2 Parlour Cars Out of Service

[Trogdor]

So in other words are the 2 that went in the shop when this thread started back on the line now and the "protect car" now being rotated through maintenance?

Yes.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

So in other words are the 2 that went in the shop when this thread started back on the line now and the "protect car" now being rotated through maintenance?

Yes.

EXCELLENT! Thanks for the update.

 

[saxman]

I just boarded 14 here in LAX and there IS a PPC!! Yay! I'm going to go sit in it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I just boarded 14 here in LAX and there IS a PPC!! Yay! I'm going to go sit in it.

:hi: Greetings from Drying out Central Texas Chris! How was the Arrival/"Layover" in LAXUS, is the Traxx Lounge open earlier for those catching the CS off the Eagle??? Ill be there in 25 days , look forward to your always interesting Reports!

 

[rusty spike]

I just boarded 14 here in LAX and there IS a PPC!! Yay! I'm going to go sit in it.

Thank you for the update...we're scheduled to be on #14(23) next Monday. Hope they hold up til then. Have a good trip!

 

[amtraknovi]

I just boarded 14 here in LAX and there IS a PPC!! Yay! I'm going to go sit in it.

Thank you for the update...we're scheduled to be on #14(23) next Monday. Hope they hold up til then. Have a good trip!

I'm on 14 next week and am looking forward to having a PPC as I am taking my parents this trip and have told them about the PPC (excited). I will not be devastated if we only have a CCC. As someone has mentioned before, those purple chairs sure could use updating. To me that seems like such a low cost/ great bang for your buck move by Amtrak.

 

[dalexPHL]

I disagree. Any SCA who claims that a CCC is "better" than a 1950's era PPC is not the smartest of the bunch. It's like saying a Greyhound bus is better for going cross country than your private car because it carries more people!

I was on the old El-Cap "Sky Lounge" in the 1990's. It was still a 1950's Budd product, although reupholstered. The PPC today is full of really awful barcoloungers and Home Depot To Much Is Never Enough trim.

At least the CCC has a coherent decorating scheme, even if it is missing the upper windows.

 

[acelafan]

Let's hope the six Parlor cars will be PPC substitutes, as similar to the originals as possible, including the swivel chairs, which are closer to a plum / thistle than purple.* That's a lot to ask from the company that gave us the CCC,,,

While the CCC may not have been the best idea ever, I do think it important to remember that Amtrak was sort of forced into giving us that car. It was Congress and they're typical micro-management that caused Amtrak to seek out solutions to the costs of food service, which is what led to the CCC.

Is there a law or directive from congress that says "The car must include an inexplicable choke point in the middle and some of the bench seating must face inward?" Most of the problems I have with the CCC are unlikely to have come from Congress, although I've certainly been proven wrong before. I think whatever favorable comments the CCC has received probably come from the simple reality that the CCC is the first "new" car we've seen on a Western trains in ages. Everything else is decades old and looks every minute of it.

No law at all. And the "choke" point isn't inexplicable. It was done to separate the dining car side from the cafe car side. As well as to give the cafe attendant a bit more space, without expanding the area into the space needed by the dining car side.

Besides, there isn't a dining car in the fleet that doesn't have a choke point. On a Superliner Dining car, basically every employee must stop doing anything every time people try to walk through the prep area. Ride a single level diner and you have that narrow, 1 person only hall all along the kitchen, complete with 2 90 degree turns.

As for the seats facing inward, that's not something that Amtrak came up with either. I just rode in a dome car on the Saratoga & North Creek RR two weekends ago. The dome car had at least 4 or 5 tables set up in a similar fashion. I'm not entirely sure why they do that, although one thought is that it may help to avoid the odd man out that happens when you have a party of 3 in a traditional booth.

I personally don't like it or agree with the idea of that type of seating, but it's not something that Amtrak dreamed up all on its own. And I believe that I heard recently that Amtrak is actually working to remove those booths and replace them with the traditional 4 people booths.

