AKA
OBS Chief
East bound Zephyr was on time. About 30 minutes before boarding we where sitting in the upper waiting room of the station. This is the old Southern Pacific station waiting room at street level. We are called to go down to the lower level. Once there we are seated for a preboarding check, tickets and I D checks the conductor does about 10 minutes explaining how and when to board. Seat assingments were given at this time, you were given a seat check slip to puy above your seat. Sleepers at one door and coach at the other door. He also takes questions. This was quite unexpected. However it sure did help everyone understand just what was going to happen. When # 6 pulled in things went like clock work. Among other things the no smoking rule was stressed. Something I never heard on the Zephyr announcements before. No gambling. No money on the table if you are in a card game. This was repeated at least two more times. An added point was that any money would automatically belong to the house. In this case the loung car attendent, CARL.
We were in sleeper 0631 roomette 2. Car # 32034 the Petrified Forest a superliner 1 with the referb blue and dark wood. This is one with a window in the upper restroom. Car attendent was Donald. He was very friendly and good. He went out of his way to make a lunch reservation for us, saving me a trip to the diner to put our name on the wait list. This guy could give the rest of Amtrak a lesson on how to make coffee. Coffee was always there along with juice. He was up early and stayed late. A little test I do with sleeper attendents is this. I ask for two more pillows right away. If I dont get any attitude and do get a " No problem " I tip then. This will set the pace for both of us for the rest of the trip. Donald got a very nice tip.
Reno east to helper was as expected. East of Green River we picked a little snow. Not hard but blowing. Ruby Canyon is always scenic and did not disapoint. East of Glennwood Springs we came to a stop quickly. To quickly, the train went into an emergency stop. One or two minutes later the conductor was on the PA to tell us we hit a boulder. They would have to inspect the engine and a great deal of the train and some track. I guess it was a small boulder. This only took about 15-20 minutes. After this short delay we were underway again. However the conductor informed us the U P would do a track inspection ahead of us and we would have to wait a while for them to get the proper gear in place.
Snow into Granby and Winter Park. Denver just about on time.
Food on board was good sevice in the diner was good. We had good load of pax all the way to Chicago.
Metropolitan lounge was a little crowded buy OK. Boarded the CL on time. It was training day for our coach attendent. He gave the same seats out three times .What a mess. Assigned seating again on the CL. He also gave away the crew seats. Got it all togeather and we left. From just outside the yards to Toledo Oh. I cant tell you much. I was asleep, out like lite.
Whole trip was pretty much on time . Except the Sparks P V hook up. Put us late into Reno. This was O K kept us out of the casino's.
As always thanks for all the help from all of you on this forum
We were in sleeper 0631 roomette 2. Car # 32034 the Petrified Forest a superliner 1 with the referb blue and dark wood. This is one with a window in the upper restroom. Car attendent was Donald. He was very friendly and good. He went out of his way to make a lunch reservation for us, saving me a trip to the diner to put our name on the wait list. This guy could give the rest of Amtrak a lesson on how to make coffee. Coffee was always there along with juice. He was up early and stayed late. A little test I do with sleeper attendents is this. I ask for two more pillows right away. If I dont get any attitude and do get a " No problem " I tip then. This will set the pace for both of us for the rest of the trip. Donald got a very nice tip.
Reno east to helper was as expected. East of Green River we picked a little snow. Not hard but blowing. Ruby Canyon is always scenic and did not disapoint. East of Glennwood Springs we came to a stop quickly. To quickly, the train went into an emergency stop. One or two minutes later the conductor was on the PA to tell us we hit a boulder. They would have to inspect the engine and a great deal of the train and some track. I guess it was a small boulder. This only took about 15-20 minutes. After this short delay we were underway again. However the conductor informed us the U P would do a track inspection ahead of us and we would have to wait a while for them to get the proper gear in place.
Snow into Granby and Winter Park. Denver just about on time.
Food on board was good sevice in the diner was good. We had good load of pax all the way to Chicago.
Metropolitan lounge was a little crowded buy OK. Boarded the CL on time. It was training day for our coach attendent. He gave the same seats out three times .What a mess. Assigned seating again on the CL. He also gave away the crew seats. Got it all togeather and we left. From just outside the yards to Toledo Oh. I cant tell you much. I was asleep, out like lite.
Whole trip was pretty much on time . Except the Sparks P V hook up. Put us late into Reno. This was O K kept us out of the casino's.
As always thanks for all the help from all of you on this forum
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