Western Railroad Discussion > layover horror stories

My trip with a AT&SF freight crew in 1976 included a stay at the layover point in Las Vegas, NM., the El Fidel. It was a real dive. The week before a person came in off the street and went wild in the lobby, trying to beat up a conductor sitting there reading.
I hear the layover points aren't any better: hotels with paper-thin walls, jet engine vacuum cleaners and unofficial shouting conests in the halls. And then there are the high school and college sports teams.
Any layover horror stories to share?

We used to stay in the Travelodge in Portland on Burnside. There was a topless bar across the street. The walls were thin and the hookers would knock on your door and ask "Hey honey, you wanna trick?" I used to tell them "Yes, make yourself disappear!!!" The oldheads were heartbroken when we had to move to Vancouver. I once saw the hotel in an epsidode of "Cops".

A hotel in an episode of COPS??? Wow!!!!!!!!!


LOL--------------



bnsf100

Too many to list, everything from being propositioned from prostitutes, to not having a room for hours after arriving. I had 7 away terminals I would stay over at, and only one had a hotel I would stay at if I were travelling on my own. That was a big part of my decision to leave class one, for the shortline world. I just wasnt willing to sleep in these nasty places.
TR
El Centro CA

BNSFhogger wrote:

> We used to stay in the Travelodge in Portland on Burnside.
>

Oh my god....I was going to tell my story about this very same motel. Worked the Balmer Brakeman's Board 1989-1990 and often worked the Chain Gang South. The worst was catching a "Kalama Flip" with a grain train out of Portland, up to Kalama and back with empties, then to the bottom of the list again in Portland. My record was 3 flips before going home, away for 6 days. I had heard of 5 flips in one trip!

Anyways, I caught a call out of Seattle late on July 3rd, 1989, arriving July 4th around noon. I went to sleep at the Travelodge in the afternoon, but awoke sometime after dark to the sound of what I thought was gunfire. Knowing the reputation of the motel and the locals who hung out there, I figured it was some gang fight or pimp shootout in the hallway outside my room! Plus I was exhausted and half asleep. So I pulled the pillow tighter over my head and hoped I wouldn't get shot through the thin walls as I went back to sleep. The phone finally rang around 2am with a call back to Seattle, and when I met the conductor and hogger down in the lobby they were talking about the great fireworks show earlier that evening over the river in downtown Portland!

SW1200

I'm not a railroader but back in the good old days when you didn't have to worry so much about murder, etc. I was 16 and traveling by myself on a week long April 1971 pre- Amtrak trip. San Diego-LA-La Junta-Denver-Cheyenne-SLC-LA- San Diego. I was riding coach and finally got one nights sleep (only one off the trains!) (or at least 5 hours) at the old Oxford hotel near the Denver station. I had gotten in very late on the Santa Fe's la Junta-Denver train and had to get up very early to catch the UP to Cheyenne. Anyway I awoke with a start(to say the least) in my hotel room with some old bum screaming at me to wake up! He then left the room and I can only surmise he was the wake-up call! The Oxford now is some fancy hotel and I wouldn't let my 16 year old take the same trip alone!!

...Linden, NJ. Nasty in-room hottubs and the usual by-the-hour/dopeheads crowd. The union finally got the NS to move us after a conductor was roughed up and robbed in his room. The Secaucus Red Roof Inn with its knife-slit curtains was quite an improvement(and offered a nice view of Jimmy Hoffa's burial grounds).

Most were happy with the move, but yes, a few of the oldheads were cryin' and moanin'(including the biggest perv on the RR.)

When I was a kid, I'd travel with my grandfather back and forth to San Luis Obispo. His turn started on Monday and went like this: 91/98, 75/90 and 99/76. We'd stay at The Hotel Park, a three story wood frame building across from the station. The rooms had sinks, but had a central bathroom down the hall on each floor. Grampa always got me my own room, and at the time I think they were $1.50. It really wasn't that bad but the walls were paper thin and I'd always get a room next to some old brakie that spent his whole rest hacking his lungs out. The best part though was the great greasy spoon downstairs. The best food I've ever had. The building is still there, but no longer a hotel, and of course the two ladies that ran it and the restaurant are long gone. Not exactly a horror story, but some great memories anyway.

Well, I guess that we can also include stays that would otherwise qualify for the eastern board.

One of my most notable was at the Martinique in South Philly. Yes, all the requisite paper thin walls, 80dB hall conversations and drug-dealing in the lobby.
But for added ambiance, the motel included tinted windows - actually panes of plexiglass, tastefully browned with tobacco residue, to the point of near opaqueness. No need for curtains there. The no-nap carpeting, who knows what color it was originally supposed to be, with the artistic cigarette burn pattern marking the higher traffic areas. Very popular with the bugs and other city-critters.

And, I'll never figure out the purpose of the ubiquitous guy in the hall with a push-style sweeper that picked up nothing, just redistributed the filth, as he alternated banging into the walls on BOTH sides of the hallway.

The dining included either one busted vending machine in the lobby, or the ramshackle chinese place across the street - the only building left in the block after all others had been boarded up or razed to enhance the "open air" feel of the neighborhood.

Ahhh, the romance of the road.

All layovers are bad, some are just worse than others! My worst was the time the rails "from the other direction", were drunk. All kinds of yelling, rough housing, door pounding, and eventually windows breaking. However, the good news was it stopped the noise of the prostitute in the next room!

Paper thin walls reminds me of the hotel in Sumas, WA. Sumas used to be a thriving border town until 911 and the exchange rate rendered it a virtual ghost town. The BN put us up at the
B& B. One Friday night, after working at twelve hour shift) I awoke to a couple making mad passionated love down the hall from me. It sounded like they were in the same room as I was. I couldn't even pound on the walls to get them to quiet down since they were not in the room next to me. I had to wait until the "climax" and then things got quiet again.

Anybody ever stay at "Ernies" boarding house in K-Falls? I have only been there once, but I'll never forget it!


Butch

Not a layover story, but we went to a bowling tournament in Topeks, KS. several years ago and basketball teams were staying there also. They were up all night partying and making noise. We complained to manager next morning and we did not have to pay for staying there.