Dining Car Failure

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printman2000

Engineer
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
3,785
Location
Amarillo, Texas
So this is a new one to me after years and years of traveling Amtrak.

On the Texas Eagle #21 right now.

Dining car announced last night they were having a technical difficulty and the menu for breakfast would be limited.

So we show up at 6:30 and I ask the LSA what the issue was. He replied he was not allowed to talk about it.

Hmm. That said to me I don't want to tell you cause it will sound silly. Well, he did end up coming back and telling us the dumb waiter was broken. He said they could not be carrying food up the stairs.

So the options were breakfast sandwich with a meat choice, or the continental.

Seems like they still had to bring food up the stairs so not really making a lot of sense. Really wondering what lunch is gonna look like.
 
I'm guessing he meant hot food.

Plus the breakfast sandwich & the continental are probably less like yo cause a mess if dropped while climbing the stairs.
 
OK guys let's have the dumb waiter jokes ! Well the dumb waiter never learned how to climb stairs with food when the dumb waiter fails ? Amtrak does not provide sealable containers for waiters t climb stairs when dumb waiter fails ?
 
I've seen this happen several times in Diners and CCCs ( modified Diners) and this is the first time I've seen them serve a Shorter Menu for this reason.

Perhaps it's in the Contract for OBS? Perhaps it's just Another made up rule?

What say our Amtrak employees?
 
So if a dumb waiter fails why isn't there a back up crank to raise and lower the cage ? Oops forgot ! Our design gurus said it will never fail ? Murphy's law does not apply ?
 
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What is really ridiculous is they were clearly handing food trays up the stairs at lunch. So they could hand up a hamburger, but for some reason they could not hand up French Toast.
 
Redacted: did not catch previous post.

If the rise and run of the dining car stairs have the same rise and run of those in the sleeper cars, I certainly wouldn't want to go up them with a tray of hot food - even holding the tray with both hands - even if the train wasn't moving.
 
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They shoulda hired Casey Ryback. He can handle everything between the upper level and the kitchen.
 
Printman2000: If you were still aboard for the evening meal, how was the situation handled at that time?
 
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