Nice conductors????

[MStrain]

I would just like to say that the City of New Orleans has some very nice and good humored conductors. I took 5 rookies this past weekend to New Orleans and they loved the conductor....Mr. J. Powell. Not sure if he's on here or not, but he was outstanding. He played with the children on board and joked with the passengers alot.

Douglas is another great conductor on this route that I have met as well as a man named Kurt.

So I guess if you know any personally on other routes, let us know. Also.....if you know of any who are NOT friendly, let us know that too!

 

[trainboy325]

I can't agree enough!!! In my three years with Amtrak as an OBS employee, I NEVER had a problem with the NOL and CDL T&E crews that work the entire CONO. They worked very hard, helping passengers and being very kind to eveyone and were very supportive with the OBS crew members and the pressure management was making to cut staff on a very busy train, especially north of CDL. They would help with baggage and work stops alone with no scheduled pickups/dropoffs to give crews some down time. As a TA on the CONO, you get downtime between MEM and CDL only, and with the run times between those cities being just under 4 hours without delays, you never got a full 4 hour "sleep" as required by the OBS labor contract. I'd have to work CDL going north at 3 AM, but they would give me a break and not make us get up for Centralia or Effingham if one or two people were getting on. We just had to have the seats ready with a pillow and cleaned up so the conductors could just put the people in their seat. Although we had a lot of people in Illinios, the crews made sure we worked the train as a long distance train versus a commuter with pillows and at seat service. However, they never had a "I'm captain of this train" attitude and allowed the train attendents run the coaches based on their best judgement. I love my job with the National Park Service, but I still have fond memories of my Amtrak job, with NOL as the best crew base and the CONO as my favorite train after working the Cresent and Silver Service trains while at JAX.

 

[ourlouisiana]

We've got to agree. We took the CNO from Hammond to Greenwood Ms last year for Donna's first train ride. We took a sleeper, because we had a travel voucher from a previous trip I took.

Our attendant greeted us by name ( of course we were the only ones boarding at Hammond ) and a smile. The entire on board crew was pleasant and outgoing. The conductors were helpful to all. Just south of Jackson, we went into emergency stop because a pedestrian tried to play chicken with the train. Fortunately he changed his mind.

Enroute, we discussed our plans with the conductor. Turns out they were returning the next morning and also staying at the same motel in Greenwood that we were. Upon arrival, we were asked if we had transportation to the motel. We had the telephone number of a taxi seervice but hadn't called yet. He told us to put our bags in the back, we would be going with them.

At the motel, they told us to call their room in the morning, they would let us know if the southbound CNO was on time or not. We also rode back to the train station with them, though we were about 30 minutes early.

Won't use names of give dates, we're sure they broke some of the operating rules. Don't want to get anyone in trouble. Their friendliness

made an impression on both of us. That's what I remember from the old SP Sunset and Arganaut, and the T&P Eagle train crews from when I was a kid. Donna, being a Yankee, was very impressed by their southern hospitality.

The on board crew of the southbound CNO was the same. We took several photos of the crew, and submitted them and a short story to Amtrak. The story appeared on Whistle Stop for a while, including photos of the crew.

We are leaving next week, going all the way to Chicago - hopefully with the flooding the train will go all the way. We look forward to our trip.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

You're gonna go all the way... to chicago?

 

[ourlouisiana]

We hope to, unless there is equipment failure or flooding. Our trip is for the train trip, the Chicago is because we've never been there.

We've been up the Crescent route, and the Sunset route, but never all the way on the City.

My dad grew up in Chicago, but he left before WWI ( Yes he was very old ).

