Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

There don't seem to be a lot of good trains from Schenectady to New York City on Sundays, though there are reasonable-for-us trains from New York to Schenectady on Saturdays. There aren't many Schenectady-New York trains on Sunday at all, and I can't call the Adirondack "good," in a context where I'm not going to or from Montreal and won't get to look at Lake Champlain.

Opinions and experience on getting to New York via either the Lake Shore Limited or the Maple Leaf trains would be welcome.

(The Amtrak website claims that I could take the Lake Shore Limited from Schenectady to New York via Albany-Rensselaer, but when we asked about trains from Albany to New York, that train didn't come up. I can think of several possible explanations, ranging from "they just won't sell you a ticket from Albany" to "the web page is messed up." (The PDF schedule for that train is confusing.) On closer examination, it appears that the NY-bound train stops in Albany only to discharge passengers, and the one from New York stops only to receive them.)

We've already considered leaving from Albany (which has more trains to New York City), but it's not practical.