I rode train 20 from Gainesville GA to Philly last Friday night.
The good: The scenery in VA was very nice. Ate breakfast in the diner. Food was decent. Service was good - but a bit slow and inconsistent. Plastic dishes were nicely done and more than acceptable. The coach seating and HVAC systems were all in good working order. The train was sold out north of Charlotteville and the sleepers north of Charlotte. The train was 1:10 late at Gainseville but only 35 min late at Philly. And, of course, there are no bad train rides…
The bad: Apparent worn wheels on my coach got the truck hunting started at anything approaching 80 mph. Made it hard to sleep, particularly considering I was over the offending truck. It was REALLY bad at the 100 and 110 mph running on the NEC. The station stops were rather long. Always longer than the 3 minutes allotted. Some of this was due to their method of seating people in the coaches - see below.
The ugly: The coach attendent had all the personality and appeal of dryer lint. He performed almost adequately. For some reason, they assign you your seat on the Crescent - unlike any other Amtrak LD train I’ve ridden (most in the distant past). They do manage to keep groups together, but that’s about the best I can say for their method. They segregate riders by destination partly to minimize disruptions in the middle of the night but, I think, mostly for their own convenience. Rather than giving the better seats to those with the longest journey, the just fill the car up from one end to the other so that those on the longest get stuck out over the trucks. The attendant also assigned a 400 lb man to a seat next to another fairly big guy rather than finding the big guy his own seat pair in another coach. What a terrible “service” for both men! I’m sure they’ll both be back on Amtrak real
Amfleet Cars, based on the Budd Metroliners, were designed for high speed, short haul service in the Northeast Corridor. Many have been displaced by the 20 Acela Bullet Trains in the corridor.
In other uses, lots of stops on a long haul train will tend to flatten the wheels, also, few use bathrooms when on short haul trains. While the aging Amfleets might be on the end of a train for local passengers, AMTRAK NEEDS NEW LONG HAUL CARS! At least you got a seat, unlike the airlines, Amtrak does not “over book”.
I sure the enemies of our country will want to know of the complete lack of Security at Gainesville. Wake up Amtrak!
Read your report 'n must agree with your appraisal - there are no bad train rides, but there surely are times when the service 'n material condition of the equipment could 'n should be better.
Don’t kow if you’re interested, but I hang out over on Classic Trains (General Discussion) at “Our” Place . . . I recently Posted my “trip report” of an AMTRAK roundtrip between St. Louis 'n Kansas City . . . been riding that route for nearly 20 years, and it isn’t getting better.
Most of my passenger rail travels are aboard VIA Rail in Canada, and there’s evidence of deterioration there as well. Not looking good . . .
The “minimize disruptions in the middle of the night” probably has a lot more to do with the seating arrangement than “attendant convenience.” Are you coherent enough at 2 AM to tell the attendant that just woke you that this isn’t your stop?
Finding a “fairly big guy” another seat due to his size sounds like it would be impossible, especially since you said the train was full above Charlotte. Plus, in the old days, if you took up two seats (due to your siz
You give the passengers the option. You either let them pick their own seats when they book ala the airlines or you designate the cars by destination and let folks pick their own seat when they board. The seat checks are plain enough to make sure you get the right folks up for their stop. You just might have to walk a whole TWO coaches rather than one, though.
In the interest of customer service, you give the fat guy one of the two pair you’ve roped off for the trainmen and have them squat in the lounge car - which is empty all night any way. Or seat him in your “local” coach, which will be nearly empty until morning. There is likely always a certain number of passengers who really should be seated next to anyone - either charge’m double or allow for it in your booking. You don’t penalize some other “regular” sized passenger!
The train didn’t fill out until the breakfast-time AM stops in Lynchburg and Charlottesville - lots of options for the overnighters w/o jamming them all in the rear car. Just takes a bit more creativity and customer focus other than “this is how we always do it”. (I rode the Cresecent in the early 80s a few time and it was the same way, then, too)
And, I missed another, minor irritant. The car attendent did pass out pillows, but rather than just collecting them and stripping off the disposable pillow cases, he made an general anouncement and had the passengers strip off the pillow cases and throw them away. It’s not like the guy was so busy cleaning the bathrooms… What’s next? We get to buss our own tables in the diner?
