Viewliners Still Up Front

(I mentioned this in The Consist/Line Numbers thread as well, but really the question belongs here.)

The day before yesterday I happened to be at ALX when the late #98 came through, and it occured to me that that the sleepers are still up front and here it is the beginning of January. Anybody know what gives? The weather has not been that warm in LSL land and I would have thought the sleepers would have made their annual pilgramige to the rear of the consist.

What is up? Has the plumbing-freezing-in-the-winter problem been solved, now that the Viewliner II sleeper configuration has been finalized?

Well it only got cold in the Northeast about two weeks ago. At least where I am. Prior to christmas, we had barely gotten into the 30s. It is also supposed to be back in the 40s next week.

I could be totally wrong here, but I thought that the Viewliners move to the back of the train was a once-off experiment that failed miserably due to emergency exit concerns and pulling heavier equipment in the back... I think it was tried for like three months last year or two years ago, then reverted to the Viewliner Forward configuration.

I hope the sleepers stay up front for a while. I will be traveling on the Meteor MLK weekend.

VentureForth said:

I could be totally wrong here, but I thought that the Viewliners move to the back of the train was a once-off experiment that failed miserably due to emergency exit concerns and pulling heavier equipment in the back... I think it was tried for like three months last year or two years ago, then reverted to the Viewliner Forward configuration.

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No, none of that is true.

The Viewliners going to the rear is done to allow easy turning between the Lake Shore Limited (the New York section of which has its Viewliner sleepers at the rear 365 days per year, with no problems whatsoever regarding "heavy equipment" or "emergency exits" or whatever) and Silver Service consists in New York.

When the winter weather is particularly bad, the Viewliners suffer from continued exposure to cold temperatures. Therefore, the Lake Shore Limited's consist is run through to Florida to allow the equipment to thaw out. Since the Lake Shore's sleepers are at the rear, the easiest solution is to put the sleepers for all the Viewliner trains on the rear to minimize the need to do any switching or turning of cars to cycle them through. This was done a few years ago during periods of extreme snow and deep freeze (not just "low 30s" temperatures), which makes switching cars around in Sunnyside Yard particularly difficult.

Even though the Lake Shore would turn to the Silver Star (since they both have two sleepers), the Crescent and Silver Meteor would also get their consists flipped so that all of the cars are pointed the same way, in case any switching was needed in New York (due to bad-ordered cars). Since the Amfleet IIs and Viewliners only have a vestibule on one end of the car, they all have to be pointed the same way in order to have a vestibule/exit between each pair of cars.

Since the last two winters have been very mild, there has been no need to put the sleepers on the rear. However, if we get hit by a blizzard followed by an extended freezing spell, you'd probably see the sleepers move to the rear shortly afterwards.

Once the winter is over, sleepers return to the front because that is generally seen to be the preferred arrangement for the consists, when practical.

Trogdor said:

Since the last two winters have been very mild, there has been no need to put the sleepers on the rear. However, if we get hit by a blizzard followed by an extended freezing spell, you'd probably see the sleepers move to the rear shortly afterwards.

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While I agree that last winter was mild, Amtrak most certainly did flip the sleepers to the rear on the Silvers. I just went and looked at my consist listings from when Dave (the_traveler) and I went down to the mini-gathering in Winter Park and our sleepers were on the bottom on 97 on the 13th of Jan and 92 on the 14th of Jan 2012.

AlanB said:

While I agree that last winter was mild, Amtrak most certainly did flip the sleepers to the rear on the Silvers.

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My thought too. I rode 19 in late January last year, and 97 in early March last year and they were at the back.

Trogdor said:

VentureForth said:

I could be totally wrong here, but I thought that the Viewliners move to the back of the train was a once-off experiment that failed miserably due to emergency exit concerns and pulling heavier equipment in the back... I think it was tried for like three months last year or two years ago, then reverted to the Viewliner Forward configuration.

Click to expand...

No, none of that is true.

The Viewliners going to the rear is done to allow easy turning between the Lake Shore Limited (the New York section of which has its Viewliner sleepers at the rear 365 days per year, with no problems whatsoever regarding "heavy equipment" or "emergency exits" or whatever) and Silver Service consists in New York.

Click to expand...

I seem to remember when Amtrak first tried putting the Viewliners on the rear of the Silvers, they had a "tail wagging" problem with that consist?

The solution eventually was found to be to move the baggage car to the very rear, after the Viewliners.

That's right. The consists were reversed last winter. It was the Lake Shore run through that didn't happen.

The Davy Crockett said:

AlanB said:

While I agree that last winter was mild, Amtrak most certainly did flip the sleepers to the rear on the Silvers.

Click to expand...

My thought too. I rode 19 in late January last year, and 97 in early March last year and they were at the back.

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This is accurate...... I was on #20 with sleepers rear the first weekend in March 2012. The SCA told me that it was a 'winter thing' and that the sleepers would move back to the front in another week or two. The baggage car was at the very end and we actually had one of the smoothest nights I've ever had riding the 'Crescent'...... including back to when it was still a Southern train.