Texas Eagle or Twilight Zone???

Hi all! Currently about hour and a half out of San Antonio on my TE/CS trip to Seattle from Bloomington. Great trip so far as far as Amtrak goes, save for indifferent at best dining car attendants. Oh well, they're outa here having left the TE at Austin. What's been interesting are some of the oddballs I've met on board (and Traveler isn't even on the train! :lol: )

The fun began even before the trip started, in Bloomington. An older woman, who was deaf, was going to board and get off somewhere in Texas. The woman's daughter was trying to explain to the ticket agent about her mother and also that her mom was trouble and would cause all sorts of havoc. The daughter and mom got into it, and I was left to wonder if the mom in addition to being deaf was a few fries short of a Happy Meal besides. I was left to wonder why she was allowed to travel by herself. She seemed totally incapable of traveling unassisted and that had nothing to do with her deafness.

I will give a full report once I get back home, but onward with the oddities. At breakfast today (8-13) a couple who had never been on the train had no clue as to how to open the doors, and the dining car steward had to do it for them. I guess the concept of "Press to open" was too much for them. Then they proceeded to complain loudly about how someone ought to show them how things worked. :blink: :blink: Then who should proceed to the diner but the deaf lady!! I'm traveling with my uncle and we were afraid she'd sit with us. But the steward had her sit across from us. Deaf or no deaf, she was incapable of doing anything but babbling incoherently. I've known enough deaf people to know they can carry on a conversation you can understand even if you don't know sign language. I'm not being mean or insensitive but I don't think she could have carried on a coherent conversation if she could hear.

Next, prior to the stop at Longview, TX, I heard our car attendant, Robert (an excellent one, one of the best I've ever had) explain to a woman who was going to take the bus to Shreveport that the trip would take about two hours. This lady became irate and chewed Robert up one side and spit him out the other (as though it was his fault) because the Amtrak agent she talked to said it would take about 45 minutes. The agent was at fault, not Robert, and at any rate the woman could have looked at a map and found out for herself. As I said, that was the agent's fault, not Robert's.

After that, things settled down until Fort Worth. Right at 2:10, a woman with a young boy and baby in tow (and a chihuahua

came sauntering up with enough luggage to service an army of Cossacks for a month. The train was supposed to leave right at 2:10 and it was her good fortune our train was held up for 20 minutes until the arrival of the northbound TE. What possible service that waste of protoplasm chihuahua could perform is beyond me. I can think of a few services one could perform for me, but animal lovers would forever hate me so I won't mention any of them. :lol: I have to assume it was legit, though.

At dinner, this same woman with the dog also couldn't figure out how to open the doors. I've been on several Amtrak trains and never have I seen anyone not able to open the doors. Until today. And it happened TWICE! Also at dinner, our dinner companion told us she was also traveling the Coast Starlight to Portland and would arrive there "on the 15th" Well, no. Since we are going to Seattle and are arriving the 16th, she was mixed up. Turns out she was looking at her ticket and thought the date on it meant the day she arrived in Portland and not the day she departed Los Angeles, which IS the 15th. We finally got her straightened out, and left her to figure out how to contact the person that was going to pick her up in Portland. And, to top the day off, the SAME woman with the kids and dog went down the stairs at Temple, TX, to give that waste of protoplasm a potty break and to smoke. She didn't make it because people were walking up the stairs as she was walking down. And she proceeded to ***** loudly about it. Gee, lady, that's what happens when you have a 15 minute smoke break and you spend the entire 15 minutes doing heaven knows what and then try to take your break when everyone else is coming back up the stairs at the "All aboard" call!!!! Oh, and for the record: This ditz is a blonde! :lol:

Well, it's certainly been an entertaining trip so far to say the least! More later!

Jeff: Very strange trip indeed, I'm surprised the conductor somewhere along the line didnt put dogwoman off the train! And as to the diner crew, did you happen to get the LSA or any food service workers names, I know most of them and there's only really one crew that's not friendly and good workers in that CCC! Guess yall, will be spending a hot night in San Antonio, hooking up for a trip across the Big Nowhere tomorrow! Youll be surprised how green it is in the desert if the rain made it down South, Northern AZ and New Mexico looked liked Ireland last week when we rolled through! Hope you have a good, rehabbed Sleeper like we had, the crews on the Sunset should be lots better, real pros on that route! Look forward to the next parts of yalls journey! Jim

When you put Twilight Zone in the thread title you might want to write about something a bit more supernatural than a deaf idiot and a blond bimbo. Just sayin'.

jimhudson said:

I'm surprised the conductor somewhere along the line didnt put dogwoman off the train!

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Does that really ever happen?

daxomni said:

When you put Twilight Zone in the thread title you might want to write about something a bit more supernatural than a deaf idiot and a blond bimbo. Just sayin'.

jimhudson said:

I'm surprised the conductor somewhere along the line didnt put dogwoman off the train!

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Does that really ever happen?

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Happens more often, especially in coach, than you might think for many reasons. The conductor is like an Airline Captain or Ship Captain, absolute authority for safety and order!

