Auto Train Lounge Question

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WMJ_NJ

Train Attendant
Joined
Jul 12, 2010
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63
Location
New Jersey
As you can see from my signature I am traveling on the AT next month. I have viewed several recent You Tube videos of this train and on some there is a sightseer lounge and on some, not. Does anyone know what is in the current consist?

Thanks,

Bill
 
I believe there are two consists and they are identical in form/function. If I recall correctly, there are two lounge cars and two diners - one each for sleeping pax and coach pax.
 
Don't get too excited about the A/T lounge car. They are just Superliner dining cars with a bar, some counters in the center and TV's where they show a GP movie in the evening. As for the consist it is usually huge. In peak season the train is about 3/4 mile in length. I believe that there are six sleepers on the A/T. Two having all bedrooms upstairs with four roomettes below + the family and handicapped rooms,and four having all roomettes. There should be four coaches, two diners and two lounges and there might be a transition sleeper. No baggage cars are there as your baggage stays with your car. The rest of the train is made up of auto carriers and on a good day over 200 vehicles will be on the train pulling up the rear. There are usually 300-400 passengers on an AutoTrain run. There is no sleeper class lounge in the Lorton or Sanford terminals. Actually the new Sanford terminal may not yet be open so the facilities may be in a tent. Got to check on this.

The dinners serve some of the best food that I've had on any Amtrak run proably because the kitchens are staffed very well so that every passenger receives a dinner. The complementary wine & cheese hour for sleeper passengers is also nice. It usually starts around 3 PM when the train boards. The only negative is the breakfast in the morning which is a cold "continental breakfast". Its the worse breakfast that we've ever had on a train and 6 trips on the AutoTrain confirms this well.

The train goes fast overnight and the CSX trackage can be plenty rough at times. I would suggest taking along an Herbal sleeping aid as its sometimes hard to sleep on that train. Enjoy the trip.
 
Usually there is no Sightseer Lounge. I think they have 5 Auto Train Lounges (one of which stays in SFA to be swapped out for maintenance) and a Sightseer Lounge that stays in SFA to be used as a backup. So your odds of getting one are quite low. Only happened to me twice.
 
They did convert over one Sightseer specifically for use on Auto Train (it's now part of the captive fleet). When the 33100 and 33101 went down in the accident back in 02 there was a need for a fourth lounge. They ripped out half of the couches upstairs and installed booths to be used as part of dinner and breakfast service. They also installed the penalty box downstairs where the normal booth seating is on other Sightseers. There's usually no telling which set the car is on, unless you pay close attention to the sets a week or two out. They also usually run it as the sleeper lounge since the windows are bigger and it's more "first class."
 
BTW - we are heading south from Lorton, VA on 8/21/2010, and we purchased our tickets this afternoon. The agent printed the projected consist for 8-21.

2 Engines

"Table Car" - what is that? (car # 38047)

Diner (car # 38041)

Lounge Diner (car # 33100)

4 coach cars

Sleeper

Sleeper

Deluxe Sleeper

Diner (car # 38067)

Lounge (car # 33104)

Deluxe Sleeper (*our car)

Sleeper

Sleeper

Transdorm

17 Auto carrier cars
 
On the Auto Train the table car is actually a Diner, but they don't use the kitchen. There are enough folks in the coaches that they need the tables in two Diners to be able to service all of them efficiently. I can guarantee you a few of those car numbers will change. The boys in Sanford are moving cars in and out of storage and E-Clean all the time. Auto Train takes very good care of their cars, and they move them as necessary to make sure they're up to par.
 
Ryan said:
dlagrua said:
and four having all roomettes.
Click to expand...
Nope, the non-deluxe sleeping cars are the standard layout - 5 bedrooms and 10 roomettes upstairs, 4 roomettes H-room and Family room downstairs.
Click to expand...
Could be the case as I've never walked the entire autotrain but one time that I want exploring I ended up in a sleeper that was all roomettes. Perhaps that was the transdorm but it was the very last passenger car on the train?????
 
That's exactly what it was - the transdorm is always at the North end of the consist, so it sits between the passenger cars and the autoracks headed South and between the locomotives and sleepers headed North.
 
abcnews said:
BTW - we are heading south from Lorton, VA on 8/21/2010, and we purchased our tickets this afternoon. The agent printed the projected consist for 8-21.

2 Engines

"Table Car" - what is that? (car # 38047)

Diner (car # 38041)

Lounge Diner (car # 33100)

4 coach cars

Sleeper

Sleeper

Deluxe Sleeper

Diner (car # 38067)

Lounge (car # 33104)

Deluxe Sleeper (*our car)

Sleeper

Sleeper

Transdorm

17 Auto carrier cars
Click to expand...
We will be arriving back in Lorton on the 21st. We'll try to keep it clean for you.

Bill
 
Well lets hope that the (back-up) Sightseer Lounge is on our same train, although a bit unlikely. That would be a pleasant surprise for both of us.

Mike
 
There really is not much in sights to see on that train. It's mostly dark, and not much in the way of scenery on that route, as compared to east-west routes.
 
