Normal For Sleepers On Rear And Coach In Front?

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Going on the Lake Shore Limited out of NYC tomorrow. I would prefer the sleepers were in the back - especially given the news of this derailment. I'm a frequent Amtrak rider, but skittish now that I am taking a 3 year old in a sleeper. He's going in the top bunk. I'm a little worried. It seems cars in the back are safer....
 
Note that the Coast Starlight normally has the sleepers at the front, the Pacific Parlour Car (PPC), the dining car, the SSL, and then the coaches bringing up the rear.

Sleeper pax are supposed to have exclusive access to the PPC (with it's Wi-Fi and other special features) which is why it is behind the sleepers and in front of the dining car.

With the coach cars bring at the rear of the consist Coast Starlight coach pax get access to the railfan window.
 
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Ryan said:
Be careful drawing conclusions from a single data point.

Either way, LSL sleepers out of NYP are always on the rear.
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Ooooh Ryan! It's your turn to



You're a day late, but you'll have the baggage car between the sleepers and the power.

BTW, an ADA requirement did have a part in keeping the sleepers in the rear.
 
The car on amtk 188 suffering the most damage (and all of the fatalities?) was the one that wrapped itself around a catenary pole. That just as easily could have been one of the other cars , or even the engine. It was simply the (bad) luck of the draw that it was the first passenger car behind the engine in this case.
 
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I really need to learn to stop making absolute statements, because there are always exceptions. I presume they're doing something differently because of the track work at ALB and not splitting the train?

I'd be curious to hear more about how the ADA figures in and how they've overcome it. I'm aware of the need to put the H room next to the diner for ADA reasons, but you can accomplish that with the sleepers on either end, right?
 
The sleeper cars have been at the rear on the Silver Meteor

in January, February, April & May.
 
All the trains I rode pre Amtrak had the sleeper on the rear. Personally I preferred that as I liked seeing the train snaking around curves ahead of us. I recall that the Pullman Cars had a little sign where the bed rooms jogged to the roomettes. The Sign read "There hasn't been a death in a pullman car in eight years". I attributed much of that to being on the rear where I always felt safer.
 
Today I noticed 2 consists in Sunnyside with Sleepers on front. First time in over a year that I have seen anything but the Cardinal setup that way.
 
jis said:
Ryan said:
The only trains this applies to are the LD trains that originate in New York, so the Capital Limited and all of the other trains aren't impacted.

I detailed the reasoning for it above.
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"Capital Limited" Ryan? :p Just couldn't resist ;)
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Well all of Amtrak is Capital Limited, so they might as well rename the train :p
 
Shanghai said:
The sleeper cars have been at the rear on the Silver Meteor

in January, February, April & May.
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Just to mention, I have road the Silvers many times in the winter, with the sleepers up front. Of course, this was a few years ago (10?).
 
I saw 97 in TRE yesterday. It had the following consist:

AEM-7 no. 923, new baggage car, three sleepers, Heritage dining car, café car, some coaches, and five new baggage cars at the end. (I forgot to count the coaches because I was busy counting the baggage cars, but someone down there in Florida will know how many there are on there today.)

I see 97 a lot at TRE because it comes into the station around the same time as my commuter train, and I can't remember the last time I saw the sleepers in the front. That, plus all those baggage cars, seemed like an interesting enough consist to post here.
 
I took the Crescent home tonight from WAS to CVS. The sleepers were definitely up front, as we needed to walk down to the end of the train to board our coach, which was the next to last car.
 
California Zephyr is now running its summer consist with three sleepers and three coaches. The sleepers following the dining car x31, x32, and last x33. x33 is the added sleeper and is located as the last car of the train with private cars following the x33 car. I was originally booked for the 532 car roomette 002 for Thurs May28 but upgraded today to Bedroom D in car 533 from CHI to GSC(Glenwood Springs) since the bedroom price was lowered to $471. Interestingly, the bedroom price is now back up over $1100 just a couple hours after I upgraded.

THANK YOU AMSNAG!
 
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jis said:
I saw the Coast Starlight and the California Zephyr at Emeryville yesterday. One had its Sleepers in the front and the other in the back, so there :p
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Coast Starlight are always at the front and California Zephyr usually on the rear. Not sure is that is a "so there". Only discrepancy is when CZ sleepers during "slow season" get put on the front as they were in early January 2015. Bur they were back at the rear when I rode last week of January.
 
Been on a 10 day trip:

On 5/18 LSL49. All 3 sleepers (4911,4912,4920) were all the way in the back with no baggage behind them due to ALB-BOS service disruption

EB8 had sleepers upfront behind transdorm

CS11 had sleepers upfront (ride was horrible on 1130, roughest ever on sleeper train)

CZ6 had 3 sleepers behind the diner 0633 all the way in the back had a very surprisingly smooth ride. Smoothest of the trip so far even being the last car

LSL48 sounds like all 3 sleepers will be in front
 
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