Passenger Trains > Trip report - caboose ride

If any of you folks who started in train service after 1990ish want to know what it was like to ride a caboose, take an Amtrak Cascades with Horizon cars train on BNSF track between Portland and Seattle. I had the bistro attendant only half fill the coffee I bought so I could keep it in the cup. My wife's computer was pitched off the seatback tray when she turned loose, and there was no way to walk the aisle without a handful of iron at all times. The seat pitch is closer than the seatback trays were designed for so it's let's say, really close to you. On the good side, 505 was 4 ma (minutes ahead) into Portland and 506 was 4 ma into Seattle. The inside was clean; don't touch the outside.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/24 12:31 by TAW.

Yes, rough track always makes train travel a bad experience -- at least for me.

What kind of equipment were you in -- a Horizon car?

ronald321 Wrote:
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> Yes, rough track always makes train travel a bad
> experience -- at least for me.
>
> What kind of equipment were you in -- a Horizon
> car?

You did read the first sentence of his post, right?

You're right..  All I had to do was read it!   Short attention span today!  Sorry.
Thanks !



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/24 13:17 by ronald321.

Were the windows washed???

Spoony81 Wrote:
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> Were the windows washed???

Sort of.

TAW

ronald321 Wrote:
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> You're right..  All I had to do was read it! 
>  Short attention span today!  Sorry.
> Thanks !

I sent and realized I didn't say that so edited. You might have looked in the interim.

TAW

I saw a Cascades Talgo the other day with funny faces written on the outside of the dirty windows.  And BNSF really doesn't seem to be taking very good care of its track.  I think that instead, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are having a very smooth ride.  And it isn't just here.  Witness the Joplin, Montana Empire Builder derailment.  And about six years ago I was appalled at the appearance and feel of the right of way as I looked out the front of a southbound San Joaquin train, admittedly from a distance in the cab car.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, it appears in impossible for a Hiawatha trainset to get washed.

---

inCHI Wrote:
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> Meanwhile, in Chicago, it appears in impossible
> for a Hiawatha trainset to get washed.

It's really funny to think that when someone buys a new car, they wash it and wax it daily, polish it until the shine is blinding, and park in a wide open part of the parking lot 3000 feet from the mall so nobody will scratch it. The states buy new passenger train cars, hire Amtrak to care for them and....

TAW

You are all ignoring slack action, which is nonexistent in the trains you are riding.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> You are all ignoring slack action, which is
> nonexistent in the trains you are riding.


I'm not ignoring it. Sure there is more in a freight train, but there was enough to be part of the mix.

TAW

Track maintenance is something they do after the hazmat cars derail and explode.

TAW Wrote:
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> GenePoon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You are all ignoring slack action, which is
> > nonexistent in the trains you are riding.
>
>
> I'm not ignoring it. Sure there is more in a
> freight train, but there was enough to be part of
> the mix.

Slack action in a freight train is of another order of magnitude. It is why high seatbacks and seat belts were important. You did not want to be unbelted in the caboose of a long, heavy train, sitting in the cupola of an interline Union Pacific caboose.

GenePoon Wrote:
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>
> Slack action in a freight train is of another
> order of magnitude. It is why high seatbacks and
> seat belts were important. You did not want to be
> unbelted in the caboose of a long, heavy train,
> sitting in the cupola of an interline Union
> Pacific caboose.

I guess my caboose experience predates seatbelts. I never saw one. Of course, I wasn't on one day in and day out, but several trips on B&O, B&OCT (wooden cabooses with wood benches, but still 40 mph on 125 car trains), SP, and MILW (where the engine probably should have had a seatbelt).

Yeah, the slack action in a six car passenger train of Horizon cars (my imagination? I felt a lot more than in Superliners) isn't as bad as a caboose, but added to the bouncing and oscillation, it was making life difficult for the ordinary folks who are not rails and are not accustomed to such.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/24 12:42 by TAW.

When I saw the thread title, I was reminded of an old Soo Line mixed train. You rode the caboose. This was somewhere in the upper midwest, maybe Wisconsin, maybe Michigan's Upper Peninsula.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/24 08:02 by symph1.