Guest said:

Happens more often, especially in coach, than you might think for many reasons. The conductor is like an Airline Captain or Ship Captain, absolute authority for safety and order!

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I think airline captains do this a lot more often than train conductors. I've read/heard of people being kicked off planes for any number of reasons. Some logical, some silly and some downright absurd. Correct me if I'm wrong but the only times I'm aware of folks actually being kicked off trains is when they're acting violent or drunk or trying to steal a free trip.

Keeping this in mind, let's take a look at this lady's stated infractions.

* Brought young kids aboard sans male escort

* Brought tiny, pointless dog aboard

* Brought army-sized luggage ensemble

* Delayed train with powerful voodoo ticket

* Didn't know how to open the doors

* Read ticket wrong & assumed incorrect arrival

* Took too long to give dog it's potty break

* Had blonde hair.

Yep, I can see several safety violations worthy of immediate removal at the next stop. <_<

daxomni said:

Guest said:

Happens more often, especially in coach, than you might think for many reasons. The conductor is like an Airline Captain or Ship Captain, absolute authority for safety and order!

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I think airline captains do this a lot more often than train conductors. I've read/heard of people being kicked off planes for any number of reasons. Some logical, some silly and some downright absurd. Correct me if I'm wrong but the only times I'm aware of folks actually being kicked off trains is when they're acting violent or drunk or trying to steal a free trip.

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Actually guest would be correct, it happens far more on trains than on planes. After all, most plane captains are loath to have to land their plane as an unexpected stop to put someone off. It has to be rather major for that to happen. Whereas a train can just pull up at the nearest crossing and have the police meet them there.

And it does happen rather often, I've no stats on how often, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that at least 1 or 2 Amtrak trains a month put someone off the train. I have personally seen it happen at least 3 times in my travels over the years.

All that said, I do agree with you that I'm not sure that these offenses rise to the level worthy of being put off the train.

AlanB said:

And it does happen rather often, I've no stats on how often, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that at least 1 or 2 Amtrak trains a month put someone off the train. I have personally seen it happen at least 3 times in my travels over the years.

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It's really closer to 1-2 per day, not counting medical emergencies.

Trogdor said:

AlanB said:

And it does happen rather often, I've no stats on how often, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that at least 1 or 2 Amtrak trains a month put someone off the train. I have personally seen it happen at least 3 times in my travels over the years.

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It's really closer to 1-2 per day, not counting medical emergencies.

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That doesn't surprise me either.

Like I said, I've seen/heard a few incidents myself and it's not like I'm out riding every day. But two that I recall off the top of my head include a fare evador taken off an Acela @ Wilmington and a drunk molesting women taken off the Ann Rutledge at a RR crossing in Illinois. Not sure what they did with the fare evador who was removed by Amtrak PD, but the drunk got to spend the night in the local town's jail cell. Don't recall what town it was anymore, but it was probably a good 30 to 40 miles south of CUS.

I was on the westbound Southwest Chief a couple weeks ago out of Kansas City and right from the get-go, the Lounge was sheer terror, crammed with Boy Scouts, many using language far becoming a Scout, heading to camp in Raton. Mix in the Lower Level full of drunks with smuggled whiskey and the Conductor quickly had the law laid down in that car, at least until he left, when the Scouts started right back in and one of the drunks staggered to the top of the stairs yelling as loud as he could for the Conductor (maybe he thought that was they guy to get ice from :lol: )

Planned or not, I imagine Topeka was their stop, and we finally took back our Lounge next morning when the Coaches emptied of Scouts.

The instances Ive seen involved 1)Smoking-both tobacco and wacky weed(the Law was waiting) 2)Drunkedness/Foul language 3)Inappropriate sexual behaviour 5)drug smuggling 6)fare evasion.

My favorite conductor announcement is on the Sunset Ltd. where the Conductors announce:

"if you miss your train or get put off, next train is in three days!" :lol:

I have seen 2 people put off the train at the same time for smoking. It was on the sunset limited after it connected to the TE cars. We stopped in the middle of nowhere with either the boarder patrol or sheriff and the conductor put the 2 guys off next to a signal mast.

Maybe not the Twilight Zone but keep in mind I've never been on any Amtrak trip that had much of anything go out of the ordinary. Right now pulling into Tuscon. Today's highlights:

No diner on the SL/TC (CCC instead)

no coffee in the diner available all trip long (I don't care but many others sure did)

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant) :angry2: :angry2:

person being taken off in an ambulance in Texas someplace

after leaving the sleeper in El Paso, having to wait to reboard as there was some sort of photo shoot going on in front of the sleeper door. It involved a young man dressed in Army green, kissing his wife (or girlfriend) goodbye as he boards the train. Don't know what that was for but interesting anyway.

A couple of women from our car arriving at 6 for a 5:45 dinner reservation and getting very upset when they were late. They claimed car attendant George didn't call their reservation until just before 6. Not true as they were in the same sleeper we were (TE sleeper, last car on the train). Problem was that one woman was so slow it took her 10 minutes to walk the length of the three coaches and the SSL. I know this because I was following her.

