First time in a sleeper

My daughter, when she travels with me, uses the wipes each time she opens and uses the bathrooms or shower. She is a nurse, so she says she knows the unsanitary conditions even when the SCA tries to keep the bathrooms and shower clean.

It'll be a cold day in Kotzebue before I spend more than a dollar a foot for any kind of tape. I just bring any kind of duct tape on hand (Gorilla Tape, if available) taking care of any residue with #1 fuel oil in a small 1 oz bottle kept in my shaving kit.

And before anybody gets their noise out of joint about an ounce of fuel oil on a train, bear in mind that WD-40 (about 75% of it) has the same aliphatic hydrocarbon content.

niemi24s said:

It'll be a cold day in Kotzebue before I spend more than a dollar a foot for any kind of tape.

Click to expand...

Good thing I linked to an 18 foot roll of gaffer tape.

KmH said:

niemi24s said:

It'll be a cold day in Kotzebue before I spend more than a dollar a foot for any kind of tape.

Click to expand...

Good thing I linked to an 18 foot roll of gaffer tape.

Click to expand...

<blushing> The tape in that link clearly states 6 yards right on the package. How I read that to be 6 feet is...uh...senior moment?

I've only used duct tape to cover over speakers which wouldn't turn off and emitted loud static at night, and lights which wouldn't turn off at night. Frankly, in those cases, the duct tape should stay on there permanently or until the car hits the shop. I'll get gaffer tape in future anyway...

me_little_me said:

When you board the cardinal in NY, check the toilet immediately. When we left L.A., someone in the car did that. It was only then that the crew realized that none of the toilets in the car were working. Good thing!

After 2 hours of trying to fix the problem, they brought in a replacement car. Can't do easily after the train leaves.

the_traveler said:

As far as meals, you can order any meal off the menu for no charge. If desired, at breakfast you can also get juice, drink and a side of meat. Lunch also includes (if you get a burger and if desired) cheese and bacon, desert (if desired) and drink. Dinner includes a salad (you may have to ask for it), desert (if desired) and drink. Alcoholic beverages are not included.

Click to expand...

I am not sure FreeskierInVt will be going by deserts during meal time. Better to suggest that the desserts are included. On the other hand, if enough alcohol is consumed, one might see deserts even in NYC!

Click to expand...

I'll be boarding in coach at NYP, then switching to a roomette at Maysville, KY for the overnight section of the trip. This was one leg that wasn't low bucket (NYP-CHI) for a roomette, but was low bucket MAY-CHI. I definitely could have done the whole leg in coach after doing my entire Canada trip this summer in coach (over 300 hours onboard in July) but figured I'd splurge and see the difference between a viewliner roomette and superliner.

niemi24s said:

It'll be a cold day in Kotzebue before I spend more than a dollar a foot for any kind of tape. I just bring any kind of duct tape on hand (Gorilla Tape, if available) taking care of any residue with #1 fuel oil in a small 1 oz bottle kept in my shaving kit. And before anybody gets their noise out of joint about an ounce of fuel oil on a train, bear in mind that WD-40 (about 75% of it) has the same aliphatic hydrocarbon content.

Click to expand...

You seem to be going out of your way to...make more work for yourself. Gaffer tape gets the job done easily, it's cheap and plentiful, and doesn't require any extra chemicals or effort to avoid leaving a mess for the next passenger. I'd also advise against leaving fuel residue on any surface a baby or child might touch in the future. Chemicals that have little or no impact on adult males can still harm children and babies.

FunNut said:

Be sure to take 1-2 packets of Clorox wipes. I'm always astonished at how filthy the tray tables and other hard surfaces are in both coach seats and roomettes. It usually takes a minimum of 2 wipes to clean my surroundings on a train. (I follow the same routine on planes, equally dirty.)

Click to expand...

Agree with this - I'm not a germophobe but I always disinfect everything near me on the train, in the roomette, on planes and in hotel rooms. I also bring Windex wipes for the train windows.

I just use damp and dry paper towels from the restrooms on the train, both to wipe down my roomette and the window.

Blue painters tape is dirt cheap, and does the same job. Available at lowes or Walmart, just sayin,

niemi24s said:

It'll be a cold day in Kotzebue before I spend more than a dollar a foot for any kind of tape. I just bring any kind of duct tape on hand (Gorilla Tape, if available) taking care of any residue with #1 fuel oil in a small 1 oz bottle kept in my shaving kit.

And before anybody gets their noise out of joint about an ounce of fuel oil on a train, bear in mind that WD-40 (about 75% of it) has the same aliphatic hydrocarbon content.

Click to expand...

Isn't Kotzebue pretty cold a lot of the time of the year? It's 26 there now and not supposed to get above freezing for some time.

PVD said:

Gaffer's tape is commonly used in the tv/movie or music business to tape down wires on a floor to minimize tripping hazards. I use it when setting up for a hockey coaching seminar, venues like it because of the much decreased likelihood of leaving sticky residue. Try a music or sound store (like a Sam Ash) or a major video and AV supplier like BH Photo. Available online as well. They do so much TV/Film production by me I can almost always get "short" rolls that would be discarded at the end of a day's work.

Click to expand...

Amazon also has it.

