Nostalgia & History > Question about slumbercoaches in early 1970s...

I rode in one MILW-SEA on the Empire Builder #7, summer 1972...Did I have a toilet in my slumbercoach room? Weird question, I know...I don't remember name of car off the top of my head...would have to work on finding it...TIA...Steve (I wish now I had ridden #9, Amtrak's tri-weekly version of NP's North Coast Limited- if it was still running in 1972- my Amtrak TT is from July 12. 1971.)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/14 22:57 by the_expediter.

Every room in a Slumbercoach had a toilet and sink. Like the ones that the NYC had rebuilt that had four rooms the size of a roomette.

No wonder it smelled like caca!- Ha ha...Thanks ..I remember sitting in the Great Dome having a 7-7 watching the scenery of Glacier Pk. area. I was 17 but looked like 12...I asked bartender how old you had to be to drink and he said I had to have a license (whatever that meant!)...Diff. Times to be sure...Here we are on #7 meeting #8 at Bowdoin, MT.-Steve



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/14 22:58 by the_expediter.

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Thanks for sharing. Perhaps you had too many 7-7s so couldn't remember if there was a toilet in your room? <G>

Smaller than roomettes but I enjoyed riding in Silver Repose on the Denver Zephyr- and, later, on the Empire Builder, in Loch Sloy...(actually built for the North Coast Limited).

Jeff Geldner
Yosemite National Park, CA

My first long distance Amtrak trip was via Slumbercoach, Chicago to Oakland, in May 1973. It was a great trip, even if the coach ahead of us had an electrical fire and we had to stop in Crete, Nebraska, where the local volunteer firefighters quickly had things under control. We had to wait around awhile until the car could be set out, but fortunately it was a pleasant night (it was about 2 AM if I recall) and there was kind of a party atmosphere among us passengers who had to evacuate as a precaution. The woman traveling in the room across from me broke out her travel flask of Old Crow, and several of us had an impromptu nightcap.

Some twenty years later I took a Slumbercoach from Chicago to Philadelphia on the Broadway. I don't think the Slumbercoaches lasted long after that on Amtrak.

the_expediter Wrote:
> I was 17 but looked like 12...I asked bartender how old you had to be to drink
> and he said I had to have a license (whatever that meant!)

The legal drinking age in Montana in 1970 was 18. You were probably close enough for the bartender.