Chicago is the most entertaining part of the journey. This is like asking me to have a sundae and skip the chocolate and whipped creme. 
I live nearby. Iâm tempted to buy a dozen feral cats and putting them in my alley. Seriously
Howâs it any different than having dining/cafe cars parked there now?
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Itâs not and if I remember correctly they had a rat infestation once already. Though I think with the vend-o-mat, access to the food and cleaning the insides would be more problematic.
I donât think your vague examples have much to do with this issue.
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The issue is Dave Klepperâs station restaurant proposal.
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So if crime is so rampant in some cities why isnât the NG being deployed in Missouri, with TWO cities in the top ten, and all ahead of LA or CHI? Hmm, a GOP guv?
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I read that the murder rate in Palm Beach, Florida is 0.0676 per 1,000 residents in the typical year. The rate of murder is slightly higher than that of the average US city. Palm Beach ranks in the 41st percentile for safety, meaning it is safer than 41% of cities but less safe than 59%. Could be time to send in the NG.
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Maybe Firecrown could add another category to this forum.
It would be very difficult for rats to enter properly-designed machines that dispense food or drink in an automat dinihng car, and the overall problem may be less. But I do advise readers in Chicago to recommend cats directly to the Chicago coachyard boss.
In part because of shortages during the War, the rats probklem in Jerusalem was severe at the time the British took control from the Turks toward the end of WWI. In part for their own well-being, the British immediately brought several hundred cats to Jerusalem, and the problem was solved. Lots of diferent colors, too, not just grey, but white-and-black, copper and gold, copper-and-white. They clean themselves, dig holes when deficating and cover them, and can be made into pets when fed by hand when young.
I was only able to observe a functional Horn and Hardart automat a couple of times before they closed. The amount of specialized equipment was substantial, including a separate coin mechanism for each of the doors â youâd use or adapt current vending-machine technology to do the job now.
In the automat restaurant, the doors formed a âwallâ and there was kitchen space behind so that staff could keep everything restocked regularly. This would be highly unlikely on a train. Presumably the automat would be provided as a hinged unit that swings out to be periodically stocked; I never saw one of Biagginiâs units so donât know how much of a compromise was involved â I have seen suspicions that they were intentionally made âless than delightfulâ to help with the whole trains-off conspiracy, but could neither confirm nor deny.
The rat problem with automats is likely more a âfishâ problem⌠of the red-herring variety. At least some of the content on a LD train would need to be refrigerated, and some might best be stored frozen, so the âautomat rackâ itself might best be designed with full refrigeration. You can see the fun involved with insulating and powering this, but even the cleverest rodent is not going to get into any of the cells while the car is parked.
In the Horn and Hardart setup, the fronts of the doors were glass so you could assess the state of the âcontentsâ before buying. It shouldnât be difficult to mass-produce multiple-pane windows with shields that would be âimpact-resistantâ enough to preclude vandalism.
I would then turn to the issue of drinks. Free hotel breakfasts and a variety of fast-food restaurants have no difficulty in providing freely-accessible drink machines without poisoning customers. Just how this would work on a train where passengers are not allowed to run coffee machines is, unfortunately, far from clear. I can all too easily imagine a range of more-or-less-sticky disaster scenarios. Perhaps keeping the dispensers behind a lockable panel, and operating them only with an attendant in the car, might work.
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A more ârelevantâ part of the automat discussion is how the station-restaurant or ghost-kitchen facility at a given stop would handle restocking, or âupdatingâ, the automat content. If that has to involve âeyeballingâ all the cells, then individually pulling stale content and reinserting contents one-at-a-time, station dwell is going to go in a hole â not including the delay for the replenishment staff and stock to get aboard, and tinker with the automat unit. Someone who has run a convenience store will know how often the sandwiches and whatnot can stay out until first discounted and then replaced â that would affect the provisioning for a particular LD train in ways I donât think the current commissary system could address even if stock is kept in an onboard refrigerator for periodic reloading.
I for one would be perfectly happy to be offered discounted items, and the vending-machine-derived equipment ought to facilitate this without a bunch of tinkering by train staffâŚ
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I recall the SP system as also having glass-window dispensers, so one could see the food one was buying. But it is possible that my memory is confusing the SP Daylight experience with that of Horn and Hardat. Thev way bit would work b est would be foe the dining cars to be modified with Baggage-car=width doors, amd the entire food dispernsing group of machines rolled-on and rolled-off at terminals and service stopsm with none abord for more than 24[p-hours, only normal refrigoration required for a few dispensers, and no freezing required for any,
And it should be titled â an area for people that complain about political posts, but then make many of their ownââŚ.
Thank you for Woke and Dave in trying to keep this from completely derailing.
I also donât see an issue with cousins of Mickey Mouse causing issues with a vending car type setup in the Chicago yard. Proper storage isnât that hard.
What Iâm concerned about in this regard isnât the food behind the individual doors, but all the crumbs and crusts that come from people unwrapping and eating the items without an attendant to clean up for or after them. I loved the movie âRatatouilleâ but would not like to see certain scenes in it re-created in real life.
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Has anyone seen any rats or mice while riding on Amtrak trains, whether in dining or snack cars or coach or sleepers?
Define rats or mice.
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Typical rats can be 3X size of a mouse. Of course, some could be larger!!
The Daylight Automat car hsad one attendant. That is a reduction from the minimum of one chef and twobser4vers fior a minimum Amtrak dining car4. Often there are four or five for staff. The hotel and station restaurant schemes probably would require two.
The last Horn & Hardart Automat closed in 1991, but it has been in decline 20 years earlier. I visited one in Midtown in 1956.
More nostalgia?