sueb
Train Attendant
sorry about the lack of capitalization. working on my mac from home to the server at work does that.
our sca carlos came to take our dinner order before the train left chi. he told us he would be serving us in addition to the entire adjacent sleeping car. i think we were the only revenue pax in that trans dorm car. this meant our attendant call button would not go off in his roomette. he told us if we needed him we should get the conductor, whose roomette/office was in our car down the hall, to call him. i don't know if this is a standard set-up for revenue pax riding in trans dorm cars. it could present problems for some pax with special needs. in our case we did not need to call carlos, so it was ok.
earlier in our trip i had tried to order the crab cake dinner special but they were out of it. when i asked carlos if he thought they'd have it this time he said this was a good crew who always orders enough not to run out of things. he was right, too. i got the crab cakes and matthew had the cheese ravioli - i guess the vegetarian entree.
with the time zone changes it was pretty late by the time we had our dinner. matthew really liked the ravioli but he was struggling to stay awake to eat them. by time we finished he was sound asleep in his stroller. when carlos came to take our trays he offered to help me put matthew to bed. he ended up lifting matthew out of the stroller and into the bottom bunk. given the cramped space to lift and turn this was a fairly amazing performance. Matthew weighs about 100 pounds. i told carlos to be careful and not to hurt his back, but he said he could do it. he did the whole thing again in reverse in the morning.
matthew hardly woke when we put him into bed. i just took off his shoes, leg braces and trousers and let him sleep in his shirt and underwear. i tried to organize our luggage for getting off in pgh at 5am before falling up the ladder into my bunk. last station stop i remember was south bend in.
carlos woke us around 4am and we got dressed to detrain. the redcaps met us on the platform and we were deposited in the pgh station waiting room before we knew it. i made sure to thank carlos and give him a generous tip. he turned that leg of our trip from a disaster to a pleasant memory.
the g20 summit in pgh had wrapped the evening before. in fact, when i tried to check luggage thru to pgh from flg at the start of our trip home, the agent wasn't going to let me do it. he said they might not let the luggage off the station platform because of security. i told him i would take that chance. in fact, by saturday morning everything at pgh was back to normal. we could have taken a cab somewhere to get breakfast if we had wanted to. with only a 2 hour layover and no day check option for our hand luggage that didn't seem like a good idea. so i gave matthew breakfast from odds and ends of leftovers we had from our trip. the vending machines didn't have much for breakfast except coffee.
they used a lift to put matthew on the pennsylvanian when we boarded. we had upgraded to business class so that we could sit near the snack bar and perhaps get breakfast and lunch. the assistant conductor on the pennsylvanian was a conductor who sometimes works the keystone service where i commute 5 days a week. he knew me although he had never met matthew before. dale made sure we were well taken care of and he called ahead to make sure the baggage handlers met our train in hbg. i got matthew out of his stroller and we settled down in those extra-comfy bc reclining seats. next thing i knew we were crossing the susquehanna river outside hbg. i had slept thru more than 5 hours of western pa scenery. i guess i was more tired from the trip than i thought. no meals from the snack bar that trip. i quickly phoned the friend who was meeting our train, as we were arriving about 30 minutes early.
dale and the station staff got us off the train with a polished precision. another amtrak employee got off there, too. she went outside the station and waited with us until our ride came. she even helped us load the car. that extra concern put a very good finish on our trip.
looking back on our first ld train trip, i have a few general observations -
there seem to be 2 types of h rooms on superliner trains. au members more familiar with car construction than i am can probably relate these variations to versions of the superliners. i only know what we saw. the major differences involve the toilet and the wheelchair lockdown hardware. one car type has a toilet that flushes when you press a small button on the hall door side of the toilet bench structure. this car type also had a large metal appliance on the back wall of the room that i believe was intended to immobilize a wheelchair backed into it. since it didn't fit matthew's stroller it was mostly just in our way. the other type of h room had a toilet that flushed automatically when you put the lid down on the seat. there was a button on the side of the toilet away from the hall door that lit up when the flush mechanism was working. this car type did not have any noticeable wheelchair lockdown hardware on the wall. there were other variations such as where the coat hooks are and how the lower level toilet doors in the hall were arranged in relation to the h room door. where the light switches in the room were varied, too. since pax have no control over which type of h room you get, i don't know how helpful it is to know there are multiple types. both types have the vacuum toilet mechanism. both types have a ceiling mounted heavy blue curtain that can divide the room into a sleeping area and a toileting area. we just found the curtain was in our way, but other people may well find it useful. i wish there was a way to attach the curtain to the back wall securely if you don't want to use it.