 

[RailFanLNK]

Hey...there's a great one that works the Zephyr and his name is Lester Peterson. He's based out of Denver and does the CZ from DEN to OMA. His effort individually made me a railfan. He has been great every time I ride and goes the extra mile and makes for sure we all have fun. I have also seen a side that screams "don't mess with me" when dealing with unruly passengers. So he does a great job of being forward with a problem rider and is also excellent with the crew and passengers. I have the utmost respect for him. There's also another one based out of OMA and his name is "Bill". (I think) He was excellent a few years ago with some folks that were riding with me. I have had him enough to know that he runs things well.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

We hope to, unless there is equipment failure or flooding. Our trip is for the train trip, the Chicago is because we've never been there.We've been up the Crescent route, and the Sunset route, but never all the way on the City.

My dad grew up in Chicago, but he left before WWI ( Yes he was very old ).

*dejected at failed bad joke*

 

[J-1 3235]

We hope to, unless there is equipment failure or flooding. Our trip is for the train trip, the Chicago is because we've never been there.We've been up the Crescent route, and the Sunset route, but never all the way on the City.

My dad grew up in Chicago, but he left before WWI ( Yes he was very old ).

*dejected at failed bad joke*

Not to worry, GML, I got it!

Back on topic, I have yet to meet an Amtrak Conductor who wasn't unfailingly polite. Unless, of course, you give them a reason not to be.....

Mike

 

[sweet tea]

On my most recent Christmas trip on the TE from CHI to Little Rock, we had an absolutely lousy sleeper attendant, but a very cool conductor. (I think he was a conductor, but I'm actually not quite sure. He had a sharp uniform, but now that I think of it, he said he was based in LRK -- do conductors ever work only part of the train's route?)

Whoever he was, he stood downstairs with us as we waited for the train to get into the station. The train arrives in LRK in the wee hours, and tends to get hung up in the UP yards just outside of the station, so you don't know whether you're arriving in ten minutes or an hour <_< . Usually the sleeper attendant waits with us, but this one didn't do much more than grunt the whole trip. (I sat up all night because I was convinced he wouldn't even wake us.) The putative conductor not only stood with us and was friendly and cheerful at 4am, he also opened up the window as we went over the Arkansas River so we could see the view. It was magical.

On my Crescent trip from NYP to NOL this spring (which I still need to write up for the travelogue section, if anyone's even still interested :unsure: ), the whole train was friendly and seemed happy. I jumped out at every smoke stop and longish pause just to hang out with them. I can't specifically remember the conductor, but I think s/he must have been pretty great for the whole crew to have been in such a good mood. That was the kind of trip that would sell anybody on train travel, despite our eventual late arrival in NOL.

 

[jackal]

(I think he was a conductor, but I'm actually not quite sure. He had a sharp uniform, but now that I think of it, he said he was based in LRK -- do conductors ever work only part of the train's route?)

Yes--in fact, conductors nearly always work only part of a train's route, unless it's a short commuter run.

Since the train's operating crew (the engineers and conductors) are primarily responsible for the safety of the train and its passengers, federal law limits their maximum work time to twelve hours. While most Amtrak operating crew runs are much less than twelve hours (they're usually scheduled for about six to eight hours), in the event a crew hits that twelve-hour mark and runs out of time, the train must stop or the railroad will be subject to heavy fines from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Some background on the conductor's job: While the conductor's most visible job is taking tickets, he is actually the person in charge of the train--the engineer cannot move until the conductor tells him to. He is also responsible for talking with the train dispatchers (who direct the movement of trains over the railroad's track and ensure two trains aren't trying to be on the same piece of track at once) and receiving their "authority" to occupy a section of track and then telling the engineer where to stop to ensure they don't overrun their permitted authority. (On newer track with certain types of signals, this doesn't require as much work, so you'll see the conductor sitting around and looking bored just a little bit more...but the conductor still talks to the dispatchers on the radio for other things.)

Slightly off-topic: My theory on how the conductor, rather than the car attendants, ended up with the historical duty of collecting tickets, is that the conductor, as the person in charge of the train (much like the Pilot In Command of an airplane), holds the authority to remove someone from the train. In other words, if you don't have a ticket, then you're out. A car attendant doesn't automatically have this power and would have to call the conductor over to deal with non-payers. I could be way off base here, but it's just my pet theory... :lol: