Car 10001

[PRR 60]

...A GPS would be very nice! Are there specialty GPS's that railfans can get for trips? I've long wondered about exactly which routes trains I've been on have taken, esp when there are alternate routes available.

If you get a GPS that is intended for hiking or off-road use, it shows your actual route and will not snap to nearby roads. I use a DeLorme laptop GPS with TopoUSA mapping. It works fine for tracking rail or air trips. DeLorme also has a hand-held model.

 

[Ryan]

Most GPSs for car use also have an "off road" mode that disables the annoying snapping-to-roads feature.

 

[The Chief]

Thanks for posting these photos rrdude.

Do you have any photos of this 10001 car that show the conductor with his paperwork spread out covering a table, and his grips on the seats?

 

[had8ley]

Thanks for posting these photos rrdude.

Do you have any photos of this 10001 car that show the conductor with his paperwork spread out covering a table, and his grips on the seats?

You have to tke the Crescent between Atlanta and Meridian to see half of the lounge eaten up by one ***** conductor !!!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Thanks for posting these photos rrdude.

Do you have any photos of this 10001 car that show the conductor with his paperwork spread out covering a table, and his grips on the seats?

You have to tke the Crescent between Atlanta and Meridian to see half of the lounge eaten up by one ***** conductor !!!

The Cardinal is even Worse since the Diner Lite has a So Called Lounge taking up half the Car! Ive seen Conductors that had so much stuff in the Lounge or even Diner side that it looke like they Lived there!

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

The Heartland Flyer Conductors usually have little choice but to "office" with the pax in one of the Coaches and are usually very efficient in how they set up shop. If a second Coach-Lounge is in consist, they will sometimes office in that Lounge away from the public. But no matter where they set up, they are always very friendly and quick to update everyone on any delays or other circumstances. And some are quick to join in on an interesting conversations, be it sports, trains or even politics they may overhear.

 

[buck1108]

The Heartland Flyer Conductors usually have little choice but to "office" with the pax in one of the Coaches and are usually very efficient in how they set up shop. If a second Coach-Lounge is in consist, they will sometimes office in that Lounge away from the public. But no matter where they set up, they are always very friendly and quick to update everyone on any delays or other circumstances. And some are quick to join in on an interesting conversations, be it sports, trains or even politics they may overhear.

I agree! I've been on that line quite a few times and have enjoyed the difference.

In fact, I saw a friend off today on the HF in OKC and got the travel bug...again!

 

[busboy]

Funny how they can keep the exterior of this car clean and shiney, while the regular fleet has an inch of grime on it. On a recent trip, at the origination point in Chicago, the sleeper I was in was black with soot. As the trip progressed, it got even worse. Never once were the windows washed making it impossible to take pictures. Why can't they polish or at least wash the cars more often? It looks like they need to be scrubbed, squirting a water hose on them does nothing.

What train were you on ??? The City of New Orleans turns into the Texas Eagle in Chicago. Some one in Chicago thought it would be better to send the train set out to San Antonio and back and then to NOL without a car wash. That's about 4,000 miles without even a bottle of Windex. Think what your windshield would look like driving New York to San Francisco to Portland without cleaning it...I've seen laborers on overtime cleaning the domes on UP business car trains in the dark !!!

I was on the Zepher. I had a lower level sleeper so at several stops I went out and washed it the best I could with paper towels and water. It didn't do much good since I didn't have any windex, all I really accomplished was smearing it around a bit.

I just think from a marketing point of view, it would make sense to keep the outside clean and shiny, make people want to ride the train as they see it zoom by glistening. Ours was so dirty it looked more like a slave train than a passenger liner. When I arrived, at Emeryville, my girlfriend met me and said. "yuck, you rode on that thing?"

 

[battalion51]

Amtrak tries to wash the equipment at each end point, but this isn't always feasible. There are some end points that don't have a car wash, like St. Albans, VT, Lorton, VA, San Antonio, TX, and others (granted in Lorton they do wash the windows, since it's home of the Pride & Joy after all). At some areas where there is a car wash sometime the trainset can't hit the wash, either because of the need to turn the train quickly, or a broken car wash. If you get on any train towards the end of a trip, it will likely look like hell, but so will anything that travels a couple thousand miles without being washed. Also, don't forget if you look at the mileage of most of these cars and engines they have MILLIONS of miles on them. Show me an automobile with just one million miles on it and it'll probably be rusted to hell.

 

[railiner]

In pre-Amtrak times, they used to wash the CZ not only in Chicago and Oakland, but enroute at Denver and Portola. In Amtrak era, they used to run a portable washer down the platform at Denver.

Since the train was heavily marketed for its scenery, having clean windows was 'de rigueur'.

 

[AlanB]

At least the last time I was on the CZ about 4 years ago, Amtrak still did wash the windows in Denver. It's possible that practice may have stopped with the move to the temporary station however.