it is possible to take a ld train trip both ways with a person with limited mobility without using a private car. however, the saf connection would not work for someone who cannot get out of a chair and step up into the shuttle that amtrak contracts with. you would need to locate and hire a private shuttle service with a chair lift to go from lamy to santa fe and back. the lamy station is accessible, but without the shuttle that doesn't help much.
the fold down table in the h room is too close to the tops of the seats. i'm not a huge person, but i could not deploy the table over my lap, only next to it. that especially applies to the fold-out wings on each side. only in the completely folded out position is the table big enough to support the entire food tray from the dining car. so i ended up piling things up 2 and 3 deep while trying to feed matthew and myself. not a good arrangement when the track is rough.
it would be nice if the lower bunk in the h room had the same safety straps as the upper bunk, since people who use the h room may have a higher chance of falling out of bed. amtrak already has the straps' design and a supplier, so it wouldn't be too hard to put them in, with the upper attachment to the bottom of the upper bunk instead of to the ceiling.
the metropolitan lounge in chi needs a family restroom for handicapped travelers.
no scas or conductors ever asked us to provide photo id or proof of disability for my son. we had both, but the only time we used them was at the national parks. i bought those neck pouches to hold our tickets and ids. they were handy for keeping the tickets at the ready. in the event of a crash, such items could aid in identifying pax like my son who cannot talk.
so far amtrak has posted the agr outbound part of our trip to my account but they have not posted the paid return trip. since we returned 9/26 i guess my next activity is to phone agr with my ticket numbers.
overall a good trip. we have more than 400 photos. hope to have some on flickr soon and will post a link. thank you all for your patience and advice.
our sca carlos came to take our dinner order before the train left chi. he told us he would be serving us in addition to the entire adjacent sleeping car. i think we were the only revenue pax in that trans dorm car. this meant our attendant call button would not go off in his roomette. he told us if we needed him we should get the conductor, whose roomette/office was in our car down the hall, to call him. i don't know if this is a standard set-up for revenue pax riding in trans dorm cars. it could present problems for some pax with special needs. in our case we did not need to call carlos, so it was ok.
earlier in our trip i had tried to order the crab cake dinner special but they were out of it. when i asked carlos if he thought they'd have it this time he said this was a good crew who always orders enough not to run out of things. he was right, too. i got the crab cakes and matthew had the cheese ravioli - i guess the vegetarian entree.
with the time zone changes it was pretty late by the time we had our dinner. matthew really liked the ravioli but he was struggling to stay awake to eat them. by time we finished he was sound asleep in his stroller. when carlos came to take our trays he offered to help me put matthew to bed. he ended up lifting matthew out of the stroller and into the bottom bunk. given the cramped space to lift and turn this was a fairly amazing performance. Matthew weighs about 100 pounds. i told carlos to be careful and not to hurt his back, but he said he could do it. he did the whole thing again in reverse in the morning.
matthew hardly woke when we put him into bed. i just took off his shoes, leg braces and trousers and let him sleep in his shirt and underwear. i tried to organize our luggage for getting off in pgh at 5am before falling up the ladder into my bunk. last station stop i remember was south bend in.
carlos woke us around 4am and we got dressed to detrain. the redcaps met us on the platform and we were deposited in the pgh station waiting room before we knew it. i made sure to thank carlos and give him a generous tip. he turned that leg of our trip from a disaster to a pleasant memory.
