330 refers to where it is in the consist. You can find the actual car number on the doors at the ends of the car, I believe. Or else on the outside of the car.
They won't know what cars are in a consist till the day it departs it's origin (in your case Chicago). Even then, if your car is found to have issues before it departs, they may replace it with another car.
Although it's frequently referred to as the "car number", the "330" is properly called the "line number". It's either 3 or 4 digits. The last 2 digits denote the type of car (sleeper or coach), and the position (1st sleeper, 2nd sleeper, etc.) The leading digit or 2 digits are the train number, as seen on timetables.
330 is the car line number, not the number of the actual, physical car. Most of the time there two "330"s active and on the road. The car line used for reservation system inventory tracking and assignment and consist position. Any standard Superliner I or II sleeper can serve in the role of "330". The physical car number is 5 characters, is on the end doors and the sides of the car and does not appear anywhere on the reservation.
No, Superliners run in a national pool and any standard Superliner sleeper can be assigned to your train's 330. The reservation system does not track equipment assignment at all, that is a separate operation. Cars are regularly swapped in and out of consists for inspection and maintenance. All the reservation system knows is there is a Superliner sleeper assigned to the 30 car line on the SW Chief, that is all the reservation system needs to know. It is up to the coach yard and equipment management to see that there is one, which one doesn't matter.
Superliner transdorms generally are 40 car lines, none of them are 09 (the Cap may be an exception. Don't know the Cap's transdorm car line). Except the Builder, where the transdorm is the 32 car line. On any other train, the 32 car line would be a standard sleeper.I don't know why, but the range of the last digit varies by train. On some trains, the 1st sleeper's line number ends with a 0, and on others it ends with a 1. The 2nd-to-last digit also varies by train. A line number ending in 9 indicates a crew dorm; Amtrak sometimes sells unneeded rooms to passengers. But not all crew dorms end in 9.
Well, both the CZ and Builder have consists that are running with standard sleepers in the transdorm car lines.
Thanks! So it looks like everytime you get on an Amtrak train you're at the luck of the draw as to how old your sleeping car actually is.
True for Superliners (bilevels). But there are only 2 varieties of Superliner sleepers, and the differences are minor. The Superliner I's are physically older than the Superliner II's, but they're newer on the inside, because they've all been refurbed.
On the Superliner trains it is either a 1979-81 Superliner I, which look newer since they were refurbished in the 2000s, or a 1993-1995 Superliner II, which look older because the interiors are original. You can tell from the outside which one is which by the trucks, the Is have a funny looking European designed truck (can't really describe it, but they're weird looking), and a much more standard looking truck on the IIs. IIs also have electronic car line number signs, Is have manual roller car line signs.
