I am looking at adding 1980s Amtrak commuter service to a fictional city service west of Chicago [H0]. This is “long” distance commute as in outside of bi-level range.
Questions arising are…
would an all coach (52 seats) consist be okay?
If so, where did the conductor ride?
Did lounge cars carry a premium fare?
What sort of ratio of lounge to coach?
What happened to combines?
I imagine that as parcels and similar traffic vanished from rail to roads the main reason for combines vanished with them… so what happened to them… and where did the conductor get to ride when (/if) they went from consists.
On long distance trains outside the Northeast US, Amtrak uses cars called the Superliners. These are the two level cars and yes there is a Combine (now called a Coach-Baggage). The term “Baggage” is exactly why they have them on the trains, Amtrak does accept checked baggage for your trip.
Shown here, note the two doors between the trucks on the lower level. The small one with the window is the passenger door, the larger one with no window is the baggage door. The entire second level of the car is the regular passenger compartment or “Coach” section.
The crew has a section of the first Sleeping Car, usually a Transition Sleeper. Each Sleeping Car has an Attendant with a room on that particular car:
In the original question, do you mean this is commuter service serving a fictional city west of Chicago somewhere, or that this is a commuter service connecting Chicago with a fictional city to it’s west?? Also not sure what you mean about being too far for bilevels?? CNW used converted bilevel commuter cars on trains going from Chicago all the way to northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan !!
Generally though, all coach commuter trains would be fine. There usually would be little or no luggage - maybe a carry-on or two for someone going to the ‘big city’ for a few days or to connect with a mainline train - but generally just commuters with a bookbag or briefcase.
p.s. Some railroads used an old combine or parlor car in the train as a ‘smoker’.
Dave,
Combines tended to be used on trains that required some accomodation for baggage or mail, but not enough to devote adding a complete baggage car or RPO. Most such trains had already disappeared before Amtrak and the rest went away at its startup in 1971.
It’s possible that a few combines may have been among the Heritage cars that Amtrak inherited from the railroads leaving the passenger business, but if so these likely also quickly disappeared from Amtrak roster. I know the Rio Grande’s Zephyr, which continued running between Denver and Salt Lake City/Provo since the Rio Grande did not join Amtrak, used combines until it ended in 1983.
Thus, a 1980s Amtrak train is very unlikely to have a combine. But it’s your railroad.
[;)]
As pointed out in the original post, Amtrak does have coach-baggage cars with the coach seats on the upper level and a baggage compartment plus restrooms below. A traditional combine with coach seats on one end and a baggage compartment on the other would be unlikely, at least in the 1980s and later. With the exception of a traditional baggage car, Amtrak uses the double decked cars almost exclusively west of Chicago. Single level cars are used on some trains east of Chicago and I’m guessing that is dictated by lower clearances on some eastern routes. The Capitol Limited which runs between Chicago and Washington has double decked cars but the Lake Shore Limited which runs to New York is all single level cars, probably dictated by having to run underground in NYC.
An all coach car would be plausible assuming the train could reach it’s destination without traveling overnight. A morning departure from Chicago could reach Omaha, Kansas City or the Twin Cities in a day trip. Much farther west, and you would need sleeper service on your train.
The train I took west from Chicago to Emeryville, CA last month, consisted of a front end baggage car, followed by double decked sleepers, the diner, the lounge car and 3 coaches. The coaches had slightly different configurations below. One contained a baggage compartment while two others had lower level seating that was used for passengers with physical difficulties and their traveling companions.
AMTRAK was enabled and chartered to provide intercity passenger service and their charter still restricts them to that function. Just as the Class 1s are prohibited from engaging in intercity operations AMTRAK is prohibited from conducting commuter operations. I have no idea just exactly how far out commuter operations extend from downtown Chicago but I understand that you have to go a considerable distance out into the Illinois countryside before you can catch AMTRAK into Chicago.
I had a little experience with this in 1977 when the Air Force assigned me to Lajes Field, the Azores and I elected to travel cross-country to New Jersey via a railpass - I came into Chicago from Kalamazoo, Michigan and was going to stay overnight with friends in Aurora, Illinois; as a through passenger I could have booked passage on AMTRAK through to Aurora (had AMTRAK’s timetable allowed it which it didn’t) so I traveled as a commuter out to Aurora - I think my fare was a buck and a nickle. One could not purchase an AMTRAK ticket from Chicago to Aurora, that was commuter territory, so I went out on a BN bilevel. The following day my friend opted to convey me into Chicago to catch my train to Trenton, New Jersey; I could have activated my pass to transit Chicago but I could not book passage from Aurora to terminate in Chicago. The instructions accompanying my railpass very specifically stated that were I to get caught doing that - using AMTRAK as a commuter railroad - my railpass would be cancelled.
I just rode the California Zephyr last month out of Chicago and the first stop was at Naperville, just 28 miles down the line. Amtrak shares the station there with the METRA.
The Empire Builder makes its first stop at Glenview, just 18 miles from Union Station and the City of New Orleans makes its first stop at Homewood, 25 miles away. Again these are both also stations served by the METRA.
WOW! … and I thought that our (UK) [passenger] TOU (Train Operating Units… (privatised passenger services - currently receiving more taxpayers money p.a. than the whole of BR ever did… 10 years after privatisation —) were complicated. [um… so was that sentence…].
I’ll have to take another look at this.
I didn’t realise that Amtrak were shut out of short-haul commute service.
As for location…
Yes, a (fictional) city W of Chicago. I haven’t decided on whether it is an alternate Chicago or a whole seperate city.
I guess that a seperate city can have a commute service to Chicago… and other cities? … Run by Amtrak? Also, maybe, its own equivalent of Metra? I’ve noticed some single level cab cars in Walthers’ catalogue…
I have Concor Superliners that I have always planned to run as a diverted service… diverted by flood or derailment. I have Spectrum F40PHs to head these. Sadly the Athearn Genesis locos seem to be too late for the 80s.
I also have Amtrak / Concor and Walthers Material Handling Cars (total 10 / seperate numbers) that I would run behind the Athearn CF7s.
Almost everything is phase 3. Nothing is phase 4 or later. some is earlier.
Would the MTH cars have had a passenger car or RPO for a conductor or any other crew to ride in?
Dave: on VIA, and I suspect Amtrack, conductors usually commandeered a set of seats - 2 banks facing with a table - to use as an office. At each stop they get down to help passengers detrain and entrain – and try to guide passengers with the same destination to the same car (helps with unloading). Btween stops they walk the train collecting/cancelling tickets. Except in the larger cities and the intense commuter lines, there are no barriers to the platforms and anyone can get to them.
In Canada, the conductor had one or more “Trainmen” - appentice conductors - to help him. I suspect they did the nastier jobs when required.