Nostalgia & History > Vestibuling

I am going to out on a limb and say that some members will not know what I am talking about. The photos should help. There are probably more members who have never experienced the privilege or excitement of miles on miles of vestibuling with the top of the Dutch door open(and locked). In my opinion there are only three places to ride a passenger train. In order; 1) vestibule 2) front row of a Budd dome 3) diner. Nothing beats the vestibule whether it is through the cool crisp rocky mountain air with the scent of pine trees listening to EMD 567's pulling hard and echoing off the canyon walls, or through the Iowa corn fields on a hot summers night with smell of humidity, corn, creosote and the exhaust of a pair of E units (4 567's) making up time. Nothing gave you the feel of passenger train like the sounds, smells and ride in a vestibule with the top of the Dutch door open the outside air and sounds of a train doing its business. A vestibule rode differently than the rest of the car. There was a rhythm of the rail joints, the sound of wheels and trucks and the smell. Oh the smells. At about 85 mph a vestibule developed a graceful ballet of motion both vertical and horizontal as it seemed to float in air instead of ride on steel. Then there was the rush of blasting air, headlights reflecting in the Dutch door glass and then the deafening sound of train as you meet an oncoming train at speed on a double main. Nope...... there was no place on earth like the vestibule of passenger train. I sure miss them. I will be posting lots of vestibule pictures going forward. Watch for my threads labeled "vestibuling" with a train name. Here is a sample. Try to image the sounds, the smells and feel.

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great memories. keep them coming!

Here's mine from the past couple years... it's been fun and expensive.

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Double Header

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A ride on the D&S

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Domes up the Pacific Coast

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Check out the thread below for a photo of 844 and 4449. I think it is the same curve, same day, same train, same time, but from a few cars back. Last post.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2016249

You are so right. In the days just before Amtrak, standing in the vestibule taking photos was never really forbidden, even though the signs said it was. I stood in many a vestibule and the crewmen just walked by. Seems like most of my trip on the CZ in 1969 was spent there. And even on my 1977 trip on the Canadian, it was okay.

Boy, not today. Of course, on today's Superliners, when you open the window on the door, it opens to the carbody, and any trainman or car attendant can hear you. However, when my wife and I rode the VIA Canadian in 2003, we had to be quick about it, as train personnel did not want you there.

But I've spent many wonderful hours standing in the vestibule, leaning on the Dutch door, just taking it all in.

Back when I was 17, it was a very good year. I graduated from high school, I started college, and I rode from New Orleans to Redding on the IC Panama Limited, CB&Q-D&RGW-WP California Zephyr and SP Cascade. That wonderful ride on the CZ in August 1969 was the one train trip from which all others have been measured. It has only been equaled on the 2003 trip on the Canadian. Here's a vestibule shot from 1969 at a very familiar location in the Feather River Canyon.

Note: this photo has been posted here on TO before, and was part of a lively debate on just why that GN car was in the consist. Turns out it was acting as a crew dorm, as the normal Cable Car dome coffee shop dormitory was replaced by a Burlington dome coffee shop.

Lee Hower
Sacramento



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/21 11:11 by mcfflyer.

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For some reason the CZ and DZ crews were always tolerant of Vestibuling. When I was a kid my mother and I used to travel from Colorado Springs to Toronto every summer on the Rock Island, then the CB&Q out of Denver. Usually the DZ to Chicago but sometimes the CZ. Funny, thing is the Conductors used to love vestibuling on these trains too. I would often head to the Vestibule only to find the conductor doing the same thing, just hanging out in the vestibule with both Dutch doors open and taking it all in. I would spend most of the trip in the Vestibule of our sleeper up to the point where my legs would not take it anymore. Then it was into the first row of the dome or trips to the diner. Amtrak pretty well ended the Vestibuling and it died altogether with Superliners.

COFLZephyr - I couldn't agree with you more on the virtues of vestibuling. Here are a couple of shots from my teenage years - apologies for the poor condition of the slides. These were taken before Amtrak began discouraging the practice.

1) Departing Providence RI for Boston in 1974

2) High above Donner Lake on the San Francisco Zephyr in 1976

Dave

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You meet the neatest folks in a vestibule - GrandLuxe Express trip on BNSF rails August 12, 2008 approaching Cascade Tunnel. Michele had as much fun as the passengers.


Thanks COFLZephyr for sharing all your images and tales.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/09 05:58 by cozephyr.

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I wasn't a photographer, but I used to enjoy vestibuling to see things like block signals, etc. Until I found out about that spray that would occasionally hit me in the face...

My then-10 year old son, James, is vestibuling on a 1983 N&W 611 trip.

This young gent has been, in the years since, a CNW/UP trainman, CSX locomotive engineer, and is currently a CP dispatcher, working the D&H South desk on second trick.

Art House



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/09 07:35 by aehouse.

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We're on a Chessie Safety Express special westbound on the B&O at Orleans Road, W.V., in the early 1980s, headed for Cumberland, Maryland.

Art House

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I gotta million of these!

Ed

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Very nice photos ... 500,000 will be
enough.

Neat Stuff!
Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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Alaska RR in 2007 on the way from Anchorage to Whittier.

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The last time I tried to open the window on Amtrak was about 25 years ago on a trip to Reno. One of the passengers apparently told the Conductor that my friend and I were trying to smoke pot on the train. He threatened to call in the police and the "drug sniffing dogs" when we got to Reno. We told him to go ahead because they wouldn't find anything. We never admitted we just wanted to hang our heads out the window like a couple of dogs.

I don't bother trying to open those windows anymore.

BigE Wrote:
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> The last time I tried to open the window on Amtrak
> was about 25 years ago on a trip to Reno. One of
> the passengers apparently told the Conductor that
> my friend and I were trying to smoke pot on the
> train. He threatened to call in the police and the
> "drug sniffing dogs" when we got to Reno. We told
> him to go ahead because they wouldn't find
> anything. We never admitted we just wanted to
> hang our heads out the window like a couple of
> dogs.
>

Oh, this really triggered a memory! Back when Amtrak first started, the Coast Starlight was known as a college student train, as it hit (or came close to) so many college campuses. Since many students had spent time in Europe in the 60s and early 1970s, taking the train was a popular way for them to travel. In coach, of course. It was no secret in riding the southbound Starlight into the Cascades that you might find young couples standing in the vestibules. Let's see. It was dark. It might be raining. Air smelled a little funny. I wonder what they were doing. Somehow, now, it all seemed so quaint and innocent. Probably UofO students.

Lee Hower