Sleeper Car Layouts

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ciship

Service Attendant
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May 4, 2004
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I'm trying to find that website that shows the layouts and roomette numbers in the sleeper cars for the viewliners and superliners. I am trying to find out info on the Silver Meteor and why it doesnt show a Family sleeper?? Is this train smaller? I have always been on the Southwest Chief, so that is the only train I know about. Is there a really good website that shows photos of the interior of these trains also?? Is the Silver Meteor notoriously late! How is the scenery from Washington D.C. to Florida?

Thanks for the help!
 
Regarding the scenery, there really isn't much to see. The route goes through many flat areas, so what scenery there is consists of the countryside, and several picturesque towns. It really depends on what you call scenic. I find that looking at all of the towns as the train crosses the countryside to be scenic, even the more run-down looking areas.

Also, the single level sleepers on the eastern seaboard trains don't have family sleeper rooms per se.

The Sliver service trains all traverse CSX tracks at one time or another, and, as other board members can confirm, CSX doesn't care for Amtrak one little bit.
 
ciship said:
I'm trying to find that website that shows the layouts and roomette numbers in the sleeper cars for the viewliners and superliners. I am trying to find out info on the Silver Meteor and why it doesnt show a Family sleeper?? Is this train smaller?
Yes, the train cars are single level only on the Meteor. Whereas the Chief has double decker cars, so they can put in a family room on the lower level.
 
THANK YOU! This is exactly what I was looking for.

I'm wondering if I should take the route from Kansas City down to New Orleans and cross over to Florida instead??? It's about the same amount of hours. Are these predominently CSX tracks also?
 
ciship said:
THANK YOU! This is exactly what I was looking for.
I'm wondering if I should take the route from Kansas City down to New Orleans and cross over to Florida instead??? It's about the same amount of hours. Are these predominently CSX tracks also?
Well first off that would really depend on when you plan to travel. As of right now, thru at least the end of this year, service from New Orleans to Florida is suspended thanks to damage from Hurricane Katrina.

There are no updates that give an anticipated resumption of service, other than some time next year.

Now that said, if your travel will occur some time next year, then the answers to your questions would be:

You would be on CSX tracks from New Orleans to Florida only. The train to New Orleans runs mainly on CN tracks.

Next the Sunset Limited, the train from New Orleans to Florida, is notoriously late. Often 10 hours or more. Additionally, the Sunset only runs three days a week, not 7 days a week. So that makes scheduling more difficult.
 
As AlanB said, the Sunset almost always runs late, especially by the time it gets east of New Orleans. With Sunset Limited service east of New Orleans off line until next spring at the earliest, if the Sunset Limited gets into NOL too late EB, Amtrak almost always cuts the train there and turns it into a bus all the way to Orlando. I try to encourage all travelers to avoid the Sunset Limited east of NOL, especially on long trips that involve multiple connections and to avoid the relativley high chance that you'll get a bus ride across the Florida Panhandle. Just a note, the Sunset Limited got terminated in NOL EB 46% of its regularly scheduled trips before Katrina killed totally killed it. I know this happened for six consecutive weeks on Wednesday mornings earlier this year. I worked ready crew a bunch of times those days and we had to aid the passengers from the train to the bus. It was always sad to tell everyone that this was for their own good as by the time they got to their destination, they'd only be a few hours late rather than 12 hours late if they stayed on the train. Most coach passengers wanted off and were happy to be on a bus, but this never occured with the sleeping car passengers for obvious reasons as they got a bottle of water, cold sandwich and an apple for their entitled en-route lunch.
 
CLICK HERE for a page that has diagrams of the sleeping cars and room numbers.
this is great, but i have a question anyway :rolleyes: : i'm riding the texas eagle this christmas, and we're assigned roomettes 17 and 18 (one each way). i only see numbers up to 14 on the superliner charts. do the higher numbers indicate an added car? if so, is there anyway to tell where the rooms will be? it doesn't matter; i'm just curious.

thanks!
 
CLICK HERE for a page that has diagrams of the sleeping cars and room numbers.
this is great, but i have a question anyway :rolleyes: : i'm riding the texas eagle this christmas, and we're assigned roomettes 17 and 18 (one each way). i only see numbers up to 14 on the superliner charts. do the higher numbers indicate an added car? if so, is there anyway to tell where the rooms will be? it doesn't matter; i'm just curious.

thanks!
Those higher numbers, 17 and up, indicate that your rooms are in what's called the Transition Dorm car. This is a special sleeping car where half the rooms are dedicated to use by the crew on the train, and the other half are for use by passengers.

Your rooms will be on the upper level of this car.

The car also serves another important function, in that it allows Amtrak to connect single level cars to double decker cars and it provides the ability to transition from one level to the other.
 
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thanks!

i love looking at this forum to get jazzed up about a big trip!
 
Here is a page with diagrams of all Superliner II cars including hte Transition Sleeper (dorm).

Thanks! Is there a shower in the dorm car, or do we walk into the main sleeper? Also, what's showering on the train like -- this will be the first trip I've taken that's long enough for that to come up. We'll be on a Viewliner (LSL) on day one, then the Superliner (Tx Eagle) day two.
 
Here is a page with diagrams of all Superliner II cars including hte Transition Sleeper (dorm).

Thanks! Is there a shower in the dorm car, or do we walk into the main sleeper? Also, what's showering on the train like -- this will be the first trip I've taken that's long enough for that to come up. We'll be on a Viewliner (LSL) on day one, then the Superliner (Tx Eagle) day two.
There is a shower in the dorm car that you can use, no need to go to the other car for one.

As for showering on the train, it can be an interesting experience. Some people actually try to wait for a station stop to make things easier. Best advice is keep a wide stance in the shower with your feet against the walls and try to hold on at all times if possible. Expect the unexpected as the train can bounce around at anytime.
 
AlanB is quite right: showering on the train can be interesting. For older or frail passengers I would recommend waiting for a longer stop, preparing ahead and being ready to shower the moment the train comes to a halt, and making it quick.

I've had mixed results using different strategies. Easiest moving shower was aboard the Empire Builder rolling from Milwaukee to Chicago - smooth Canadian Pacific rails, with minimal lurching or bouncing. Worst was trying to use the in-room (toilet) shower aboard the eastbound California Zephyr - what an ordeal!
 
Here is a page with diagrams of all Superliner II cars including hte Transition Sleeper (dorm).

Thanks! Is there a shower in the dorm car, or do we walk into the main sleeper? Also, what's showering on the train like -- this will be the first trip I've taken that's long enough for that to come up. We'll be on a Viewliner (LSL) on day one, then the Superliner (Tx Eagle) day two.
There is a shower in the dorm car that you can use, no need to go to the other car for one.

As for showering on the train, it can be an interesting experience. Some people actually try to wait for a station stop to make things easier. Best advice is keep a wide stance in the shower with your feet against the walls and try to hold on at all times if possible. Expect the unexpected as the train can bounce around at anytime.
Alan,

In the diagram of the transistion car it shows two toilets. Isn't the one opposite room # 15, at the end of the car, the one with the shower? It doesn't show a shower in the picture or is it time to get my eyes checked?
 
Here is a page with diagrams of all Superliner II cars including hte Transition Sleeper (dorm).

Thanks! Is there a shower in the dorm car, or do we walk into the main sleeper? Also, what's showering on the train like -- this will be the first trip I've taken that's long enough for that to come up. We'll be on a Viewliner (LSL) on day one, then the Superliner (Tx Eagle) day two.
There is a shower in the dorm car that you can use, no need to go to the other car for one.

As for showering on the train, it can be an interesting experience. Some people actually try to wait for a station stop to make things easier. Best advice is keep a wide stance in the shower with your feet against the walls and try to hold on at all times if possible. Expect the unexpected as the train can bounce around at anytime.
Alan,

In the diagram of the transistion car it shows two toilets. Isn't the one opposite room # 15, at the end of the car, the one with the shower? It doesn't show a shower in the picture or is it time to get my eyes checked?
Jay,

I've never yet set foot inside a trans-dorm unfortunately. I was scheduled to ride in one three summers ago on the Eagle, when Amtrak substituted a regular (or at least semi-regular) sleeper. So sadly I've never been in one yet, but I'm still hopeful.

That said however, it is my understanding that indeed the room opposite room #15 is indeed the shower. The diagram that we are looking for the trans-dorm at isn't one of the special styled diagrams that you see above that were done by Amtrak for a travel planner, but rather a scan of the emergency pamphlet blown up.
 
As I understand, there are actually two different configurations of transition sleepers. I believe one configuration was designed to be a combined passenger-crew sleeper, and another configuration was supposed to be "crew only," and intended for use on western trains with larger crews. I don't know if they are numbered consecutively, based on configuration. I also don't know if Amtrak makes any attempt to assign specific types to certain trains.

The location of the shower may be different depending on the configuration of the car.

I've only ridden in one transition sleeper, and I can't remember exactly how it was configured.
 
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