I was just looking at the tour of sleeping accommodations, and noticed that the designer has never been in such, for there are various mistakes in the descriptions–and the pictures.
I didn’t see them. Please advise what I’m not seeing. Of course, the Ice chests are gone as are other amenities.
The windows in the family room are described as being “picture windows;” they are half size of the windows in the other rooms. And, the description indicates that there are steps to be used to get into the upper child’s berth–and the picture shows a ladder for that berth.
The floor plan includes one of the toilets with the “Shower and changing room”–and each room has its own door to the aisle, and there is no connection between them. The “changing room” is actually a part of the shower room.
The single seat in each bedroom is described as being a reclining seat; I have never seen that one reclines. In no way would I call it an “easy chair;” I have never sat in one that was really comfortable.
The accessible room has no bathtub or shower; it does have a toilet and washbasin; it should be called a “half-bath.”
It is many years since Amtrak has described the small compartments as “bedrooms;” this is the first time I have seen one described as a “roomette bedroom.”
Another item concerning the Viewliner: the diagram indicates that the shower area extends across the aisle–into what is actually the attendant’s roomette.
Numerous passenger produced videos on YouTube are better.
Probably beyond the scope of his/her duties, so tip accordingly.
So here is a deeper [:$] question! How come we call them sleeping cars.
Until middle age, when my income finally caught up with the lifestyle that had been intended for me, even if my employer did not see it, I rode coach when traveling by train. On the overnight trains from New York to Florida, as I remember it, most of us in coach slept.
So maybe we should refer to coaches as lite sleepers and room cars as deep sleepers!
Back in the early days of traveling by rail, there was no real comfort available for adults who had to spend a night in a railroad car. Even the early versions of cars with “sleeping accomodations” were not comfortable (I refer .to the account of “Pre-Pullman Sleeping Cars in 1860” that begins on page 89 of A Treasury of Railroad Folklore , edited by B.A. Botkin and Alvin F. Harlow(no, you may not borrow my copy, and I doubt that the other two posters who, I know, possess copies will consider lending their copies).
And this rather hard attitude is due, precisely, to what?
I can’t imagine you think this is a rare book in any respect. Even copies of the 1953 edition are only a few bucks plus shipping. Here is a link to a few, and not from the cheapest online listing source, either.
(Now, I’ll admit that packaging and mailing costs for a ‘borrowed’ copy, even at current USPS media rates, may exceed the cost for an interested reader to just buy their own and treasure it… so not much point in borrowing.)
The ACL and SAL reclining-seat coaches on the Florida trains, and the few PRR, RF&P, and FEC coaches built to match them, were comfortable enough for me to sleep when I did use them. The Southern had similar cars. The New York Central’s were similar. A cut above these cars with less dense seating and greater reclining of the seats were the PRR coaches on the General, Trailblazer, Red Arrow, and Jeffersonian. And the UP and AT&SF cars, including the El Capitan high-levels. Otherwise, the crticism is correct. At least for me. A night in a crowded P-70 was not enjoyable. nor in a prewar “American Flyer.” If the load was light and one could manage to get two double seats to face each other, put a suicase between, and stretch out, one could sleep well. Put a newspaper between one’s shoes and the seat, of course.
The classic Pullman blankets were terrific and kept one reasonably warm even if the heat - air-conditioning was off. Terrible that Amtrak doesn’t provide the equal.