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Passenger Trains > National Train Day in Los AngelesDate: 05/10/08 17:31 National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 Here are some pictures from National Train Day today and a few random thoughts:
-Very crowded! I think it was a huge success. Judging by the photos from John Thomas's blog (NARP blog), the east and west coast had huge turnouts. I don't know if Amtrak was anticipating such a large response or not, but I certainly was surprised by the massive turnout. I've never seen Union Station so crowded. From one end to the other, jam-packed with people. -Amtrak ran out of the "goody bags" fairly early on. I held off on going until a few hours after it opened, but found out that they had run out long ago. So, no "Get Your Choo Choo On" t-shirt for me! :) -The Amtrak equipment was on display on Track #12. The locomotive was Surfliner #458 (the Coachella Express unit). It looked even nicer in-person. The comments I overheard from people on the "wrap" on this locomotive were all very positive. Behind the locomotive, they had a Surfliner coach, Pacific Parlour Car #39975 (Willamette Valley), a Superliner I refurb sleeper, and a Superliner II coach with the video games on the lower level (replacing the Kiddie Car). I was surprised that the Superliner I refurbished car was not the "complete" type of refurb that I have seen previously. The restrooms were not the redesigned units with all of that extra elbow room and improved sinks. It was exactly the same as the original S-I design which I have never found very appealing. The sinks in the Deluxe Bedrooms had a new countertop material to replace the orange formica, but they still had the original-design faucets that splash all over the place when you turn them on, and you have to have hands the size of a 5 year old in order to get your hand under the flow of the water. It's too bad they didn't go all the way on the refurbishment. -The newly refurbished Parlour Cars are REALLY nice! There were no major design changes, but the seat fabric is all new as are the carpets. The downstairs theater looks identical, except that there is a very large high-definition plasma screen. I was VERY surprised to see the quality of this theater setup! They had an HD movie in the DVD player ("Ice Age"), and the picture was awesome. The sound has been drastically improved. The "thump" from the sub-woofer and the clarity of the audio was something that is just incredible for a train (and for Amtrak). It is very, very nice. There was a manager staffing the upstairs area of the PPC who was providing lots of information to guests. I forget his name, but he's the guy who is in charge of the entire menu on the west coast trains and also came up with the new menu on the Cross Country Cafe. I've got his name in my notes somewhere from the TRAC meeting last November, so I can look it up if anyone really needs to know it. Anyway, he said a couple of interesting things. Sleeping Car passengers have TWO dining options at all three meals. You can either eat in the dining car like normal, OR, you can eat in the PPC off of a completely different menu! There is no extra cost for the PPC dining menu. The food is prepared in the kitchen of the dining car, and then delivered to the kitchen area (behind the bar) of the PPC. He also said that Amtrak is considering doing an upgrade on the Southwest Chief by building the equivalent of a PPC by using the old Hi-Level diners that are currently in storage in Beech Grove. Interesting! -Drake Bell was the live performer, and I included a photo of him for all of you Drake fans. Quite honestly, he's not very good. I couldn't handle it for more than 10 minutes---I had to walk out. Maybe it was the acoustics, but I sure hope he sounds better on whatever TV show he is on. Although the tweens and teeny-boppers seemed to be enjoying the show, and I guess that's what counts. -The Surfliner coach that was on display was a newly refurbished car, as the interior/exterior were very nice and clean. I was shocked at how CLEAN the windows were! it was easy to compare before and after refurbishment because there was a non-refurb Surfliner sitting on the adjacent track. Those windows on those trains are just awful----how did that ever happen? Here are a few random shots from today, and they are all self-explanatory:    Date: 05/10/08 17:32 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 More:
   Date: 05/10/08 17:33 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 The last picture is "him". LOL!