Another couple who showed up at 6:30 for a 6PM reservation claiming they didn't hear the announcement. They too were in the same car as us and we heard it plain as day. Besides George made it clear several times to show up at the diner door at their scheduled time if they didn't hear their time called. As a result they got bumped back to the last seating at dinner (8PM).

So far a great trip. It wasn't any one thing but so many out of the ordinary events on this trip that have made it very interesting. Like I said I've never seen much out of the ordinary happen so all these little events keep things going.

And as for Dumb Blonde and Waste of Fur Chihuahua, they're still here, on their way to Ontario. I think the idea was that it was more trouble than it was worth to boot them. Winston, an Amtrak personnel supervisor, was on board and made that decision.

JayPea said:

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant) :angry2: :angry2:

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I would tell that CA to mind his or her own business as it is not illegal to take pictures it's just a made up rule. They can shove that rule where the sun don't shine.

JayPea said:

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant)

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What, exactly, were you taking photos of?

amtrakwolverine said:

JayPea said:

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant) :angry2: :angry2:

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I would tell that CA to mind his or her own business as it is not illegal to take pictures it's just a made up rule. They can shove that rule where the sun don't shine.

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Amen botha! I'm almost eager for some employee or rent-a-cop to come after me this trip. It's just bottled up inside me. "....HEY, not only am I taking pictures, I'm gonna post the VIDEO of you being an A**hole, on YouTube, WITHOUT your permission, A**........Have a nice day....."

Amtrak's photo and video policy seems to be sufficiently vague that they can do whatever they want. What's ironic is that although JayPea was hassled, car personnel apparently had no trouble with a large-scale shoot where the couple said goodbye and disrupted reboarding.

Sounds like they were filming a movie or commercial which happens often in LAX and other major stations. With Ft. Bliss being located near ELP that might explain the uniform and the tearful goodbye @ the sleeper door (a cliche from old timey World War II movies).

Blocking the access for paying customers was not cool, they probably could have used the transition sleeper just as well but that would have inconvienced the crew, just saying!

After hearing this report, I feel really fortunate as I just got back from vacationing in Tacoma. I took the Sunset Limited from Houston Friday, Jul 30th. Had a trouble free trip, was on time or early most of the way, the food was great the service was great, the full compliment of cars was in the consist, all the ac functioned, no failures of any kind. I took plenty of pictures both on the train and at the station stops. No one said a word to me about it. Now the Coast Starlight, that was a different animal....but it's on the 'left' coast so what would you expect. We had all kinds of odd characters on board, but mostly in the coach section which I never visited, but I saw them at each station stop. In fact with the Pacific Parlor car on board, I never ventured ahead of the Diner even to the sightseer lounge. First class is great. I hope I am never so poor that I have to ride coach. The CS was mostly trouble free also and mostly on time or early. We did have one little mechanical issue somewhere north of Portland when the engineer could not get the train to start. He was getting some kind of error message. Made us about 20 minutes late into Tacoma.

Thank you for your report. Best laugh I have had all week. I was just reading some of your comments on the oddballs to my roommate here in Alaska.

Trogdor said:

JayPea said:

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant)

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What, exactly, were you taking photos of?

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Trip over, now in Seattle. Was a great time. I will give a full and complete report later. As for the photography, I always like to take pictures and videos of the stations where we have smoke breaks. I was in Del Rio, TX, and was just videotaping the Eagle while it was stopped. In doing so happened to get the car attendant in my video. It was then that she loudly and rudely informed me that it was illegal to take pictures of someone without their permission. I was taking pictures of the train, not her. Since I didn't want to be thrown off the train at Del Rio I shut down the camera, gritted my teeth, and called her a bunch of names under my breath the rest of the trip. :angry2:

Some people just don't like to be photographed -- and extend their personal discomfort radius to extremes. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing this upfront and also no way of pleasing these people when you've managed to include them in crowd shot from 30 feet away.

What's ironic is that at a time when more people than ever are shooting photos, people are more sensitive than ever about being photographed.

Oddly enough, when I've been on freelance assignments, people are much more comfortable with video than still images. There's a dynamic here that I don't fully understand, but it probably has something to do with subjects believing that a moving picture with sound will do a better job of conveying what they're really like.

JayPea said:

Trogdor said:

JayPea said:

being busted by the photography police (power-hungry car attendant)

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What, exactly, were you taking photos of?

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. I was in Del Rio, TX, and was just videotaping the Eagle while it was stopped. In doing so happened to get the car attendant in my video. It was then that she loudly and rudely informed me that it was illegal to take pictures of someone without their permission. I was taking pictures of the train, not her. Since I didn't want to be thrown off the train at Del Rio

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Aloha

The rules are complex, but in general an individual has the right to say no to having their picture taken. However if they are in public they may also not be subject to the permission. What is important is the courtesy shown by both parties.