I think I am with Don Oltmann on this one. There is that natural been-around-railroads outlook that whatever is done on a railroad operation is optimal and the best of all possible worlds, and that a “civilian” (like Don!) couldn’t possibly have any ideas of how to improve the operation.
First, the large guy. Yeah, yeah, people that heavy should be expected to pay for two seats and so on, but what is with exercising a little coach-attendant discretion and giving the fellow a break? Don was on the scene and I would defer to Don whether there was room to accomodate this passenger or not.
Second, this business of the platform. I suppose wanting to stand on the platform is a railfan thing, but again, and yes, there are hazards getting swept off on to a train, but can’t goodwill and letting people stretch their legs be balanced against making everyone stay inside a not-well-kept station?
Third, the truck hunting. Many of my rail-travelling friends have complained about stretches of “bad track”, but I have been wondering if sometimes it is a case of worn wheels or perhaps worn rails. The wheel profile together with the rail profile provide the steering control (flanges are only a backstop), and the experience in England is that worn wheels (also worn journal guides and other truck hardware) can cause a bad ride at speed. It is not a matter of flat spots; it is a question if the wheel has the right “cone taper” after it is in service long enough. Talgo has on board technicians with data pads keeping track of when wheels need reprofiling – perhaps something low-tech like conductors or coach attendants writing up that a coach rides rough and then doing the maintenance on that car could help.
Finally the bathrooms. I always wondered about the tradeoff between airliner style bathrooms and the rather large Men’s and Women’s rooms on the chair cars of old streamliner equipment, and I guess if you nee
Actually, there was some security at Gainesville. It just wasn’t very pretty!
The equipment I’m taking issue with is the 60 seat, Amfleet IIs, which were long distance adaptations of the Metroliner shell Amfleet I’s and are the mainstay of the all the eastern LD trains. They should have a changing room/sink only area like the older LD coaches did. I never realized that the Amfleet IIs, which only have one vestibule, actually are built with two, but have electric lockers in the blind end rather than exterior doors.
And, I’m OK with the “no platform” edict, generally, but the station was sooo shabby. They really need to blackmail Gainesville into better accomodations. Perhaps have Buford and/or Duluth GA compete for the stop. Most of the Gainesville riders are coming from the northern ATL suburbs anyway. Just another case of Amtrak not paying attention to business. When Amtrak took over the Crescent from SOU, there were 50,000 people in Gwinnett Co., a similar number in neighboring north Fulton and just about nobody in adjacent Forsyth. Gainesville was the next logical place to stop north of Atlanta in 1960 and maybe ev
But when there’s no known available seat to give the “fat guy” two seats, they should block off extra seats “just in case” there’s one or two guys that fit that description? My sympathy for them went out the door after a flight from Philly to Chicago had me crammed into a seat with my right shoulder against the inside of the fuselage and my left shoulder behind his right. I, as a “regular sized passenger,” was penalized by the airline because I was unlucky enough to get that seat. Should airlines set aside a seat for clearance of this size passenger, too? For airlines, busses, or trains, I fully support the old rule, if you take up two seats, you pay two fares.
PS, I noticed you didn’t volunteer to take the seat next to the “fat guy,” in your original or rebuttal, but you’re all for relocating the crew members away from their duty area.
There should be some sort of “fat guy” strategy. An couple of hours in a plane isn’t quite the same thing as 14 hours on the train when you’re trying to get comfortable to sleep. Whether it’s punative (charge’m double) or a “service” (hold a couple of seats out), depends on what you can afford vs. your public image.
I’m not following your logic why I should have felt compelled to offer up my seat instead of the crew who are being paid to see t
Simple. All your “solutions” are the modern “someone else should be inconvenienced so I’m not” attitude, but offers no practical solution. Stick 'em in a seat with a smaller guy, but not you. BTW, did either of the large guys complain, or is it just you?
You are correct is saying that the Trainman’s duty station is the entire train, but the Coach Attendants and Sleeping Car Attendants are assigned to a particular car, which would be their duty station, not the entire train.
As far as crew members sleeping on the job, did you mention it to the Conductor?
