Amtrak Superliners.

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battalion51 said:
A coach may pinch hit ocasionally for a bad ordered California car, but for the most part they run California cars out there.
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There is a Superliner coach/lounge that is always on one of the trainsets I can't remember the # off hand but I see it all the time on my nightly run. I have also seen a sightseer lounge (and the one time I did I rode in that since I'd never been in one to that point) doing the same thing but normally it is a coach/lounge and usually replacing one of the 88xx series lounge cars.
 
The Superliners were never in Phase I. As for Phase II I believe that only lasted a couple of years as Phase III was introduced not too long after the Superliner I's were.
 
The ex-Santa Fe high level coaches, which were pretty much Superliners, did see Phase I paint jobs.

The true Superliners had their Phase II paint for much of the 1980s from what Ive seen in older Trains magazine pictures. They had an article on the California Zephyr in 1988 and they had an arial shot of the whole train going over the Rockies and there was a mix of Phase III and Phase II, and I was suprised with how many cars were still painted in the old scheme. Many of them in Phase II looked badly faded though.

Phase III didnt last for very long on the Superliners either it seemed, by 97 it was all gone.
 
Well one of the things Amtrak did do well was quickly transitioning between Phase III and IV. There was not an extended period of time between the beginning and end of the transition. One of the poor transitions was in the single level fleet, as the entire fleet still isn't in Phase IV or VI.
 
battalion51 said:
Well one of the things Amtrak did do well was quickly transitioning between Phase III and IV. There was not an extended period of time between the beginning and end of the transition. One of the poor transitions was in the single level fleet, as the entire fleet still isn't in Phase IV or VI.
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I wonder if they'll be as quick with the transition between IV and VI (IVb for those who prefer that name). While there seems to be a pretty good number of single level cars with phase VI paint, there are only a relatively small number of bi-level cars with VI paint. Most Superliners that I've run into (usually Superliner I's) are in rather badly peeling phase IV paint. As far as I know, the only Superliners to receive the VI paint are those cars which have been rebuilt or refurbished by Beech Grove in the past year.
 
Im more of an IV fan on the Superliners myself, the new Phase IVb scheme doesnt do much for me and neither did Phase II or III on the Superliners. I dont know why either, phase III is my favorite paint scheme but for some reason I didnt care for it on the Superliners.
 
Well for the Single level fleet I think that there will be a quicker transition to VI than for the Superliners. Because the lining on the Superliners matches up whether it's in VI or VI it's not a critical transition. However in the single level fleet there is a large difference between III and VI, so you will see a quicker transition there.
 
Well Phase V is the one that the Engines wear, ole Shamu. Some also call the Acela scheme that the Amfleet I's wore Phase V, but that's commonly referred to as Phase Acela.
 
any recent experiences with superliner. We had bad experience on

sunset limited. We are booked on calif. zypher in July. Any comments?

We are in a sleeper
 
lancet said:
any recent experiences with superliner. We had bad experience onsunset limited. We are booked on calif. zypher in July. Any comments?

We are in a sleeper
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Lancet,

I've been in plenty of Amtrak's sleepers, including those in the Superliner's. Generally I've been pleased with my service, although I've had a few mediocre attendants. My last trip on a Superliner was in May of 2003 and I was in a Viewliner in July of 03.

What happened to you on the Sunset Limited? :unsure:

You'll need to be a little more specific with your question. :)
 
I was going to say that i just took a trip on the Zephyr (sorry about spelling). The attendant i had in the sleepers was great.. Since i was traveling with 2 small children he brought me our meals. Over all we had a great trip.
 
There was a sewer problem in the car. The whole car reeked of sewage and there was nowhere else to go. Everyone in the car complained, but

to no avail.

Otherwise the trip was fine. Was wondering if this was a common problem.

And then there was the constant delays, so the train was 7 hours late. Do freight trains take precedence over passenger trains?? We seem to have had a lot of long waiting time for freight trains to pass.

lancet
 
lancet said:
There was a sewer problem in the car.  The whole car reeked of sewage and there was nowhere else to go.  Everyone in the car complained, but to no avail.
lancet
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It is an all-too chronic problem. In my opinion a car with a failed sanitary system should be bad-ordered and removed from the train just as if a wheel was flat or brakes had failed. Considering the price charged for sleeping car rooms, there is no excuse for subjecting paying customers to that kind of discomfort. If they have to put people up overnight or substitute a flight, so be it. But Amtrak seems to feel otherwise and considers the smell just a cosmetic issue to be fixed at their convenience. Were I trying to live in one of those little rooms for a day or two or three with that odor I would consider it anything but cosmetic.

A lot of Amtrak’s problems are out of their control. Delays due to freight train interference are an example. But the waste-stench problem, reports of which crop-up regularly on rail discussion boards, is clearly within their control. I hope you at least tried to get your accommodation charge refunded. If that happened at a Holiday Inn or a Marriott, you would either be moved to an acceptable room or you would stay for free with even some compensation beyond that. Amtrak should be held to the same standard.
 
Well retention tank problems, unfortunately are unavoidable once they occur. Many times the train will leave its initial terminal with no problems, problems develop en route and by then it's too late.
 
lancet said:
There was a sewer problem in the car.  The whole car reeked of sewage and there was nowhere else to go.  Everyone in the car complained, butto no avail.
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Well it does happen from time to time, but I've only had that problem once and even then it was on a Viewliner, not a Superliner. By the way I've covered over almost 40,000 miles on Amtrak in the last 4 years, so if this were a cronic problem, then the odds are that I would have hit many more problems.

Generally if a problem occurs once the train has left it's starting point, it is often difficult to fix the problem while enroute. The crew does not have to tools or the know how to fix it. In fact many times that a problem does occur, it's thanks to a passenger trying to flush something inappropriate down the toilet.

lancet said:
And then there was the constant delays, so the train was 7 hours late.  Do freight trains take precedence over passenger trains??  We seem to have had a lot of long waiting time for freight trains to pass.
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This is not supposed to be the case, Amtrak is supposed to get priority over freight. However in practice this is not always the case. Since 90% of the tracks that Amtrak uses are owned by the freight RR's, those same freight RR's control the signals. So they often do give priority to their own trains, even though their agreement with Amtrak states that Amtrak must be given priority.

Unfortunately part of the route that the Sunset Limited runs on is owned by UP, one of the worst offendors when it comes to giving their own trains priority. Some routes do much better, since their hosts do honor the agreement whenever possible.

Hopefully your next experience will be better than the one you had. :)
 
Thanks for the info batalion, PRR and Alan. There were no empty sleepers, and coach cars were mostly full--as well as being thoroughly trashed by many children. Dont get me wrong, I love kids, but it was bedlam in the coaches. This is not the attendants fault. So we spent a lot of time in the lounge, and relied on olfactory fatigue to get us through the night's sleep.

I did complain and was given a phone number to call. Nothing came of it, so I let it go.

Otherwise the trip was enjoyable, and am looking forward (with some trepidation) to the CZ trip. Maybe I should take a large can of air freshener :) .

I had heard about the priorities of freight trains on that route, but was double checking on it.

thanks again all.
 
Ill tell ya what, my brand new Walther's Heritage Diner serves up the best meals on the rails! The French Toast cannot be beat on my layout!
 

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