I do hope the inward-facing booths get swapped out for traditional 4-person booths. I think the current CCC design of those booths is absolutely atrocious....not to mention the small surface area of the tables. I know there are a dozen threads on the subject but let's get rid of those CCC booths sooner rather than later. Yes, I am dramatic!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I was on the old El-Cap "Sky Lounge" in the 1990's. It was still a 1950's Budd product, although reupholstered. The PPC today is full of really awful barcoloungers and Home Depot To Much Is Never Enough trim. At least the CCC has a coherent decorating scheme, even if it is missing the upper windows.

I'll still go with the PPC any day of the week. I wonder if it would have been possible to turn today's CCC's into sleeper cars instead. If so they certainly wouldn't be sitting around wasting away in Chicago.

 

[nferr]

I like the PPC for it's "old" charm. But a CCC would be fine for me as long as they're serving the PPC menu. In fact with some decorating the CCC's would be fine as long term replacements when the PPC's have run their course IMO.

 

[pebbleworm]

I've never been in a CCC, but they look like they would work better as a parlor car than a sightseer lounge, which has happened before.

 

[GAT]

Is there any way of determining in advance whether there will be a PPC on #11 December 31? Or do I just have to wait and see? I strongly suspect the latter, unless the two out-of-service cars are now back in service.

Also, I have been searching for a video of the interior of a PPC that I'm sure I saw a couple of years ago on this forum, but be darned if I can find it now. I'd love to show it to a friend whom I'm trying to convince to travel with me. Can anybody direct me to it?

Many thanks........

 

[rrdude]

Is there any way of determining in advance whether there will be a PPC on #11 December 31? Or do I just have to wait and see? I strongly suspect the latter, unless the two out-of-service cars are now back in service.

Also, I have been searching for a video of the interior of a PPC that I'm sure I saw a couple of years ago on this forum, but be darned if I can find it now. I'd love to show it to a friend whom I'm trying to convince to travel with me. Can anybody direct me to it?

Many thanks........

Here's one I uploaded to YouTube last year or two, if you search on YouTube, you'll find many more, better too



Here's another

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijqikb0POD0

 

[Trogdor]

Is there any way of determining in advance whether there will be a PPC on #11 December 31? Or do I just have to wait and see? I strongly suspect the latter, unless the two out-of-service cars are now back in service.

It's always a wait and see.

The two cars that were out of service at the start of this thread were back in service within a couple of days.

The cars are old. Things break. (Things even break on new cars.)

The car gets sent to the maintenance shop. If a replacement part is available, they fix it. It might take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Then it goes back in service.

Without specific details, I'd wager that each of the five Parlours has been bad-ordered, for various reasons, four or five times since this thread was created earlier this year. In additon, each has probably been cycled out for a few days for inspections that occur every few months.

Meanwhile, something else could break (electrical problem, wheels with flat spots, a broken window, HVAC goes awry, you name it) the day before your trip. Maybe the spare car will be ready for swapping in. Or maybe it will also be bad-ordered with its own problem.

The amount of freaking out on here that goes on every time a Parlour car (or the dome car) goes into the shop vastly exceeds the actual severity of any actual maintenance issue the car experiences. It's just that, with so few of them and having them dedicated as a special service on a route, it becomes more noticeable. If folks tracked five random Superliner coach cars to the same extent that they tracked the five Parlour cars, they'd probably see a similar rate of bad-ordering and swapping going on. But it wouldn't be noticeable because there are a lot more coach cars to swap around with (and the spare parts supply is greater, meaning repairs can be done quicker).

 

[Dovecote]

Is there any way of determining in advance whether there will be a PPC on #11 December 31? Or do I just have to wait and see? I strongly suspect the latter, unless the two out-of-service cars are now back in service.

Also, I have been searching for a video of the interior of a PPC that I'm sure I saw a couple of years ago on this forum, but be darned if I can find it now. I'd love to show it to a friend whom I'm trying to convince to travel with me. Can anybody direct me to it?

Many thanks........

FWIW, I was on the CS northbound 12/5 and the PPC was missing in action. A diner-lounge was substituted.

 

[Nathanael]

Hmm. If there really are lots of spare CCCs, one should be tacked on the Empire Builder to relieve the pressure on the diner table space there. We know from the Auto Train that one kitchen can serve slightly more than one dining car.