I think I am with Don Oltmann on this one. There is that natural been-around-railroads outlook that whatever is done on a railroad operation is optimal and the best of all possible worlds, and that a “civilian” (like Don!) couldn’t possibly have any ideas of how to improve the operation.
First, the large guy. Yeah, yeah, people that heavy should be expected to pay for two seats and so on, but what is with exercising a little coach-attendant discretion and giving the fellow a break? Don was on the scene and I would defer to Don whether there was room to accomodate this passenger or not.
Second, this business of the platform. I suppose wanting to stand on the platform is a railfan thing, but again, and yes, there are hazards getting swept off on to a train, but can’t goodwill and letting people stretch their legs be balanced against making everyone stay inside a not-well-kept station?
Third, the truck hunting. Many of my rail-travelling friends have complained about stretches of “bad track”, but I have been wondering if sometimes it is a case of worn wheels or perhaps worn rails. The wheel profile together with the rail profile provide the steering control (flanges are only a backstop), and the experience in England is that worn wheels (also worn journal guides and other truck hardware) can cause a bad ride at speed. It is not a matter of flat spots; it is a question if the wheel has the right “cone taper” after it is in service long enough. Talgo has on board technicians with data pads keeping track of when wheels need reprofiling – perhaps something low-tech like conductors or coach attendants writing up that a coach rides rough and then doing the maintenance on that car could help.
Finally the bathrooms. I always wondered about the tradeoff between airliner style bathrooms and the rather large Men’s and Women’s rooms on the chair cars of old streamliner eq
I guess inquiring foamer minds needs answers to questions about bathrooms.
Back in the late 1970’s when the family was moving from Chicago to Detroit, we were taking the Amtrak Michigan trains a lot. Initially they had the French RTG Turboliners (by the way, these are lighweight trains although with conventional trucks, and they were the smoothest riding train cars I have ever been on in terms of controlling bumps, side sway, and truck hunting). Some time in this they started phasing in Amfleet cars with F40PH locos in place of Turboliners. The Amfleet cars rode OK, better than a lot of swing-hanger streamliner cars unless you like the swing-hanger side sway, but they were a bit firm, and not as silky smooth as the Turboliners.
Most of the time you got the corridor high-density seating, but I remember one time being on a low-density Amcoach that must have been new to the fleet. Besides the fewer seats and more leg room, something tells me it had a somewhat bigger bathroom than the typical Amwatercloset. Are we talking about the same thing? Or have they remodeled Amfleet II’s to give them smaller bathrooms?
I alwalys take the Sleeping Car for LD trips, I like the private rooms and the meals in dining car. I just came back from my LD trip this past Monday from Las Vegas to CHicago then to Cov, Pa on Capitol Limited and the Southwest Chief all in sleeping car.[8D]
I agree with you about the turboliners. The NY State version was very smooth riding and quiet and the cars were a bit wider than the French version. Also like those big windows, particularly for the scenery along the Hudson.
The Amfleet I cars typically came with 84 seats, but Amtrak modified a bunch for Metroliner service and reduced the pitch to 60 seats. The Amfleet II cars came with 60 seats and have the leg rests that hinge up from the seat cushion as well as the pedal operated foot rest.
The Amfleet I cars came with a pair of tiny restrooms - I’m not sure what Amtrak has done to make them ADA compliant. The Amfleet II car I was just on had a large ADA compliant room and a smaller non-compliant room. Not sure if the smaller one was larger th
Talking about the Rohr Turboliners (Americanized version of the French Turboliner), wasn’t there some kind of deal where New York State put up a bunch of money to rebuild them, but aren’t they in storage because someone has “issues” with them? Is it fuel consumption? I looked up an article in June 1974 Aviation Week where they were giving fuel consumption numbers, and they were talking 60 gal/hour at 60 MPH – about a gallon per mile – is this much different than Diesel corridor trains? While turbines are inherently thirstier, especially at part load, these are streamlined lightweight trains so perhaps some of the fuel use balances out, and the French trains are supposed to use a pair of turbines to accelerate but idle one turbine at cruise to cut down on fuel use.
Or was it more a question of some bureaucratic wrangling? Or something to do with bringing them into Grand Central or Penn Station?
