Passenger Trains > No Sightseer Lounge nor Diner Lite on Southwest Chief #3 9/21

Just watched Chief stop at LaPlata, MO, tonight and it had transition sleeper and two regular sleepers, regular dining car, and two coaches but no Sightseer Lounge or the usual substituon Diner Lite.  Wonder where coach passengers are support to get food and snacks from?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/21 19:13 by TennesseeTraveler.

On number 8 from Seattle to Spokane, which has a diner but no lounge, they set up a little store at the first table of the diner.

There, coach passengers can order food to-go from the diner.

Perhaps they’re doing something similar on the number 3 you saw.

Posted from iPhone

They have to be

So it is just like Mc Donald's.  Eating in is closed.  Mc donald's says this is for safety of customers so they can order only burgers, fries etc.  Anything healthy resembling health is off the menu.  I wonder what is offered to coach passengers from the diner.  If I were on that train I would be extremely p--------.   Their ads are about seeing the west. 

Bob

TennesseeTraveler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just watched Chief stop at LaPlata, MO, tonight
> and it had transition sleeper and two regular
> sleepers, regular dining car, and two coaches but
> no Sightseer Lounge or the usual substituon Diner
> Lite.  Wonder where coach passengers are support
> to get food and snacks from?

Well it sounds like the lounge car was bad ordered and there wasn't a replacement handy.
I'm sure the train crew figured out something to feed the coach passengers.

I'm not sure I understand the term "bad ordered" since this equipment arrived from Los Angeles the day before and is simply turned in Chicago so there was a sightseer lounge on the arriving #4 Monday and the lounge was not on the turned equipment on #3 Tuesday.  So what makes the missing sightseer lounge bad ordered?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/21 11:25 by TennesseeTraveler.

Ok so it broke and couldn't make its way back to LA fair enough.  There's really no spare diner or lounge in Chicago , the hub of Amtrak's long distance routes?  More likely they didn't want to do the extra work of putting in in the consist. Either way it's unacceptable. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/21 15:13 by Flyer92122.

Given that they don't put lounge cars on the Texas Eagle and they've loaned a number of them to Amtrak California, I'm not surprised that there wasn't a replacement available in Chicago. 

There are a bunch of 370xx series cross country cafe cars laying around though...

BRAtkinson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Given that they don't put lounge cars on the Texas
> Eagle and they've loaned a number of them to
> Amtrak California, I'm not surprised that there
> wasn't a replacement available in Chicago. 

Wait a minute - LOUNGE cars have been loaned to the State of California? Sightseer Lounge cars? If Amtrak was going to do that, they should have retained the Pacific Parlor Cars and worked out a deal whereby the State of CA refurbishes them and the ole Pacific Parlor Cars become the lounge cars. I've not hear of Sightseer Lounge cars being "loaned" to California. But if true - that's ABSOLUTELY absurd. Amtrak is going to give premium amenity cars to a state agency for operation on a corridor, rather than ensuring the Sightseer Lounge car has its properly place as a Lounge and observation car for a LD train that's travelling THOUSANDS of miles? 

Where are the Snack Coaches? They've subbed on the Southwest Chief before. Not for nothing but Chicago has done some interesting equipment maneuvers in the past - run-through equipment between Capitol Limited and Southwest Chief, switching out cars from inbound equipment. The City of New Orleans had to have had a Sightseer Lounge car that could have been swapped or put in the Southwest Chief's consist, then that train gets a Sightseer Lounge from the first LD train that arrives with said equipment. Plenty of time to switch/swap equipment. 

This is nothing but degrading and downgrading service. It's bad enough the Texas Eagle and Capitol Limited operate with the pathetic consists that they do. It's also sad that Amtrak is not trying to integrate its new Viewliner fleet (diners and sleepers) into something that would produce more positive results for both Amtrak and its passengers. 

TennesseeTraveler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not sure I understand the term "bad ordered"
> since this equipment arrived from Los Angeles the
> day before and is simply turned in Chicago so
> there was a sightseer lounge on the arriving #4
> Monday and the lounge was not on the turned
> equipment on #3 Tuesday.  So what makes the
> missing sightseer lounge bad ordered?

