Boarding in the middle of the night

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Trainmans daughter

OBS Chief
Joined
Mar 12, 2009
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987
Location
Paradise, CA.
Has anyone had the experience of boarding a train at 2am? If you have a bedroom or roomette, are the beds already made up, or does one have to bother the attendant to help them out at that crazy hour?
 
I have boarded at about 11pm. The beds were already made when I boarded.
 
I've boarded at midnight (CS in Sacremento) and the beds were already set.

I'm taking the Sunset Limited from Maricopa, AZ tonight at midnight, so I'll let you know.
 
I board all the time at that hour when I travel coach from my station of choice (Spokane) to either Portland or Seattle. I've never boarded a sleeper there, but a couple of times in traveling through Spokane, the sleeper rooms around me are always made up by the attendants if someone is boarding in Spokane. It's a lengthy service stop there and that gives attendants plenty of time to make up the rooms. It's been my experience that if passengers detrain in the middle of the night and other passengers occupy the room just vacated, the attendant always makes the new rooms up. It takes just a few minutes. When traveling by sleeper I'm up at all hours and have been able to observe them make rooms up in a very short time.
 
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I have boarded a sleeper at NDL (Needles, CA) at 1 AM and 2 AM, and the beds were already set! :cool:
Same experience at Newton KS. Typically the sleeper attendant is sound asleep, so the conductor or asst. conductor boards you and takes you to the room. Bed is made up and ready to go, water in the room, etc. Really not that different than any other trip other than the part about being dog tired when you get on the train. But makes it easy to go to sleep when the train starts rolling...
 
Has anyone had the experience of boarding a train at 2am? If you have a bedroom or roomette, are the beds already made up, or does one have to bother the attendant to help them out at that crazy hour?
I board after midnight every time I travel east or west out of SPK, and yes, rooms are made up. Most SCA's are asleep at SPK.
 
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Thank y'all so much. On June 8, my granddaughter and I will be boarding the CS in Chico at 1:55 am (if no delays). I just want to wake her up, plop her in the car, drive 5 minutes to the station, board the train, and both of us flop into bed until 9am or so. Sounds like this will be possible.

(This site is so amazing!)
 
Thank y'all so much. On June 8, my granddaughter and I will be boarding the CS in Chico at 1:55 am (if no delays). I just want to wake her up, plop her in the car, drive 5 minutes to the station, board the train, and both of us flop into bed until 9am or so. Sounds like this will be possible.
(This site is so amazing!)
We have boarded at 11pm, 12am, & 4 am, the beds were always set for sleeping.
 
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I've boarded at midnight (CS in Sacremento) and the beds were already set.
I'm taking the Sunset Limited from Maricopa, AZ tonight at midnight, so I'll let you know.

I will be boarding the Sunset Limited on Friday but in the opposite direction (to New Orleans).
 
I have boarded the CS at midnight and the beds were made and ready to go. My SCA even helped me roll out my sleeping back so I could go right to bed. =) She was such a sweetheart for doing that.

Honestly I can say all my SCA and attendants in coach have always been very help to me, extra helpful. Not sure if this is the norm or because I am a rather young female traveling alone. On the EB last year they had cookies in my car and the SCA packed up the left overs for me and gave them to me in CHI. there was a little less than a full box left of them.

the one I had on the CZ gave me extra candy on my pillow at night.
 
I board out of LNK (Lincoln NE) and WB I board at 12:08am :( And EB I board at 4:21 :( does this make it the middle of the night? :p The beds have always been ready to "slip in to" when I board. I was talking to a SA on my trip from GBB and he used to be a LSA but switched to SCA. I asked why and he said, "I would rather survive on sleep deprivation than sensory deprivation". :lol: He says one of the hardest routes as an SCA is the LSL. He said you are virtually awake all night long because of the late night stops.
 
I board out of LNK (Lincoln NE) and WB I board at 12:08am :( And EB I board at 4:21 :( does this make it the middle of the night? :p The beds have always been ready to "slip in to" when I board. I was talking to a SA on my trip from GBB and he used to be a LSA but switched to SCA. I asked why and he said, "I would rather survive on sleep deprivation than sensory deprivation". :lol: He says one of the hardest routes as an SCA is the LSL. He said you are virtually awake all night long because of the late night stops.
I think those times qualify...We've boarded at 11:30pm &12:00am & 4:00am & the beds were always ready.
 
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