i remember when......

[OlympianHiawatha]

I always got a laugh out of the Foot Pedal or Slot Machine Handle Flushers.

 

[Big Iron]

I remember "circus trains" running in and out of Chicago. The first year or two, when NOTHING had been repainted into an Amtrak paint scheme, and Amtrak chose what it considered to be the best equipment, and assigned it to various trains in unexpected combinations. U.P. E8 diesels in the east; B&O E8's in the west; GM&O E7's running through Chicago on Milwaukee-to-St. Louis trains. Then when the equipment started to be modified and standardized, the Broadway Ltd. was the first all-Amtrak train with a consistent paint scheme, pulled by Amtrak-painted E8's. Amtrak got some ex-Army hospital cars and turned them into lounges with a disgusting interior with (if I recall correctly) purple carpet on the walls. Christmas & New Years parties in those lounges (I was a lot younger then).

Tom

I remember that era well. I got to ride in cars that belonged to railroads that I would have never had to opportunity to ride. Also remember when the Illinois Zephyr used C&NW F-Units and 400 Gallery Cars.

 

[Big Iron]

This was long before AMTRAK, but I remember when you could see open air and the ties going by underneath the train when you flushed the toilet....there was a sign that said "Please do not flush toilet while at station"....any other old-timers remember that kind of thing? :giggle:

Yep, loved the jointed rail sound when you flushed. I rode VIA in the early 80's and the conductor would lock the bathroom doors prior to each station.

 

[Steve4031]

Amtrak still had those cars with the toilets opening onto the tracks until the 90s. Then somebody flushed while a train was going over a bridge in florida . A congressman iirc was sitting underneath the bridge fishing.

That's funny! I remember as a kid watching the rails and ties go by from the toilet! Those were the days folks!

I used to do that too. And never flush in the station. I saw somebody get scolded for that.

 

[FormerOBS]

To the tune of Dvorak's Humoresque No. 7:

Passenger will please refrain

From flushing toilets while the train

Is standing in the station. I love you.

When the train is in the station

We encourage constipation.

If the train can wait, then so can you.

I've been told that version was written by Noel Coward, but can't confirm it. John Prine tells a wonderful story about the time he and Steve Goodman (writer of "City of New Orleans") were traveling entertainers on Edmund Muskie's Presidential campaign train. It seems Steve was not feeling too well after indulging in some killer chili. So he used the facilities while Muskie was speaking from the rear platform. Use your imagination. Muskie lost.

Tom

 

[CHamilton]

 

[Anderson]

Amtrak still had those cars with the toilets opening onto the tracks until the 90s. Then somebody flushed while a train was going over a bridge in florida . A congressman iirc was sitting underneath the bridge fishing.

I knew about getting rid of the dump toilets. I hadn't heard the bit about the Congressman (my understanding had always been that something put a bee in the EPA's bonnet, but I'd just assumed it was some environmentalist mess biting Amtrak in the arse). I'm guessing that Congressman looked a little flushed at the next hearings? :giggle:

 

[PRR 60]

Amtrak still had those cars with the toilets opening onto the tracks until the 90s. Then somebody flushed while a train was going over a bridge in florida . A congressman iirc was sitting underneath the bridge fishing.

That is a common story, but I believe it's an urban legend. Another version has then Presidential candidate Edmond Muskie at a whistle stop campaign speech in 1972 when someone "flushed" right behind him. A third version has the incident happening in California along the Truckee River. Maybe all three are true. Maybe none.
I think the real issue was to protect the health of rail workers, including Amtrak shop workers, from some pretty disgusting conditions. The underbodies of the cars would get a nasty coating making shop work a bit unpleasant. For years the railroads claimed the stuff was inert. Testing found that not to be the case.

 

[jis]

Inert huh? Considering that, that is the stuff from which you catch nasties like dysentery, typhoid and cholera, I guess the railroads were just being dishonest to try to save same money. OTOH, it is only now that India is starting to slowly convert to retention toilets, and it will probably be a decade before they get anywhere near complete conversion, and will probably never really convert fully.

