Passenger Trains > helping a friend.....info needed

So, my friend John is writing a novel, set in 1992.  The protagonist, a young author/nurse/MMA fighter (!!!), takes a trip by train from Boston to LA.  449 to Chicago, and 3 to LA.  Travels in sleeping car.
My problem, as a long time train rider, is that I can't recall what the level of dining service was in '92.  I think it was Mr Reagan who mandated the paper plate era, hopefully corrected by Mr Bush.
Meal service on 449 would  be cold plate, sereved from the lounge?  I think it would be just lunch, with dinner aboard 49 after Albany.
The sleeper........conventional or Viewliner?
I haven't located a 1992 system TT, but guess the departure from Boston would be around noon, and that departure from Albany is in time for dinner in the diner.
Thanks in advance for any replies, 

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

See www.timetables.org. Specifically: http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19921025&item=0050
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 15:40 by SAAP.

Still would have been a 10&6 Heritage sleeper, or a slumbercoach.

Posted from Android

I rode 449 from Springfield, MA to Chicago and back on 448 in November 1992. As noted, the train only had an Amlounge for food service east of Rensselaer, although on the trip home we were down six hours and so a real - albeit TV-dinner-style - dinner meal was brought on board for at least the sleeping-car passengers. Slumbercoach passengers had access to the food but they had to pay for it, because meals weren't included in the Slumbercoach fare. Heritage sleepers were definitely still in widespread use at the time - while the Viewliner prototypes had been delivered IIRC, the production order was not made until later. West of Albany, the lounge car was right ahead of the diner, and that's where the break was between the New York and Boston sections of the train.

Although it would get one later, the LSL did -not- have a dome at this time. I'd remember riding it if it had.

The westbound train ran on a somewhat later schedule at the time than it does now, while the eastbound ran a fair bit earlier since it wasn't the mop-up train out of Chicago. If I recall correclty we got to Cleveland around 0700 and Toledo around 0900 on the westbound run, and we were pretty much on-time. Later on during that decade, the Toledo stop got to being as late as 11:30 in the morning; at the time, Amtrak was same-day-turning the eqiupment at New York and would not guarantee Chicago connections to Nos. 3, 5, or 7 off No. 49/449. If a given day's #48 was tardy enough, its equipment would be turned and serviced at Albany to avoid a major delay for the westbound train, with passengers handled between Albany and New York Penn in both directions on a make-up train of Turboliner equipment. No. 49 was scheduled out of New York late enough that dinner wasn't served, so the absence of a dining car in the Turboliner sets didn't matter, but dinner -was- served on No. 48, which presumably is no longer the case.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 18:32 by toledopatch.

Did MMA even exist in 1992?

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Although it would get one later, the LSL did -not-
> have a dome at this time. I'd remember riding it
> if it had.
>
That's the first I've ever read about the Lake Shore Limited having a dome.  I checked www.timetables.org and, sure enough, the timetable issued May 1, 1994 shows a dome car in service between Chicago and Albany.

Rmosele Wrote:
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> Did MMA even exist in 1992?

Good call.  The term MMA was coined in '93, but the first organized "league" was formed in 1980.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Full service diner was added or removed in Albany-Rensselaer.  Boston to Albany and return was an Amlounge II that used a convection oven for meal service in teh then dinette area of the car. A 10-6 and or a Slumbercoach were also to/from Boston along with the AmII coaches.
The dome was added or removed in the same location, for a short period.

tmurray Wrote:
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> Full service diner was added or removed in
> Albany-Rensselaer.  Boston to Albany and return
> was an Amlounge II that used a convection oven for
> meal service in teh then dinette area of the car.
> A 10-6 and or a Slumbercoach were also to/from
> Boston along with the AmII coaches.
> The dome was added or removed in the same
> location, for a short period.

The diner didn't go through to Sunnyside?
 

https://history.amtrak.com/
https://history.amtrak.com/archives/@@archives?q=menu
https://history.amtrak.com/archives/@@archives?q=train_name:%27Southwest%20Chief%27&mode=browse 
https://history.amtrak.com/archives/@@archives?q=train_name:%27Lake%20Shore%20Limited%27&pagenumber=1&pagesize=10
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 18:17 by Lurch_in_ABQ.

My thanks to all who participated, it appears our protagonist will have a comfortable journey west.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA