Recent content by domefoamer

Hey, I'm somewhat claustrophobic, but there's just not enough headroom up there. They tried to wedge four stacked bunks into a car that's nowhere close to twice as tall as a two-bunk Viewliner.

It's a silly stunt, but the first run only happens once. It's just heartening to see a young railfan in the wild, isn't it? Those Viewliner sleepers look really appealing after only riding Superliners in the West. Their top bunks are like coffins.

Agreed. Amtrak also isn't motivated to ax passenger trains to reallocate schedules and resources to their freight trains, as the private RR's did. Passenger is all they do. And without some LD network to give them national relevance and constituency, it would be tempting to carve Amtrak up into...

Plus the private bath, which is probably the biggest draw with modern germophobes.

And these are up high, out of reach from toddlers.

Nearby Washington Union Station -- about four blocks away, IIRC, is the National Building Museum, home of DC's best architectural exhibits. The building itself is the greatest attraction, a huge Victorian atrium forested with huge columns of colorful sandstone. You could spend a good hour of...

There is no crappy old equipment, Mike, just poorly maintained equipment that's the problem. The older single-level cars would seem to be better suited to handle bundled-up, ski-booted riders, plus picnic coolers and gear. The old Union Station neighborhood, before it became LoDo, was more...

This all sounds like great and welcome news, but I can't help but have some qualms, mostly logistical. This won't be the old Ski Train, steam-heated with reversible benches, or the later streamliner, but modern Superliners. Riders won't arrive ready to skI. Imagine dozens of pairs of ski boots...

I feel your pain about losing the water views as you pass below Point Defiance. But that's a roundabout route, circling a long peninsula. It only makes sense in elevation maps that ignore mileage. Tacoma's new station offers a chance to present a more inviting gateway to the city. That won't be...

potential to reI thouht we started out talking about sleepers and their potential. But all but one response on this page ignore sleepers, delving instead into the familiar big-picture questions of rap vs air vs highway. Maybe that's what everyone wants to talk about, but there are other places...

Thanks for that information. How did I forget about the kitchen? I ate meals from it six months ago. What do I know-- not what a gangway is, that's for sure. Don't get me started on the dome cars; my screen name says all. Whatever it took to maintain them would have been worth it to me. But...

What, pray tell, about the PPC makes it so very maintenance intensive? I can't imagine. The car doesn't contain a toilet, which seems like the single most troublesome device onboard Amtrak equipment. It doesn't have the hardware and hinges of a sleeper, or the hot and cold and wet hardware...

Plenty of others here can say this with more authority, but isn't the Starlight a a longer consist than many others on the list? More cars means more expense, whatever the age of the cars.

Do I hear you say it costs half as much to pull, staff and maintain one PPC as the rest of a full train of, say eight cars? Present your evidence, and define "direct cost." They're no heavier than another car, and they require one staffer. Is their maintenance cost equal to three or four...

Just trying to get a phot published here...