Passenger Trains > 12-car train 98(24) Silver Meteor Wednesday

Levittown, PA
bag, four sleepers, diner, cafe, five coaches

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Nice

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

nice.  is that the usual consist or a larger holiday consist?

66

goneon66 Wrote:
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> nice.  is that the usual consist or a larger
> holiday consist?
>
> 66

And what's the max consist, and which station is sets the size limit?

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. The 4th sleeper should have been the Star's 3rd sleeper, but Boardman's bean counters are playing games. 

goneon66 Wrote:
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> nice.  is that the usual consist or a larger
> holiday consist?
>
> 66

It has an extra sleeper and an extra coach.

Neat, thanks for posting!

Andy

Those Viewliner consists would look sharp were it not for the clashing Phase III on the baggage car.  It's gonna look really horrible with the new sleepers and diners in Phase III mixed in with the Phase IV equipment.

Customer does not care what the color the window band is.

hsr_fan Wrote:
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> Those Viewliner consists would look sharp were it
> not for the clashing Phase III on the baggage
> car.  It's gonna look really horrible with the
> new sleepers and diners in Phase III mixed in with
> the Phase IV equipment.

Phase IV would look good on those Turboliners in Bear,De

Almost like the old days . . . 16+ car Florida trains.

atsf121 Wrote:
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> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > nice.  is that the usual consist or a larger
> > holiday consist?
> >
> > 66
>
> And what's the max consist, and which station is
> sets the size limit?
>
> Nathan

12 cars is a reasonable limit given the platforms at Trenton and Wilmington.

Technically, Amtrak calls for 14 cars as a standard maximum for long distance.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. The 4th sleeper should
> have been the Star's 3rd sleeper, but Boardman's
> bean counters are playing games. 

The extra sleeper should go where the demand and revenue is. That is on the Meteor, due to it being used by travelers going longer distances and its superior schedule.

Posted from iPhone

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Almost like the old days . . . 16+ car Florida
> trains.

Those trains were longer mainly due to more non-revenue cars 2-3 bag and mail cars, 2 diners, 2 lounges. The old coaches also had fewer seats and the sleepers had fewer berths. There is no need to pine away for hauling around all that weight.

Posted from iPhone

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
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>
> Phase IV would look good on those Turboliners in
> Bear,De

If Joe Boardman wanted to do the retro thing, he could have brought back the Turboliners in their original Phase III colors while leaving the stainless steel consists in a nice looking uniform Phase IVb!

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. The 4th sleeper
> should
> > have been the Star's 3rd sleeper, but
> Boardman's
> > bean counters are playing games. 
>
> The extra sleeper should go where the demand and
> revenue is. That is on the Meteor, due to it
> being used by travelers going longer distances and
> its superior schedule.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Exactly - and hopefully this is what the Meteor will look like on a regular basis when the new sleepers come online.

Frankly, not sure if the Star could handle another sleeper or coach right now due to single engine running and "just the cafe" for food.

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CPR_4000 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Almost like the old days . . . 16+ car Florida
> > trains.
>
> Those trains were longer mainly due to more
> non-revenue cars 2-3 bag and mail cars, 2 diners,
> 2 lounges. The old coaches also had fewer seats
> and the sleepers had fewer berths. There is no
> need to pine away for hauling around all that
> weight.
>
> Posted from iPhone

I thought Amtrak would covert the baggage and mail cars into day-niter coaches or just leave as is - well maybe add some bunks or a bench - load with passengers, and Mica can then validate his Soviet Style Railroad comment for Amtrak......

It was interesting to hear Boardman on C-SPAN say the "profits" from the NEC go to offset the losses on the LD routes (forget exact wording, but in essence that was it). NO THE PROFITS or any surplus "above the rail" really offset the HUGE capital costs involved in operating an electric high speed rail corridor (aka the NEC).

There was another intersting comment on C-SPAN. He said Amtrak is covering 93% of its costs. These are the operating costs (or the 300K that Amtrak gets). The other $1M+ goes to capital costs and we never hear in detail what these capital costs largely go towards. Yes, it goes to maintain LD equipment, but you got a VERY expensive piece of electric high speed railroad to maintain on the NEC.   

< The extra sleeper should go where the demand and revenue is. That is on the Meteor, due to it being used by travelers going longer distances and its superior schedule. >

I don't think passengers along the S-Line south of Raleigh and in Tampa regard their route as "inferior", and it takes longer to get to Florida. Until they took the diner off, the only difference in consist was the 3rd sleeper on the Meteor.

The extra sleeper went to the Meteor instead of the Star because the diner experiment has failed, sleeper demand on the Star has softened, the 4th coach has come off, and is now only for Holiday surges, and the 1 attendant in the food service car cannot handle surge traffic. No one under Boardman's command comprehends incremental accounting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/15 04:52 by joemvcnj.

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> abyler Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > CPR_4000 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Almost like the old days . . . 16+ car
> Florida
> > > trains.
> >
> > Those trains were longer mainly due to more
> > non-revenue cars 2-3 bag and mail cars, 2
> diners,
> > 2 lounges. The old coaches also had fewer seats
> > and the sleepers had fewer berths. There is no
> > need to pine away for hauling around all that
> > weight.
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> I thought Amtrak would covert the baggage and mail
> cars into day-niter coaches or just leave as is -
> well maybe add some bunks or a bench - load with
> passengers, and Mica can then validate his Soviet
> Style Railroad comment for Amtrak......
>
> It was interesting to hear Boardman on C-SPAN say
> the "profits" from the NEC go to offset the losses
> on the LD routes (forget exact wording, but in
> essence that was it). NO THE PROFITS or any
> surplus "above the rail" really offset the HUGE
> capital costs involved in operating an electric
> high speed rail corridor (aka the NEC).
>
> There was another intersting comment on
> C-SPAN. He said Amtrak is covering 93% of its
> costs. These are the operating costs (or the 300K
> that Amtrak gets). The other $1M+ goes to capital
> costs and we never hear in detail what these
> capital costs largely go towards. Yes, it goes to
> maintain LD equipment, but you got a
> VERY expensive piece of electric high speed
> railroad to maintain on the NEC.   

That's one problem with the double speak Amtrak and many other government agencies and enterprises regularly use.  You never know exactly what's in the  "profit" they claim.  We know it's a very highly specialized, extremely narrow result. Which causes people to say Amtrak should spend these "profits"

Not a lot different than saying "there's almost no inflation" after removing food prices, gasoline and heating oil prices etc from the mix you're counting. If you have to buy medicines or see a doctor, you know there's inflation.

I don't pine for the weight, I pine for the service on trains of yesteryear..

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CPR_4000 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Almost like the old days . . . 16+ car Florida
> > trains.
>
> Those trains were longer mainly due to more
> non-revenue cars 2-3 bag and mail cars, 2 diners,
> 2 lounges. The old coaches also had fewer seats
> and the sleepers had fewer berths. There is no
> need to pine away for hauling around all that
> weight.
>
> Posted from iPhone