  Date: 05/10/08 17:42 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 I forgot to mention one neat thing. Inside Union Station in the old location where the "DigEPlayer" booth used to be, Amtrak had set up a souvenir shop of Coast Starlight merchandise. This was the old classic stuff that hasn't been for sale in years. They must have dug pretty deep in a warehouse somewhere to find the old cartons of this stuff. It goes back to the "Superior Service" days, and they were selling t-shirts, sweat shirts, old Coast Starlight menus, key chains, Christmas ornaments, etc....And the prices were great---5 bucks for a t-shirt, 8 bucks for a sweatshirt. A few TO'ers gobbled up the merchandise (some of us more than others.....hah!). We were told that they will have all new merchandise with an updated logo for the relaunched train next month (and June 10th is still the relaunch date for the Starlight).
Date: 05/10/08 17:49 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: retcsxcfm Photo 4,shades of the 70's-purple?
Uncle Joe Date: 05/10/08 17:56 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 Well, they just stuck with the fabric that they already had, which was chosen over 10 years ago when the PPC's were first launched with the new interior. Amtrak didn't have an unlimited budget on the refurbishment, so they stuck with what was already in-stock. I should note that each car received half a million dollars worth of refurbishment (total of 2.5 million for all 5 cars), and a lot of the work was done in mechanical areas that we don't see. The two a/c units were replaced/updated on these cars, so this summer if it's too hot in those cars, we shouldn't hear the excuse any more of, "Well, you know, these cars are really old......".
Date: 05/10/08 18:04 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: cutboy2 Hope Chicago did well. We had a good day at Cincinnati. Got some converts. Train sold out tonight #50!! Early May. What will the summer bring??
Date: 05/10/08 18:07 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: coaststarlight99 Nice pics Andy & nice seeing you today.
Great shots of "him". LOL Date: 05/10/08 18:11 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 Good seeing you too buddy. Hey, did you see that guy buying all of that Coast Starlight stuff? :)
Date: 05/10/08 19:25 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: NI030 smitty195 Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > -Drake Bell was the live performer, and I included > a photo of him for all of you Drake fans. Quite > honestly, he's not very good. What was he doing? Singing? He is not really a singer if he was. He is an actor. Date: 05/10/08 19:28 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: smitty195 Yup--singing. I think Simon Cowell would have said, "That was absolutely hideous. It was all very karaoke". :)
Date: 05/10/08 19:53 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: pacificparlour Thanks for sharing, Andy! I've added a link from the blog.
Regarding the PPC dining option, the cars are newly equipped with combi ovens (as well as steam tables in the middle serving area), so there is some capacity for food preparation within the cars. Date: 05/10/08 20:04 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: caseyjones Attaching a series of photos which I took at Los Angeles Union Station today. First three photos of Pacific Parlour Car.
   Date: 05/10/08 20:07 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: caseyjones Three more photos from National Train Day at Los Angeles Union Station. All are taken from the interior of the Pacific Parlour Car.
   Date: 05/10/08 20:09 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: caseyjones More photos from National Train Day at Los Angeles Union Station. Demonstration consist plus Coachella Express locomotive.
   Date: 05/10/08 20:11 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: caseyjones The venerable Union Station entrance. Still looks as good as she ever did in any movie scene.
 Date: 05/10/08 20:12 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: daniel3197 VERY POOR planning to leave out the major San Jose, California area with NO evants at all today 5-10-08.
I believe that San Jose is the LARGEST city in the entire Bay Area (SF Bay Area). I wanted very badly to attend an event without traveling all the way to Emeryville. San Jose would have been so much more convienent. My congratulations to the folks in Los Angeles for putting on such a fine event. I only wish that I could have easily attended this wonderful day. --- Daniel Date: 05/10/08 20:35 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: ats90mph Aww Smitty I was there pretty late too, too bad I couldn't have run into you. Yes I was very impressed with everything.
Date: 05/10/08 20:50 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: RailThunder Looks like several cities had some nice events. Hopefully next year Kansas City will have something similiar. Kansas City is the 2nd busiest rail hub in the country and it would probably be a big hit.
Date: 05/10/08 21:10 Re: National Train Day in Los Angeles Author: Jaanfo Hey Smitty, notice two major differences about that Surfliner car from pre-refurb Business Class cars? FYI, the Surfliner Car and the Parlour have not yet seen revenue service. As of five days ago the Surfliner car didn't even have seats in it.
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