Sort of what we have now on the Texas Eaglete and the Cap Ltd!
Most likely the concept designs in the RFP documents were in color and in high detail but when Paniolo Man requested they didn't give a direct copy of the documents only a poorly scanned version. It could be that Amtrak didn't want those designs to be public because it's only a concept and the final product could be very different.
I do not see Talgo coming back after the breach of contract settlement with Wisconsin in 2015 (Scott "defund trains" Walker fiasco) and the Washington derailment (Point Defiance Bypass) of 2017. Talgo might be amazing in Spain but I found them jarring and loud crossing US switches with ES bogies.
One thing that was mentioned in the talk is that there will be no curved glass as they are spectacularly more expensive. Only straight glass panels will be accepted in order to not back into hugely larger maintenance cost..All that glass with the "skylights" makes me smile
I think Amtrak might just be providing that "experiential" experience promised a while ago.
But they are not. Stadler has curved glass panels, these ones don't.
While curved windows can look swanky and sophisticated (RIP PPC's) I can live without them. My hope is that all new order windows will be actual glass with no plastic downgrades. You can tell some replacement planes are not real glass from the heat pressed compliance text and the acrylic style light refraction.
There were trains with restricted lounges, but some of those carried a second lounge open to both classes, adjacent to the dining car. The most common restricted lounges were rear observation cars behind the sleepers, or as on the CP Canadian equipment, sleeper-lounge-observation cars.
There are no dome cars in the offering so far. But we'll see what the vendors propose.
I don't expect good old fashion dome cars. It's not even possible with the proposed Superliner-style bilevel design. The closest thing is the Holland America McKinley Explorer but that's possible only because you can pass through on the lower level. I was just showing that the original dome car had flat glass panels.
What the RFP basically asks for is a pretty straightforward replacement for the current Sightseers but with flat glass panels. Oddly in some ways the roof structure requested is close to what one finds in the Indian Railways so called Vistadome Cars, though with larger transparent openings in the roof than in those cars.
Last Amtrak example of a First Class Lounge was the Pacific Parlor Car on the LAX to Seattle Route of the Coast Starlight.
Google "Glacier Express" or "Bernina Express" and check out the "Panorama cars." No overhead luggage racks, I think there's storage at one end of the car for bags.
If they did that, they would have to give up some revenue seats to have enough space for baggage, lost to eliminating the overhead racks. Those overhead racks can hold lots of baggage…
It could be possible to have windows in the bulkhead on both sides of the end doors, that would allow vision fore and aft, at least into the next car, but if at the end of the train a view over the top of the locomotive. Or out to the rear.
It could be possible to have windows in the bulkhead on both sides of the end doors, that would allow vision fore and aft, at least into the next car, but if at the end of the train a view over the top of the locomotive. Or out to the rear.
Possible, but not likely, as the small benefit would not likely justify the added cost…