Currently sitting in CHI Metropolitan Lounge awaiting to board a delayed Empire Builder. I've been rather let down by my trip so far. I had upgraded to a roomette for the whole leg from NYP to CHI (instead of coach NYP-MAY, and a roomette MAY-CHI). The roomette itself was fine, but that was about it. My sleeper car attendant was polite but we had little interaction and he spent all his time in the lounge car with the other train crews. Food was a major disappointment (and I went in with low expectations with the diner lite), especially lunch which was simply an overmicrowaved TV dinner. A significant chunk of the Cardinal's food supply wasn't loaded prior to departure, and the dining car staff didn't seem to care, even finding it funny that this happened yet again. Septic tanks were at capacity in both sleeper cars, restrooms were out of service in the business class car, and past Indianapolis, only two restrooms were available for the entire train. My SCA had stored passenger luggage in my sleeper's shower room, instead of moving it somewhere where it wouldn't be in passengers way, and once he cleared it out, the shower was frozen and inoperable.

The staff's attitude towards the issues that arose as well as the reasons for our delay seemed to indicate this is just business as usual. Laughing about food shortages and the poor quality of the microwaved meals, not doing anything about filled septic systems when it became an issue (couldn't they have done something at Indianapolis?) and joking about what they called the dysfunction at Chicago and New York causing delays before departure all lead me to believe this isn't a one-off problem. The crews in Sunnyside Yard "forgot" there was supposed to be a second Viewliner car on the consist, and the 90 minute delay we had upon departure from NYP was entirely attributable to this issue, since they had to cut the baggage car off the end of the train, bring the second sleeper in, reattach the consist and "warm the train up" according to the conductor. During my trip on the Canadian and Ocean this past summer, filled wastewater tanks and out-of-service restrooms were a constant issue, but was one that was quickly resolved, even if it meant bringing crews in to service the train at stops where servicing wasn't scheduled.

This isn't my first time on Amtrak, but it was my first time in a sleeper, and the taste that this one leg of my journey has left certainly wouldn't prompt me to take another trip in a sleeper. For a first-ever time Amtrak rider, I can't imagine they'd want to ride Amtrak again. I'm hoping the rest of my trip is a bit better, but Amtrak will get some feedback from me about what happened and why I'm regretting spending the points I did.

I would find it unacceptable to receive the service you got on the Cardinal, and Amtrak would be sure to hear from me about it.

I sure hope your trip on the EB turns out better! I look forward to hearing about it, either way. We don't have a whole lot of snow out here in the West, but I think they have more to the north, where you will be going.

It's my understanding waste water from showers and the sinks drains straight out of the train onto the tracks.

IIRC it's wasn't until the 60's passenger train cars started storing toilet waste instead of it just going onto the tracks.

You should definitely call and speak with Customer Relations, not customer service. They may even give you some compensation in the form of some $$$s on a voucher.

Note that OBS are service crew, not train operating crew.

The Conductor and Engineer are operating crew, but the host railroad does the dispatching.

I have no idea how a Conductor would go about arranging to have the toilet tanks emptied at a stop not set up to do such.

Slight correction: it was in the 70s when Toliet holding tanks were required on Rail equipment.

Thus Amtrak chose to retire the Heritage Sleepers instead of converting their bathrooms to the new standards.

I for one, miss stepping on the pedal and watching the Little flap open and dump the waste onto the ties rushing by below. ( and the reason the bathrooms were locked during the dwell time @ Stations.)

Bob Dylan said:

Slight correction: it was in the 70s when Toliet holding tanks were required on Rail equipment.

Thus Amtrak chose to retire the Heritage Sleepers instead of converting their bathrooms to the new standards.

I for one, miss stepping on the pedal and watching the Little flap open and dump the waste onto the ties rushing by below. ( and the reason the bathrooms were locked during the dwell time @ Stations.)

Click to expand...

When my family rode CN's Super Continental from Montreal to Vancouver, in June, 1975, us kids spent much of the day hanging out an open Dutch Door window. We kept wondering where the water on our faces was coming from! My father must have known and didn't say anything... we didn't seem to suffer any ill effects...

My trip on the Empire Builder was a dramatic improvement over the Cardinal. Staff were amazing and the food was delicious, and even with a 4 hour delay from Chicago, we didn't lose much more time over the entire trip. The delay in Chicago was due to three coaches that had "mechanical issues due to the cold" which was quite understandable given the bitter temps in the midwest. The three coaches had to be cut out of the consist and a lounge car was put in to be used as coach seating for MSP, GFK and MOT passengers. This meant that being in a sleeper, we didn't have access to the lounge car until after MOT, which wasn't many daylight hours anyway. I would do the trip again on the builder in a heartbeat, especially in the summer with hopes of seeing the Rockies in the daylight.

My return trip on the Starlight, Zephyr and Capitol is in a week after my trip by car up to Whistler. My friends who are flying in tomorrow still think I'm crazy for taking the train, despite the pictures I've shared with them. I'll take laying in bed watching the snowy mountains of the Cascades pass by any day over being cramped in a metal tube at 35k feet...

I'm glad your EB trip went so much better.

Bob Dylan said:

Slight correction: it was in the 70s when Toliet holding tanks were required on Rail equipment.

Thus Amtrak chose to retire the Heritage Sleepers instead of converting their bathrooms to the new standards.

I for one, miss stepping on the pedal and watching the Little flap open and dump the waste onto the ties rushing by below. ( and the reason the bathrooms were locked during the dwell time @ Stations.)

Click to expand...

OMG! That brought back a bad memory of the time when the bathrooms were not locked during the dwell time and I was on the platform walking past...........

I am so glad that part of the trip went better! Your experience confirms my suspicion that bitter cold can be a worse problem for Amtrak than the deep snows of the mountain West. Of course, this year, the snows are not so deep (half of normal at best, here in Oregon). How did the snow pack look in Montana, and how is it at Whistler? Better further north? Are you sorry to have left MRG this winter?