 

[leemell]

Is there any way of determining in advance whether there will be a PPC on #11 December 31? Or do I just have to wait and see? I strongly suspect the latter, unless the two out-of-service cars are now back in service.

Also, I have been searching for a video of the interior of a PPC that I'm sure I saw a couple of years ago on this forum, but be darned if I can find it now. I'd love to show it to a friend whom I'm trying to convince to travel with me. Can anybody direct me to it?

Many thanks........

FWIW, I was on the CS northbound 12/5 and the PPC was missing in action. A diner-lounge was substituted.

Saw 14 this morning at Van Nuys with PPC.

 

[Daniel Niemeyer]

I will be traveling on the Coast Starlight on Saturday, July 13. Does Amtrak still serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a portion of the PAcific Parlour Car? Is there any way to know if there will be a Pacific Parlour Car on the Coast Starlight on Saturday, July 15. Does the Coast Starlight have a complete Sightseer Lounge Car? Does the CoastStarlight still have a complete upstairs dining car, with food preparation on the lower?

Daniel

 

[OBS]

Yes, there is a SS lounge car, Yes there is a "upstairs" dining car, and no ther eis no way of knowing what car will be utilized on that date. For meals, someone else will kindly answer.

 

[TVRM610]

If a "Parlor Car" is out of service.. Amtrak will still have "Parlor Car Service" but with a sightseer lounge or Cross Country Cafe Car. When I rode the Starlight we had a Sightseer but they did everything just like a Parlor car including wine tasting, meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and the wifi. Was really hard to complain since we still had a private lounge with all the extras. The only thing missing is the "charm" of the real PPC cars. But the "charm" is that they are old and unique so therefore sometimes unavailable.

Trust me.. the 2 things I told most people about when talking before my trip in January was the Parlor Car and Raton Pass on the SWC. (2 things that may be on limited time)... I was pretty sad not to have a Parlor Car but when I saw that Amtrak did the full Parlor experience it really impressed me and honestly was hard to complain. Some of the Starlight regulars even mentioned that the SSL has larger windows so there is at least one plus (and indeed the bigger the windows the better on that route).

 

[the_traveler]

I have been on the CS twice when there was not a PPC. As noted, if that does happen they add either a SSL or a CCC for the sleeping car passengers. (I've had both.)

Since the PPC is over 60 years old and Amtrak only has 5 of them (with 4 needed at all times), if 2 are out of service at any time there is no choice but to substitute another car. Thus it is not possible to say for certain if there will be a PPC on a certain day in the future. I hope not, but you can't even be certain if there will be one tomorrow out of LAX. They may prepare the CS for departure and discover problems with 2 of them.

 

[Dovecote]

I have been on the CS twice when there was not a PPC. As noted, if that does happen they add either a SSL or a CCC for the sleeping car passengers. (I've had both.)
Since the PPC is over 60 years old and Amtrak only has 5 of them (with 4 needed at all times), if 2 are out of service at any time there is no choice but to substitute another car. Thus it is not possible to say for certain if there will be a PPC on a certain day in the future. I hope not, but you can't even be certain if there will be one tomorrow out of LAX. They may prepare the CS for departure and discover problems with 2 of them.

Don't jinx me Dave! I will be on the CS out of LAUS on July 4 and certainly hope to get a real PPC. My luck was not with me in December 2012 and got stuck with a SSL. I hope my luck is better this time around especially since the PPC seems to be on the endangered list!

I have not heard recently of any PPC substitutions on this Forum and will keep my fingers crossed that this pattern will continue.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

If an SSL is an acceptable substitute for a PPC (and I would agree that it is), what is Amtrak's stated reason for not having a "first class lounge" on other trains, especially "premier" trains like the EB? Is it simply a lack of SSLs or CCCs?

 

[Ryan]

Yes.

 

[zephyr17]

Every trip I've been on where they've substituted for a PPC, my luck has been it's been substituted with a CCC. That is a poor substitute IMHO and I'd much rather have had an SSL.

Just out of curiousity, when they use an SSL for PPC service, does the attendant staff the upstairs drink station or does he use the downstairs?