Does the heat EVER work?

[northnorthwest]

I am not as experienced as all of you, but I have now been in 6 sleepers (in the last year or so). All but one were viewliners, because most of the trips (4/6) were on the Crescent.

Of those times the knob that is for controlling heat in the room has only worked once. All the other times it had absolutely no effect. That one time was the first roomette I had on the Crescent, and I could actually make it warmer in the room.

Am I just reeeeally unlucky, or is this pretty much the state of the equipment? I have been taking these trains in the cold weather months, and I really wish that if I used my points up on these trips I could fall asleep in a warm environment, not the freezer, which is what I expect from coach.

I think if you pay the high prices we are charged for sleepers or even if you use points (which we had to save up over a long time and spent money to earn) we should have functioning heat in the rooms.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I seldom have had problems with the heat control knob working. They take a while to adjust to new settings, but with a little patience, they usually work fine for me.

 

[Ryan]

You're really unlucky.

 

[pennyk]

I think the heat was working too well on my last Viewliner trip on the Silver Meteor.

 

[benjibear]

I just took a round trip on the crescent and both mine and my wife's roomette heat worked. It did take a while to heat up but once it did, it throught out too much heat.

 

[Thom Griffin]

If anything, both my roomette and my coach experiences have been too hot; not too cold.

 

[guest]

If anything, both my roomette and my coach experiences have been too hot; not too cold.

Just as often too hot as as too cold, in my experience.

 

[stan]

On our recient Viewliner the heat knob did not do much likely because the car itself had problems.

I have never had it work all that well but it is normally good for either on or off and it does take time to adjust.

Part of the problem is that these cars are not designed for extreem cold. Hopefully they learned and the new ones will be.

Stan

 

[caravanman]

Sadly, I have had similar problems with the heat not working in roomettes, cold comfort indeed. I am always honestly amazed that a country that is said to be the richest in the world, sent men to the moon, and rescued those from Apollo 13, cannot find a simple reliable way to heat a roomette in the year 2014. Maybe we just expect too much for our hundred+ dollars a night sleeper charges?

(ps.. My trips were in moderate cool weather, nothing too wintery...)

Ed

 

[PennCentralFan]

It works and I have to say under normal conditions it's often too hot than too cold on the superliners. The other trains the single-level ones tend to be a little too cold.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Am I just reeeeally unlucky, or is this pretty much the state of the equipment?

I ride Amtrak several times a year (Superliners in my case) and the in-room temperature controls are largely useless in my experience. It can be surprisingly difficult to convince the SCA that the in-room controls aren't actually changing anything (I recommend bringing a thermometer with you). Once you've convinced the SCA that the in-room controls are broken it's like pulling teeth to get them to change the master temperature lever. I've actually had much better luck with requesting temperature changes on aircraft.

 

[gmushial]

On our recient Viewliner the heat knob did not do much likely because the car itself had problems.

I have never had it work all that well but it is normally good for either on or off and it does take time to adjust.

Part of the problem is that these cars are not designed for extreem cold. Hopefully they learned and the new ones will be.

Stan

Related question: if there is a control knob in each room(ette) - does that imply that heating and cooling are done electrically and local to each room? And this is different from a coach car where there seems to be a single heat/cool control? Anyone know the technical?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

On our recient Viewliner the heat knob did not do much likely because the car itself had problems.

I have never had it work all that well but it is normally good for either on or off and it does take time to adjust.

Part of the problem is that these cars are not designed for extreem cold. Hopefully they learned and the new ones will be.

Stan

Related question: if there is a control knob in each room(ette) - does that imply that heating and cooling are done electrically and local to each room? And this is different from a coach car where there seems to be a single heat/cool control? Anyone know the technical?

So far as I know the knob only connects to a single heating element near the window. There is no individual cooling control besides opening or closing the air vent, which may or may not be blowing cold air depending on the situation.

 

[Golden grrl]

My only trip on a Viewliner was in a roomette on the Crescent in December 2012. NO heat, and there was ice and snow in NC and VA. The car attendant was wearing a parka all the trip, not just when the doors were open.

My attendant was great, brought me extra blankets and made sure I had hot coffee. In the diner the next morning, when they handed me a cup of hot java, they actually exclaimed about my cold fingers, which indeed had turned blue, as they pointed out.

Everyone in onboard services told me to be sure to call customer relations, giving the car number, train number, and date, and report the heat outage, just as soon as I got off at ALX. The attendants indicated that even if they reported the failure, the car likely would not get fixed, but if a passenger immediately called with the specific date and car, the repair would be more likely happen before the next trip.

I called within 45 minutes of exiting the train. To my surprise, Customer Relations insisted on giving me a generous voucher. I was merely interested in the repair, didn't ever ask for anything for me. As it turned out, I never used the voucher [forgot about it, really] but I was pleased with the effort Customer Relations made.

 

[Railroad Bill]

As was mentioned by one member, you usually need to gradually adjust the knob until the heat increases to your desired temp. I believe many people turn the knob all the way over and eventually end up with a room that is much too warm. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the connection to kick in. Especially in the roomettes. I have found the vent on the top of the ceiling many times puts out too much cool air and that is difficult to adjust since the vent knob usually doesnt shut off the air flow adequately.