WMJ_NJ said:
As you can see from my signature I am traveling on the AT next month. I have viewed several recent You Tube videos of this train and on some there is a sightseer lounge and on some, not. Does anyone know what is in the current consist?

Thanks,

Bill
Click to expand...

Current northbound consist:

P42DC

P42DC

Superliner Trans-Dorm

Superliner Sleeper

Superliner Sleeper

Superliner Deluxe Sleeper

Superliner Auto Train Lounge

Superliner Auto Train Diner

Superliner Deluxe Sleeper

Superliner Sleeper

Superliner Sleeper

Superliner Coach

Superliner Coach

Superliner Coach

Superliner Coach

Superliner Auto Train Lounge

Superliner Auto Train Diner

Superliner Auto Train Diner (used as table car)

Auto Carriers
 
How do I found out the consist for 8/27 from LOR to SFA ((#53) and 9/4 from SFA to LOR (#52)? I'm curious as to how it might be laid out for our trip.

Thanks.
 
Gina,

At this time of the year, going southbound you'll find 2 engines, 2 dining cars (coach passenger only), 1 lounge (coach only), 4 or 5 coaches, 3 sleepers, 1 diner (sleeper only), 1 lounge (sleeper only), 3 sleepers, 1 Trans/Dorm, auto carriers.

Coming north, just flip the engines with the auto carriers.
 
AlanB said:
Gina,

At this time of the year, going southbound you'll find 2 engines, 2 dining cars (coach passenger only), 1 lounge (coach only), 4 or 5 coaches, 3 sleepers, 1 diner (sleeper only), 1 lounge (sleeper only), 3 sleepers, 1 Trans/Dorm, auto carriers.

Coming north, just flip the engines with the auto carriers.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
We just returned from Auto Train Ride and were fortunate enough to actually get the Sightseer Lounge.. Southbound on Saturday (8/21/2010). We returned today on the Silver Star (to Alexandria, VA), and passed by the Auto Train terminal in Lorton, and I did notice that the Sightseer Lounge was in todays consist (Weds 8/25/2010). That would make sense, perhaps it's "southbound" on odd number days - until the normal Auto Train Lounge returns. I was told by an attendant that she thinks that the normal AT lounge is out of service for W-Fi installation. She also admitted that the Sightseer seemed better. The bartender below also commented on preferring the look and feel of the "Sightseer" Lounge. It does have table configuration, but not really a bad thing, still very nice. I'll post some pictures later...

This time of year it is light until 8:15 or so - plus add to that, a current full moon situation, so the car is especially nice.

Our Auto Train trip was perfect - perhaps better than I expected, thanks in part to riding in that car. We really enjoyed the trip.

*Silver Star was also very nice.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
dlagrua said:
Don't get too excited about the A/T lounge car. They are just Superliner dining cars with a bar, some counters in the center and TV's where they show a GP movie in the evening. As for the consist it is usually huge. In peak season the train is about 3/4 mile in length. I believe that there are six sleepers on the A/T. Two having all bedrooms upstairs with four roomettes below + the family and handicapped rooms,and four having all roomettes. There should be four coaches, two diners and two lounges and there might be a transition sleeper. No baggage cars are there as your baggage stays with your car. The rest of the train is made up of auto carriers and on a good day over 200 vehicles will be on the train pulling up the rear. There are usually 300-400 passengers on an AutoTrain run. There is no sleeper class lounge in the Lorton or Sanford terminals. Actually the new Sanford terminal may not yet be open so the facilities may be in a tent. Got to check on this.

The dinners serve some of the best food that I've had on any Amtrak run proably because the kitchens are staffed very well so that every passenger receives a dinner. The complementary wine & cheese hour for sleeper passengers is also nice. It usually starts around 3 PM when the train boards. The only negative is the breakfast in the morning which is a cold "continental breakfast". Its the worse breakfast that we've ever had on a train and 6 trips on the AutoTrain confirms this well.

The train goes fast overnight and the CSX trackage can be plenty rough at times. I would suggest taking along an Herbal sleeping aid as its sometimes hard to sleep on that train. Enjoy the trip.
Click to expand...
I agree with all the comments with the exception of the comment regarding breakfast. We have also traveled many times on the Auto Train and we love the "continental breakfast". Just goes to show that we are all different.

Regardless of the breakfast it is hard to beat the Auto Train IMHO!
 
We had the Sightseer lounge both ways (SB on the 13th, NB on the 20th) and I do prefer it to the converted diner-to-lounge cars that the AT usually runs. It would be nice to have Internet on this train but it wouldn't affect me as I have a broadband card for my Netbook. I did use the free Internet in the Lorton station so I could stay under my plan this month since I figured on using it a lot during my trip. Interestingly enough the Sanford station doesn't have it. I assume they're waiting for the new station to be completed.

All in all it was a good trip. We left maybe 15 mins early on 53 and arrived on time at 9:30 and it took until almost 11 to get our car. On the NB trip we left 20 minutes late due to a problem in one of the coaches but arrived in Lorton about 25 minutes early. It took just over an hour to get the car.

Bill J
 
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