If the Transition Sleeper is dropped, where do the non-SCA crew sleep?

With regards to the LD Superliner routes…

With no Transition Sleeper, can the Conductor get to the baggage car and/or Engine?
I’d assume without a TS the baggage car cannot be accessed while in motion.

I’ve understood the TS sells roomettes 17 thru 24 to passengers and typically reserve 1-8 in front of the mid stairs for crew. If the trainset drops the TS do you see them typically “replacing” with another full sleeper or is it dropped altogether. If dropped, where do the non-SCA crew sleep?
If replaced, do they put the crew in Roomette’s and sell the Bedrooms to the passengers?

… just wondering… as I saw Southwest Chief #6 come thru Galesburg (YouTube) with no TS today.

The number of roomettes required by OBS crew are blocked off in a regular Sleeper when there is no TS, just like is standard practice on Viewliner trains.

I was on on #6 a couple weeks ago and what was supposed to be the transition sleeper car (0640) was a Superliner I sleeper account the TS car had been bad ordered. Maybe it hasn't been fixed yet. Apparently, there isn't a sufficient number of backup TS cars available (wrecks, maintenance, etc) and a regular sleeper will do the job.

As it turned out, with only 9 passenger-salable rooms in a transition car plus up to 8 rooms for OBS crew, there are 14 roomettes + 5 bedrooms + 1 family room + 1 handicap room available in a standard Superliner sleeper. So, as it turned out, the bedrooms were occupied by dining car and cafe car staff. I think there was 1 or 2 in the lower level roomettes as well (coach attendants?). And we still had empty roomettes to spare! The conductor(s) claimed the family bedroom as I have often seen them do.

In addition to losing low-level passenger car access with the loss of the transition sleeper, also lost is the blocked off 'front end' of the TS car that prevents diesel exhaust from entering the sleeper. This is most prevalent if there is no baggage car between the locomotives and the first Superliner as occurs on the Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans. I recall encountering it a couple times before the transition cars were available. I also had a very feint wiff of diesel exhaust at the front end (bedroom end) of the substitute car I was in, although there was a baggage car ahead of us.

bratkinson said:

as occurs on the Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans.

Click to expand...

See also the PDX section of the Empire Builder:

I forgot about that one, Ryan.

I was in the sleeper 3 cars back from the front. And while upstairs in the lounge car 'dining' on the 95% bread + 1 thin slice of ham + 1 thin slice of cheese so-called 'breakfast sandwich' this past April, I didn't smell any diesel exhaust, thankfully. Going the other way on #28 a year prior, the prepackaged all-in-one-plastic-container cold 'dinner' was pretty good in my opinion. That was (and still is?) a far cry better than anything I've seen pictured for the eastern trains 'contemporary' garbage.