But it is true that many of the old cars just do not work the way they did when they were newer. Sometimes cracking the sliding door a notch will help even out the heat flow if it is too warm. But most of the time, a minor adjustment to the heat control knob has brought some success.

Amtrak...always an adventure

 

[Ryan]

On our recient Viewliner the heat knob did not do much likely because the car itself had problems.

I have never had it work all that well but it is normally good for either on or off and it does take time to adjust.

Part of the problem is that these cars are not designed for extreem cold. Hopefully they learned and the new ones will be.

Stan

Related question: if there is a control knob in each room(ette) - does that imply that heating and cooling are done electrically and local to each room? And this is different from a coach car where there seems to be a single heat/cool control? Anyone know the technical?

So far as I know the knob only connects to a single heating element near the window. There is no individual cooling control besides opening or closing the air vent, which may or may not be blowing cold air depending on the situation.

This is correct. The heat knob controls the electrical strip heater in the room.

Cold air supply is managed by the vent closure, and the temperature of that air is set centrally.

Look for posts by Al (oldtimer) where he explains the system in great detail.

 

[gmushial]

On our recient Viewliner the heat knob did not do much likely because the car itself had problems.

I have never had it work all that well but it is normally good for either on or off and it does take time to adjust.

Part of the problem is that these cars are not designed for extreem cold. Hopefully they learned and the new ones will be.

Stan

Related question: if there is a control knob in each room(ette) - does that imply that heating and cooling are done electrically and local to each room? And this is different from a coach car where there seems to be a single heat/cool control? Anyone know the technical?

So far as I know the knob only connects to a single heating element near the window. There is no individual cooling control besides opening or closing the air vent, which may or may not be blowing cold air depending on the situation.

This is correct. The heat knob controls the electrical strip heater in the room.

Cold air supply is managed by the vent closure, and the temperature of that air is set centrally.

Look for posts by Al (oldtimer) where he explains the system in great detail.

As always: many thanks.

 

[zephyr17]

I've had several trips where the knob has had no effect. Most of times when it didn't work, it wouldn't heat, but the last trip it blasted out heat like a toaster, and the room became unbearably hot (in Idaho and Montana, in December). The attendant recognized the problem (the fact that roomette 1 was having the same issue probably helped, I was in 2), and offered to let me have the empty handicapped bedroom, where the heat didn't work at all. The original occupant had been moved to the other car's handicapped room and the room blocked for downline sale due to lack of heat.

I took it, and it was fine. The attendant put an extra blanket in the room, and even though it was a bit chilly in there, it wasn't bad and it was much better than being baked all night.

 

[XHRTSP]

Last trip on a Superliner the system in my roomette was stuck hot, and being on the sun facing side of the train the room temp was somewhere between magma and lava. I told our attendant what was up and he ran downstairs and next thing you know I wasn't sweating my balls off. Not sure what he did, but I guess the lesson of the story is speak up if something is wrong, there may be a fix.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Last trip on a Superliner the system in my roomette was stuck hot, and being on the sun facing side of the train the room temp was somewhere between magma and lava. I told our attendant what was up and he ran downstairs and next thing you know I wasn't sweating my balls off. Not sure what he did, but I guess the lesson of the story is speak up if something is wrong, there may be a fix.

I had a similar experience on the California Zephyr. I'm not one to suffer in silence so I spoke up and received a reply that there is no way to change the temperature beyond the in-room controls. SCA's name was Michael and he made it clear that he was unwilling to consider any other solution to this problem.

 

[zephyr17]

Last trip on a Superliner the system in my roomette was stuck hot, and being on the sun facing side of the train the room temp was somewhere between magma and lava. I told our attendant what was up and he ran downstairs and next thing you know I wasn't sweating my balls off. Not sure what he did, but I guess the lesson of the story is speak up if something is wrong, there may be a fix.

In my case, the attendant tried to reset/change something on the panel downstairs, but it had no effect. She really tried to fix it.

 

[gmushial]

Since we have people in this forum disassembling speakers to disable announcements: has anyone taken apart one of these controls that wasn't working? Anything obviously wrong with it? I assume behind the knob is a wirewound pot?

 

[lthanlon]

On one Superliner trip on the Texas Eagle, our SCA apologized for it being too hot and said that the climate control system has only two settings -- one to warm the car, the other to cool it -- and that each only functions well within a narrow temperature range. Is this true? In our case, the problem was hot air coming through the vents. My vent wouldn't close, of course. Fortunately, I'd brought along gaffer tape.

 

[gmushial]

On the CZ (also SLs) it seemed that the car temp settings were in 10 degree steps, ie, 60, 70, 80F ... the coach car that I was in on the most recent trip had a pair of meth-heads that complained about the car being cold, so the SCA set the temp up one click: then the rest of us complained about the sauna temps: clearly the answer: private varnish

 

[amamba]

I've never been cold on amtrak - only too hot!! As always, take layers.