12 replies to this topic

[thully]

I'm going to be taking the Capitol Limited tonight from Toledo to Washington and back on Monday from Washington to Toledo. Anyway, with the weather getting warmer, I'm wondering - how hot/cold do they normally keep it in the LD coaches? I'm particularly wondering whether it would be better to wear short-sleeve shirts/shorts or long-shelve shirts/long pants. Based on the outdoor temperature, I would do the latter, but I'm afraid they may have the AC blasting to the point that this would be uncomfortable. I will have my blanket/pillow with me as I usually do when doing overnight coach, and could always change in the bathroom if I had to - though I'd like to avoid dealing with that in the middle of the night...

[jb64]

I always dress in layers when riding the train because you never know what the temp will be on the train and how well the heating/cooling will work.

Enjoy your trip.

[Devil's Advocate]

Anyway, with the weather getting warmer, I'm wondering - how hot/cold do they normally keep it in the LD coaches?

I've been on dozens of LD trains and there was no rhyme or reason as to what temperature I got. Some were nice, some were extremely hot and some were extremely cold. A few remained at the roughly the same temperature throughout the trip while others varied wildly from day to night. To the best of my understanding most Amtrak cars don't even have a thermostat. It's just some sort of wish-washy "best guess" lever connected to an HVAC that may be up to forty years old and may not have much temperature range to work with anymore. The only advice I can give you is to bring an assortment of options and include a jacket. The bathrooms can get really nasty as the trip wears on, but if you layer your clothes you should be alright. Hope that helps and sorry I couldn't say more to allay your concern.

[Cho Cho Charlie]

To the best of my understanding most Amtrak cars don't even have a thermostat. It's just some sort of wish-washy "best guess" lever connected to an HVAC that may be up to forty years old and may not have much temperature range to work with anymore.

Sounds like a simple commercial-style system, that gets set for a fixed BTU-in or a fixed BTU-out.

[Ben_G]

Like said go prepaired....the CONO coach was like riding in a meat locker on our way north. The CZ was comfortable for the most part, a light throw over you at night felt good. The CONO was warmer on the return trip.

[Ispolkom]

My experience is that Superliner coaches are hot in the winter, and freezing cold in the summer.

[Sorcha]

As others have said, it just depends. The first time I took the SWC (in the summer), it was like a meat locker. I like it cold, so it didn't bother me, but I did wear a hoodie and a blanket at night.

When we took the SWC last Christmas, it was so unbelievably hot I covered the heater (near my feet) with my empty laptop bag and then rested my face against the window all night to get whatever little bit of cool draft I could. It was awful. On the way home, it was neither too hot nor too cold. I was comfortable in a sweatshirt.

[SP&S]

Sounds like a simple commercial-style system, that gets set for a fixed BTU-in or a fixed BTU-out.

Bingo!

[fillyjonk]

If you're really miserable, you can ask the car attendant if something can be done about the temperature.

The answer is, "not always." On my last trip on the TE, the blowers seemed not to be functioning and it was kind of too warm in the sleeper car. Not horrifically warm (I remember one trip in the summer where even leaving my room door open wasn't enough to let it be cool enough to sleep). My neighbors in the next compartment asked the attendant if he could do something...he tried, he really did, and I felt a slight improvement in the temperature but it seems sometimes the controls are not all that responsive.

I've been on summer trains that were boiling hot, others that were really cold. I've learned to take stuff I can "layer" and to take both 'warm" and "cold" pajamas. And to take a folded fleece blanket just in case. I'd rather it be "too cold" because you can always put on more clothes, wrap up in a blanket, etc.

[thully]

As the OP, I just wanted to follow up - on my trip, I experienced both "too hot" and "too cold" conditions. On the way to WAS, it was a bit hotter than I would have liked (shorts may have been better), though it cooled down the next day. On the way back, it was initially somewhat hot, but got colder up to the point I had to go into the bathroom and put longer pants on. I was in coach, not sleeper (wasn't worth the high-bucket prices they were asking WAS-TOL...) - if you were in a sleeper, it might be easier to deal with this... I figure the best approach is to make an educated guess regarding conditions and change to warmer/cooler clothes if necessary.