#7,8 WARM ENOUGH?

[WEB]

Our first winter trip on the Empire Builder comes this February; previous trips were in warm weather. With Montana & North Dakota being 0 - 10F, can we expect the sleepers to be warm enough? (My last winter train trip was on the Lake Shore, where 3" of snow in the car-to-car passageways made walking the train a hoot!)

 

[Cascadia]

That's a good question. I was hoping to take the Empire Builder from Seattle to Minneapolis and back this February, although it is looking kind of unlikely at this point. Would have loved to grab a Rail Sale fare and go more or less at the last minute. I was looking forward to the endless frozen landscape of North Dakota. I moved out here to the NW coast six years ago, I like the mild climate and all the year round green but still I miss winter and wouldn't mind a good solid dose of it for contrast, and to make me glad to get home here too.

Would love to hear people's experiences of the EB in the dead of a real winter like this one. I was thinking how cool it would be to get snowed in in some huge blizzard on the northern plains! Seriously. Hey, I'm from Minnesota, we have weird ideas of what would be fun.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

That's a good question. I was hoping to take the Empire Builder from Seattle to Minneapolis and back this February, although it is looking kind of unlikely at this point. Would have loved to grab a Rail Sale fare and go more or less at the last minute. I was looking forward to the endless frozen landscape of North Dakota. I moved out here to the NW coast six years ago, I like the mild climate and all the year round green but still I miss winter and wouldn't mind a good solid dose of it for contrast, and to make me glad to get home here too.
Would love to hear people's experiences of the EB in the dead of a real winter like this one. I was thinking how cool it would be to get snowed in in some huge blizzard on the northern plains! Seriously. Hey, I'm from Minnesota, we have weird ideas of what would be fun.

Don't know about the northern plains, but here's what snowed in looked like in the Sierras in 1952:

City of San Francisco

A story about this incident: Stranded Streamliner

 

[AlanB]

To answer the original question, while I've never been on 7/8 during the winter, I have been on many a train during winter. Generally the sleepers are more than warm enough and within reason the attendant can vary the temp of the car. Keep in mind that he has to potentially please 40 other passengers too. And you can always pull one of the blankets off the beds or ask for a spare if you are cold.

All that said, I'd still bring along a sweater or light jacket too, and of course long sleves are a must.

 

[rtabern]

I agree with Alan - I think you'll be okay.

Yesterday (1/19/08), I did a ride from Chicago to Springfield on 301 and back to Chicago on the Texas Eagle (22).

The temperature outside was around -5.

301 was actually too warm (!) and 22 was just fine.

Here is how I dress in the winter on the train -- in a t-shirt and then I put I zip-up sweatshirt on over it. That way if it's too hot, just wear the t-shirt and if it's cold or normal, wear your zip-up sweat shirt over it.

Often times in the winter, the trains are actually too hot more than too cold... atleast thats been my experience.

 

[AKA]

Last year in DEC on the LSL to Boston it was fine on # 48 to Albany. # 448 Albany to Boston it got to hot for me. I was dressed in layers so I just took off the top layer. I wore boots so I would be ready for outside walking. Feet got way to warm. Had to take the off on the train. Maybe you should think about slippers for the sleeper. We like to call them S & S, but thats a story for another time.

 

[saxman]

After living in North Dakota, I travelled the EB many a time in winter. When its absolutely frigid cold I they actually put speed restrictions because of the brittle rails. I think it was in the neighborhood of -10 or -20 that week! But yes, I've found the cars warm enough to sleep in. Usually they are too warm in the winter and too cold in the summer. Have fun though. I love riding the rails in the winter.

 

[racer1735]

While not pertaining directly to the Empire Builder, I has ridden the Cardinal on three separate occasions over the past four years in the winter time. Each time the outside temps were below 10 degrees. Each time, portions of the train were frozen up...vestibules caked (not crusted, but caked) with several inches of ice, toilets were frozen and inop, and running water was out of commission. Not necessarily anyones fault, but when it gets down to a certain temperature, its hard to keep things functioning.

 

[Railroad Bill]

Just finished trip on CZ through Rockies and Sierra Nevadas. It was pretty cold and snowy outside but our car was toasty. Need to adjust heat sometimes because it took about 20 minutes to warm up or cool down the room. Lounge car was very cool with air circulating all the time. Need a sweater or sweatshirt on in that car. Dining car was sometimes a bit warm. No complaints from our neighbors about being too cold on this run.

 

[JayPea]

I rode the EB in mid-October, and the temperature, with one exception, was fine. The exception was in the sightseer lounge, where it was so cold I would have been warmer sitting in a freezer.

 

[AlanB]

While not pertaining directly to the Empire Builder, I has ridden the Cardinal on three separate occasions over the past four years in the winter time. Each time the outside temps were below 10 degrees. Each time, portions of the train were frozen up...vestibules caked (not crusted, but caked) with several inches of ice, toilets were frozen and inop, and running water was out of commission. Not necessarily anyones fault, but when it gets down to a certain temperature, its hard to keep things functioning.

Yes, Amtrak has a much harder time with the single level cars, since much of the plumbing runs under the car itself. So any loss of power can result in freeze-ups, and extreme cold can cause problems even without any loss of power.

The Superliner cars have most of the plumbing contained within the body of the car, and are therefore far less prone to freeze-ups. In fact, many of the Michigan trains get Superliner cars during the winter for that very reason.

 

[sechs]

In my experience, it's usually a little warm in the sleepers in the winter. On my last trip, I did a lot of sleeping on top of the blankets.

 

[gpayer]

Our first winter trip on the Empire Builder comes this February; previous trips were in warm weather. With Montana & North Dakota being 0 - 10F, can we expect the sleepers to be warm enough? (My last winter train trip was on the Lake Shore, where 3" of snow in the car-to-car passageways made walking the train a hoot!)

I was just on both 7 & 8 last week. I was in coach on the 7 and it was actually a little warm in coach (which it normally seems to be). On the 8, I had a roomette. Originally, it was kept a little chilly - but with the wall temperature controls we were able to warm it up to our liking pretty easy.

 

[Highballer]

The only time I was on the Empire Builder was on the old equipment in the dead of winter back in the early 70's. I was very comfortable and even got kind of a thrill the first time I sat down and discovered they ran hot water through the toilets. Ahhhh.