rickycourtney
Conductor
I booked my self a short ride on the second test run of the Comet IB coaches on San Joaquin train #712 from Merced to Fresno. The train was about 20 minutes late (I'm told they had to wait for late buses at connecting Emeryville).
The first thing that strikes me is that despite the carshells of these Comet IB coaches being over 40 years old... they look great! The paint on the exterior is gleaming and the interiors had a "new traincar smell" (something you seldom get to experience on Amtrak).
A few positive observations:
The Horizon Dinette.
The Amtrak California "disco stripes" look very cool (they're orange, teal, and sea green over a dark blue background).
I'm including this because it's just cool... new builders plates that mention the cars former lives as Arrow EMU's built by the St. Louis Car Company.
If you have any questions... let me know!
The first thing that strikes me is that despite the carshells of these Comet IB coaches being over 40 years old... they look great! The paint on the exterior is gleaming and the interiors had a "new traincar smell" (something you seldom get to experience on Amtrak).
A few positive observations:
- The train had 3 conductors, something you rarely see on the San Joaquin. Also, there was easily a dozen Amtrak and Caltrans employees onboard. I've never seen so many people wearing Amtrak employee badges on a train.
- The seats are very comfortable and they recline! They are a big improvement over the non-reclining seats on the California Car coaches that can get pretty uncomfortable after a couple of hours.
- The restrooms were great. Unlike the California Car coaches or the Surfliner coaches the restrooms had an automatic faucet, a high powered (and much more effective) hand dryers and a large exterior "in use" light.
- Overall the ride was very smooth and on par with the ride on the California Car coaches or the Surfliner coaches.
- Plain and simple: the stairs suck. I saw several people struggling to pull themselves and their luggage up the stairs. (I know this is the norm across most of the U.S., but here in California we are used to the bi-level cars with near-level boarding).
- Doors only opened on 3 cars, car 6 (the door closest to the NPCU), car 5 and car 3 (each on either side of the cafe car). Conductors told passengers to walk to the cafe car to exit.
- Thankfully nobody had to use the old, crank-operated wheelchair lifts during the short time I was onboard. They're going to add a lot of time compared to the electric lifts built into the California Car coaches and the Surfliner coaches.
- The manually operated swinging doors between cars are inconvenient compared to the electric, sliding doors on most of Amtrak's cars. The one nice feature... the doors can latch open when the cars are stopped and they automatically close when the train moves.
- The Horizon Dinette is really... drab. Something about the dimly-lit interior, white plastic walls and blue vinyl booths just didn't make me want to sit down and enjoy a meal. Also it needs some place for condiments instead of using two tables.
The Horizon Dinette.
The Amtrak California "disco stripes" look very cool (they're orange, teal, and sea green over a dark blue background).
I'm including this because it's just cool... new builders plates that mention the cars former lives as Arrow EMU's built by the St. Louis Car Company.
If you have any questions... let me know!
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Nice Pics! And the Cars Do Look New! I agree about the Bland Looking Dinette/Cafe but at least it's Clean !(for Now :help: ) Good Point about the Wheel Chair Lifts ,the Interior Doors and the Stairs, but I'm sure it would have Cost Tons of Money to "Modernize" them! I'll have to Cjheck them out if I Ever get Back to California!