the g20 summit in pgh had wrapped the evening before. in fact, when i tried to check luggage thru to pgh from flg at the start of our trip home, the agent wasn't going to let me do it. he said they might not let the luggage off the station platform because of security. i told him i would take that chance. in fact, by saturday morning everything at pgh was back to normal. we could have taken a cab somewhere to get breakfast if we had wanted to. with only a 2 hour layover and no day check option for our hand luggage that didn't seem like a good idea. so i gave matthew breakfast from odds and ends of leftovers we had from our trip. the vending machines didn't have much for breakfast except coffee.
they used a lift to put matthew on the pennsylvanian when we boarded. we had upgraded to business class so that we could sit near the snack bar and perhaps get breakfast and lunch. the assistant conductor on the pennsylvanian was a conductor who sometimes works the keystone service where i commute 5 days a week. he knew me although he had never met matthew before. dale made sure we were well taken care of and he called ahead to make sure the baggage handlers met our train in hbg. i got matthew out of his stroller and we settled down in those extra-comfy bc reclining seats. next thing i knew we were crossing the susquehanna river outside hbg. i had slept thru more than 5 hours of western pa scenery. i guess i was more tired from the trip than i thought. no meals from the snack bar that trip. i quickly phoned the friend who was meeting our train, as we were arriving about 30 minutes early.
dale and the station staff got us off the train with a polished precision. another amtrak employee got off there, too. she went outside the station and waited with us until our ride came. she even helped us load the car. that extra concern put a very good finish on our trip.
looking back on our first ld train trip, i have a few general observations -
there seem to be 2 types of h rooms on superliner trains. au members more familiar with car construction than i am can probably relate these variations to versions of the superliners. i only know what we saw. the major differences involve the toilet and the wheelchair lockdown hardware. one car type has a toilet that flushes when you press a small button on the hall door side of the toilet bench structure. this car type also had a large metal appliance on the back wall of the room that i believe was intended to immobilize a wheelchair backed into it. since it didn't fit matthew's stroller it was mostly just in our way. the other type of h room had a toilet that flushed automatically when you put the lid down on the seat. there was a button on the side of the toilet away from the hall door that lit up when the flush mechanism was working. this car type did not have any noticeable wheelchair lockdown hardware on the wall. there were other variations such as where the coat hooks are and how the lower level toilet doors in the hall were arranged in relation to the h room door. where the light switches in the room were varied, too. since pax have no control over which type of h room you get, i don't know how helpful it is to know there are multiple types. both types have the vacuum toilet mechanism. both types have a ceiling mounted heavy blue curtain that can divide the room into a sleeping area and a toileting area. we just found the curtain was in our way, but other people may well find it useful. i wish there was a way to attach the curtain to the back wall securely if you don't want to use it.
it is possible to take a ld train trip both ways with a person with limited mobility without using a private car. however, the saf connection would not work for someone who cannot get out of a chair and step up into the shuttle that amtrak contracts with. you would need to locate and hire a private shuttle service with a chair lift to go from lamy to santa fe and back. the lamy station is accessible, but without the shuttle that doesn't help much.
the fold down table in the h room is too close to the tops of the seats. i'm not a huge person, but i could not deploy the table over my lap, only next to it. that especially applies to the fold-out wings on each side. only in the completely folded out position is the table big enough to support the entire food tray from the dining car. so i ended up piling things up 2 and 3 deep while trying to feed matthew and myself. not a good arrangement when the track is rough.
it would be nice if the lower bunk in the h room had the same safety straps as the upper bunk, since people who use the h room may have a higher chance of falling out of bed. amtrak already has the straps' design and a supplier, so it wouldn't be too hard to put them in, with the upper attachment to the bottom of the upper bunk instead of to the ceiling.
the metropolitan lounge in chi needs a family restroom for handicapped travelers.
no scas or conductors ever asked us to provide photo id or proof of disability for my son. we had both, but the only time we used them was at the national parks. i bought those neck pouches to hold our tickets and ids. they were handy for keeping the tickets at the ready. in the event of a crash, such items could aid in identifying pax like my son who cannot talk.
so far amtrak has posted the agr outbound part of our trip to my account but they have not posted the paid return trip. since we returned 9/26 i guess my next activity is to phone agr with my ticket numbers.
overall a good trip. we have more than 400 photos. hope to have some on flickr soon and will post a link. thank you all for your patience and advice.