 

[tomfuller]

This was long before AMTRAK, but I remember when you could see open air and the ties going by underneath the train when you flushed the toilet....there was a sign that said "Please do not flush toilet while at station"....any other old-timers remember that kind of thing? :giggle:

When I rode the ViaRail Canadian in October 2001, the conductor would lock the doors to the restrooms while we were in the station. I did get permission to shave while we were at a station promising not to drain the sink until we were moving.

 

[PRR 60]

I remember riding one of the Pacific Parlour Cars when it was a lounge car on the Santa Fe's El Capitan in 1963. Well, maybe. I have no idea which specific car was on that train, so I have no idea if it is now one of the PPC's. Well, let's assume it is.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I rode El Cap too in the 50s ( as well as the Super Chief) so one of the PPCs could have been a Lounge Car on my train also?

After the Santa Fe combined the Super Chief and El Cap, I'm not sure if they were still used in the consist?

 

[Reno89502]

I remember back back in 1990 when the River Cities from KCY to STL had a heritage coach right behind the engine that they would disconnect from the rest of the train in STL and send over to Carbondale, IL to meet up with the City Of News Orleans.

Also, I remember a trip that I took from KCY to MIA back in 1990. I was on my way back to KCY and I was taking Train 41, the Broadway Limited from PHL to CHI. I had a Slumbercoach, and I remember feeling like half of my body was in a coffin, since I was in one of the Lower rooms. I was 20 years old and there was a group of us younger "Yuppies" that were in the sleepers that got to know each other. We would hang out in the Smoking Lounge that was on one end of the heritage coach. There was one kid named Curt who was bragging that his dad was a big deal in Washington DC. It turns out, he was a son of a prominent Lawyer in DC. Well, by the time we got to Pittsburg we had been having a great conversation, and he said he had a layover when we got to Chicago. (He was on his way to Los Angeles). He asked 3 of us if we wanted to do something when we got to Chicago, and we said of course. He got off the train in Pittsburg, mad a phone call, and got back on. He wouldn't tell us what he did. Well, when we got to Chicago, I'll be damned, but he had called his dads office and he had a Limousine waiting for us to take us around Chicago for a few hours! We had lunch and had a great ride around town! That was probably my best train trip I had ever had!

 

[blueman271]

I remember when the Florida trains had a Tampa section. I can't remember the exact year, but I remember the two sections of the train combining in Auburndale. Then a few years later they combined in Jacksonville. This was all in the early 90's, before the Palmetto was extended to Miami and renamed the Silver Palm.

 

[the_traveler]

I remember the split/combining at the switch in Auburndale also. The Tampa section was in front, and the locomotives and cars pulled forward on to TPA. The other locomotives sat on the other track, and then backed up to the MIA section. This was the only place on Amtrak this occurred not at a station! :excl:

I also remember once taking the San Diegan to SAN and calling the hotel for the "hotel limo" to pick us up. A strectch limousine came to pick us up! And it was not the Ritz, but a nothing hotel that just happened to have a. Limousine service based there!

 

[gwschenk]

I remember chicken Kiev in the diners, better than anything on the menu now. And when the Southwest Limited went through Pasadena. I use that same station now on LA's Gold Line light rail.

And Kansas City Union Station before the renovation, a huge crumbling relic.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

In the Summer of 1975 I Coached it on the Inter American between San Antonio and St. Louis; the train had a classic combination Diner/Lounge and first day at lunch I selected a Burger from the Menu and wrote it on my order form. The Server politely said he needed to check if they had any Burgers and walked into the kitchen. For the next 2 minutes he unloaded a profanity-laden tirade to the Chef about not having any Burgers; it was loud enough to be heard in the last car and then some!

When finished he came out and politely informed me they had no Burgers but I think most of Texas knew that by then

 

[neroden]

I don't remember the 1963-1998 East Syracuse Amshack in the DeWitt yard. But some friends of mine do; they remember a complete lack of lighting and dangerous conditions. They recommended against taking Amtrak from Syracuse until the current station was built, which is probably why I never took Amtrak locally until the 2000s.

