Passenger Trains > Shrunken Builder

I'm on the Empire Builder heading west. Arrived in St. Paul 20 minutes early. Only 3 coaches - 2 on Portland end and 1 going to Seattle. There's a sleeper in front of the baggage car, behind the engines. It seems odd going west. I can see a bad order car heading east, but not west.

Stan

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/16 20:20 by sagehen.

sagehen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm on the Empire Builder heading west. Arrived in
> St. Paul 20 minutes early. Only 3 coaches - 2 on
> Portland end and 1 going to Seattle. There's a
> sleeper in front of the baggage car, behind the
> engines. It seems odd going west. I can see a bad
> order car heading east, but not west.
>
> Stan
>
> Posted from Android

Who says its a bad order? 

Is the "in service" sleeper hooked up on the rear of your train?  Hopefully it is.  That "all night horn" with the sleeper positioned up front on some consists is keeping some folks awake!  HOLY ongoing horn blasts at Zero Dark 35, Batman!

The Portland sleeper is on the rear of the train. Two Seattle sleepers behind the baggage up front. Only speculating about bad order trying to figure why a sleeper would be in front of baggage.

Stan

Posted from Android

My guess is that the sleeper up front of baggage is a spare car deadheading to Seattle to be on-hand for the holiday season.
Have a great trip!

When my dad and I rode the Empire Builder last month it was baggage, two Sleepers to Seattle, Diner, two coaches for Seattle, Sightseer Lounge, two Portland Coaches, one Portland Sleeper. The two coaches, in fact all four coaches weren't that busy after Minneapolis and one was almost empty after Minot but started to pick up as we went across Montana. Maybe with the shale boom gone there isn't as much intermediate passenger travel and Amtrak decided to take the second Seattle coach off.

You can fly Delta Nonstop from MSP to SEA on Friday for $329 and get there Friday, save ten by flying for $ 319 on Saturday. Instead it's $ 379 for a sleeper roomette or $186 for two nights in coach, not including money lost paying for at least three meals on the train leaving MSP on Friday night and get to SEA on Sunday morning. Minot to Seattle things go a bit more in Amtrak's favor. In Montana though it's hard to gauge as part of the ridership for the Empire Builder is being generated by Billings, Helena, Great Falls, Butte, Missoula and the places that were on the North Coast Hiawatha. Prices and times from the Montana places are actually a bit more competitive. Four and a half hours give or take by plane from the places I listed and roughly $ 350 t0 $ 400 verses $ 235 in a roomette on Amtrak from Shelby Montana to Seattle, it's just how do you get to Shelby? It's just the facts...

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/16 07:07 by tq-07fan.

When the EB and NCH co-existed, the Empire Builder always had slightly better financial and PMTM numbers. That was also when Northwest Airlines was not a bad outfit, and Greyhound ran the Chicago- Seattle route 4 times a day.

Regarding 7(26) as mentioned above, the extra sleeper on the headend is deadheading to Seattle for protect service.

The_Chief_Way Wrote:
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> Regarding 7(26) as mentioned above, the extra
> sleeper on the headend is deadheading to Seattle
> for protect service.

Thank goodness! Seattle has needed a protect for both the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder. At times it even would be deployed for the CA Zephyr if they knew the incoming #5 had a problem with one of its sleepers.

Course the Empire Builder's Portland section often needs a second sleeper!!!!!

Just wait until January. Each section of the train's coach and sleepers will be like 1-1-1-1.