peak season south and were able to spread out and all have the entire seats to ourselves, and were able to sleep much better. We arrived in Lorton very hungry and very tired w/ a 5 hour drive home.
The only alternative would have been to drive home from Florida and since I already driven to FL from PA via AL, I had no desire to do that, so glad to have the AutoTrain as an option. We just didn't enjoy it as we have in the past.