Empire Builder switching at Spokane

[GlobalistPotato]

The Empire Builder is scheduled to do its splitting/joining in Spokane during the middle of the night (of course when it actually arrives in SPK is a different story... :lol: ). However, the time it does the switching is after midnight, when almost everyone is asleep. Is the switching loud or bothersome enough to wake up passengers?

The reason why I'm asking this is because I'm thinking about the schedules for a twice-daily LSL. One frequency would mostly follow the current schedules (serving upstate NY during the day and splitting/combining at Albany during mid-day), while the other would serve the mid-west during the day and upstate NY during the night. So under this, the Albany switching would take place at 2 am or so.

I'm just worried that having the switching at that time would wake up the passengers who are trying to sleep.

 

[Ryan]

I wanted to be awake to see the action and still managed to sleep right through it.

 

[MrFSS]

The two times I've been on that train I slept right through it both times. They must have it down to a science!

 

[AlanB]

I've slept through it 3 times, granted I was in a sleeper and therefore farthest from the action. My guess is that the last car on train #8 would be the worst for noise, as it's the car that gets hooked to the SSL in Spokane and therefore would have the most noise when the train is coupled together. Splitting is much quieter.

And for 27/28, again the SSL acts as a buffer.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

The first two times I slept through it. The last two times it was over 5 hours late so I was awake anyway.

 

[Cristobal]

It's actually the opposite of loud. Things get very quiet when they kill the HEP.

 

[anir dendroica]

There's a slight, barely detectable jolt in the cars closest to the connection, no more than is felt going over a rough switch. No noise whatsoever.

 

[Rail Freak]

There's plenty of time to sleep! Get up and check out the action!!!

Have Fun

 

[sechs]

I've always slept through switching at Spokane, although once I woke up when the train started moving at track speed.

Then again, I slept through switching of the Texas Eagle at San Antonio. That's a lot more involved.

 

[the_traveler]

I've been in both the SEA section (in the front) and the PDX section (in the rear), and I've never notice anything out of the ordinary. If you sleep thru some rough tracks, the switching is nothing at all!

You sometimes get more of a jolt while doing a "regular" stop!