NY was paying to have them rebuilt and upgraded at Super Steel in Schenectady. The first one completed had lots of trouble during acceptance testing - I don’t recall exactly what. Finally, three were completed but I don’t think any were accepted. NY and Amtrak never really were on the same page about the rebuild program and their use afterward, apparently. There must have been some nasty words, because Amtrak found they held the title to them, and towed them down to Wilmington, where they still sit.
I did hear through the RR grapevine that they were in much worse structural shape than was expected and really weren’t worth the effort to rebuild in the first place. The carbodies were all carbon steel.
Wonder if a JetTrain locomotive with some Acela coaches wouldn’t be better suited to the Hudson line? Maybe NY should have spend their money on some new equipment…
I take back some of what I said about the ANF-Frangeco/Rohr Turboliners being lightweight equipment.
I have developed a kind of technical/modeling interest in the TurboTrain, Talgo, and single guided axle trucks in general, and Jason Shron at Rapido Trains has posted pictures of an HO model he is developing that shows a different arrangement of the axle guidance arms on the TurboTrain than I am familiar with. He speaks of a change in the design in response to testing during development of the prototype TurboTrain, so I have been doing engineering citation database searches on TurboTrain or Turbo Train to see what had been documented.
I turned up W. H. Gregory “Decision Nears on Turbine Train Award”, Aviation Week and Space Technology, June 24, 1974. Ordinarly, Av Week is not your go-to place for information on trains, but they do cover the aerospace industry, especially when two firms (Rohr with their French partner for the Turboliner, Sikorsky for the TurboTrain) are competing for orders. Apparently, when Amtrak bought the Turboliner, serious consideration was given to a United Aircraft Sikorsky Division TurboTrain 2.
I go confused because those wacky aerospace writers were quoting weight per wheel instead of weight per axle – railroad people always talk about “axle loading” and never give car or train weight on a per wheel basis. A 5 car Turboliner and a 6 car TurboTrain are compared, each carrying 300+ passengers, comparable to a current-day Amtrak corridor train of 4 Horizon or Amfleet cars. The Turboliner train came in at about 300 tons while the TurboTrain 2 came in a little under 200 tons. The Turboliner takes 5 carbodies to carry the seats of 4 Amfleet cars, but half of each power car is taken up with the locomotive part of the train. The TurboTrain has its Power Dome Cars where there are seats perched up above the propulsion machines, but its cars are somewhat shorter.
Took an Amtrak trip in August: JAX-NYP #98, NYP-CHI # 49, CHI-KAL # 352, KAL-CHI # 365, CHI-WAS # 30, WAS-JAX # 97.
Silver Meteor was hour late out of Jax due to a problem with a passenger detraining in Palatka, 2:08 late into NYP-sleeping car attendant top rate-dining car staff a near zero but the food was excellent. Lake Shore Limited pretty fine trip overall. # 352 had engine trouble in Hammond-Whiting, Indiana: we sat for over an hour while they tried to get the locomotive running on a consistent basis. No announcements from the train crew as to cause of delay. # 365 going back, every time there was even the slightest pause-the crew was "on the horn explaining the delay. Capitol Limited best food and service of whole trip 0:45 late into DC. Silver Meteor from Washington to Jax was late into DC and never made up the time. Dining car good, food excellent, sleeping car attendant had no clue. I had to break up a conversation between her and the attendant for the next sleeper to even board the train!!
I no longer suport them they scrap there F40PH’s (I saw a used one go for over $100,000 but what is $100,000 when you get a cople of bil from my pockets. instead of rebuilding the F40PH like VIA they waste there money on Genesh*ts and wonder where all the money has gone when they want new or updated cars.
Maybe you don’t remember, but the F40s weren’t surplused until Gunn killed Amtrak’s frt and express business. Amtrak purchased all those GEs so they’d have enough power to run the expanded network and longer trains. Once Gunn pulled the plug, Amtrak had a lot of surplus locomotives. They kept the best (that is, the ones with highest value and lowest operating cost) and sold/scrapped/leased the rest (F40s and early Genesis). The cash rasied by doing this helped them scrape by and live to fight another day.
Despite their troubles, the P42s are really pretty good, fuel efficient long distance passenger locomotives and the F40s were hardly trouble free.