 

[Bill]

I remember as a kid in the 60's hanging out by the tracks,watching passenger trains roll by,N&W and Pennsies and I said to myself "One day I am gonna ride One" Well,guess what,I am full filled my dreams and then some. Been to places I never knew existed,saw soo many different landscapes we have here in the states,met some great people and many diverse people.

First Amtrak ride was in '77 or '78..I was hooked.

I ride just for the ride,mainly to the west coast from Cincinnati..the love affair with passenger travel started

 

[zepherdude]

I remember a trip to Miami on the Illinois Central Seminole Train. I was a little guy and we left St Louis Union Station and had a layover in Carbondale, Ill. We had seats in coach and took sandwiches and fried chicken and munchies. I was not with my parents but cousins named Florence and Frank. The trip was exciting and in the summer. The train never went very fast, Frank called it a milk train. Still have no idea what that was. Have no memories of the meals or the trip until we got to WayCross Ga. Frank said we were almost in Florida. Next stop was Tallahassee and a change of train. Florence left the chicken for the porter as I insisted we forgot it. She said its ok! She was getting rid of leftovers.

Streamliner and nicer inside, very cold AC. Tall palm tree around the station and very balmy. It was late and a guy went through selling pillows and another guy selling soup from a bucket and sandwiches. I was really sleepy and slept a lot. Next memory was the call for North Miami, maybe that was Hollywood Station. That's it! We were going to Miami Shores.

I must have been about 6 or 7. BTW, the house in Miami Shores (near Hialeah Dog Track) was purchased in 1954 for $7,000 bucks and was sold in the late 1970s for $154,000 and self financed, wow! How things changed and what we remember.

 

[guest]

I remember when the most itty bitty problem on trip obtained with an awards redemption would result in the complete reimbursement of the points.

 

[railiner]

Of course, they did provide "honey buckets" for "set out" sleepers, that were either open for occupancy long before they left on a train, or until morning for arrivals...

The last example was the Heritage "Executive Sleeper" at NYP on or off of the Night Owl. Viewliner's eventually ended the need for them.....

 

[railiner]

I traveled on the South Wind/Floridian numerous times between various points from Chicago to Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham and to Florida points between 1971 and October. 1978. The Amtrak train was much nicer than the L&N/SCL train with a Penn Central coach only connection of the 2 preAmtrak years. It had through Sleeper,full dining car, full lounge and a dome coach. Due to bad, track it had many re-routes out of Chicago from the original PRR Panhandle route to the Big Four Route to Indianapolis to the C&EI/L&N route via Evansville to the Monon Route over the Knobs to Louisville. Never very good on timekeeping, but always interesting.

I also remember and rode those different routes. Also, the Cardinal and its predecessor, the George Washington/James Whitcomb Riley, wandered around Indiana in search of good track. And speaking of good track....remember when the Grand Trunk Western nicknamed itself "The Good Track Road" in its ads., an obvious jab at the deteriorated Penn Central of the era?

 

[railiner]

I rode El Cap too in the 50s ( as well as the Super Chief) so one of the PPCs could have been a Lounge Car on my train also?

After the Santa Fe combined the Super Chief and El Cap, I'm not sure if they were still used in the consist?

When the Santa Fe combined the Super Chief and the El Capitan during off-season operation, they were joined together, but still operated as separate trains....Pullman passenger's on the Super Chief, and coach passenger's on the El Capitan. The Super Chief was a single level train, with a single "Pleasure Dome" lounge car, and a dining car. The El Cap was a Hi-Level train with a Hi-Level dining car, and the "Top-of-the-Cap" Hi-Level lounge car, featuring the "Kachina Coffee Shop" on its lower level.

 

[railiner]

I remember back back in 1990 when the River Cities from KCY to STL had a heritage coach right behind the engine that they would disconnect from the rest of the train in STL and send over to Carbondale, IL to meet up with the City Of News Orleans.

When I rode that car (believe in the '80's) it was a dome coach....ran thru from Kansas City to New Orleans. It was a treat, but that locomotive horn was loud in the dome, and there are lots of crossings between STL and CDL.....