Could be a number of things. Things like the brake system. The HEP system. The HVAC system. It could be a number of things.

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are a bunch of 370xx series cross country
> cafe cars laying around though...

Of the 3700xx series, assignments of these 17 cars  are as follows to the best of my knowledge:

- 3 cars for the Capitol Limited 
- 4 cars for the Texas Eagle
- 3 cars for the City of New Orleans

That's 10 cars for assignment. That leaves SEVEN (7) for reserve or assignment elsewhere! Surely they must even have some right in Chicago for reserves for the three train hubbed there (City of New Orleans, Capitol Limited, Texas Eagle etc.). 

Sending the Southwest Chief out without a Diner Lite or some sort of cafe car for coach passengers (the only way they can get meals or food onboard), just makes no sense and must create more work for the LSA, let alone risk that they will run out of food along the way.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/21 15:44 by jp1822.

There's been a couple SSL,s on the Surfiner corridor for a while now. I believe it started during the disasterous Anderson regime. 

Flyer92122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ok so it broke and couldn't make its way back to
> LA fair enough.  There's really no spare diner or
> lounge in Chicago , the hub of Amtrak's long
> distance routes?  More likely they didn't want to
> do the extra work of putting in in the consist.
> Either way it's unacceptable. 

They never do, ever wonder even with the Midwest Corridor Trains always having issues besides the LD Trains?

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BRAtkinson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Given that they don't put lounge cars on the
> Texas
> > Eagle and they've loaned a number of them to
> > Amtrak California, I'm not surprised that there
> > wasn't a replacement available in Chicago. 
>
> Wait a minute - LOUNGE cars have been loaned to
> the State of California? Sightseer Lounge cars? If
> Amtrak was going to do that, they should have
> retained the Pacific Parlor Cars and worked out a
> deal whereby the State of CA refurbishes them and
> the ole Pacific Parlor Cars become the lounge
> cars. I've not hear of Sightseer Lounge cars being
> "loaned" to California. But if true - that's
> ABSOLUTELY absurd. Amtrak is going to give premium
> amenity cars to a state agency for operation on a
> corridor, rather than ensuring the Sightseer
> Lounge car has its properly place as a Lounge and
> observation car for a LD train that's travelling
> THOUSANDS of miles? 
>
> Where are the Snack Coaches? They've subbed on the
> Southwest Chief before. Not for nothing but
> Chicago has done some interesting equipment
> maneuvers in the past - run-through equipment
> between Capitol Limited and Southwest Chief,
> switching out cars from inbound equipment. The
> City of New Orleans had to have had a Sightseer
> Lounge car that could have been swapped or put in
> the Southwest Chief's consist, then that train
> gets a Sightseer Lounge from the first LD train
> that arrives with said equipment. Plenty of time
> to switch/swap equipment. 
>
> This is nothing but degrading and downgrading
> service. It's bad enough the Texas Eagle and
> Capitol Limited operate with the pathetic consists
> that they do. It's also sad that Amtrak is not
> trying to integrate its new Viewliner fleet
> (diners and sleepers) into something that would
> produce more positive results for both Amtrak and
> its passengers. 

Thank Stephen Gardner for that!

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DevalDragon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There are a bunch of 370xx series cross country
> > cafe cars laying around though...
>
> Of the 3700xx series, assignments of these 17
> cars  are as follows to the best of my
> knowledge:
>
> - 3 cars for the Capitol Limited 
> - 4 cars for the Texas Eagle
> - 3 cars for the City of New Orleans
>
> That's 10 cars for assignment. That leaves SEVEN
> (7) for reserve or assignment elsewhere! Surely
> they must even have some right in Chicago for
> reserves for the three train hubbed there (City of
> New Orleans, Capitol Limited, Texas Eagle
> etc.). 
>
> Sending the Southwest Chief out without a Diner
> Lite or some sort of cafe car for coach passengers
> (the only way they can get meals or food onboard),
> just makes no sense and must create more work for
> the LSA, let alone risk that they will run out of
> food along the way.  

One or two lounges are assigned to Auto-Train pool.  I see them occasionally on the Ashland or Folkston cameras.