Notelvis
Conductor
We had a family event (on my wife's side) in Florida this Memorial Day weekend which required my presence only part-time. As a result, I was able to do a 'quick overnight' Amtrak trip departing Winter Park Sunday afternoon on #98, the Silver Meteor. I rode overnight to Baltimore Penn Station, caught the light rail to BWI, and flew home on Memorial Day.
There is much construction going on at the Winter Park station area due to the coming of Sunrail. One job that is completed now - the small middle platform has been removed and the outer track has been moved nearer the existing station. New platforms are under construction 'across the tracks' where the outer track used to be. This new platform seems to be complete in the block north of the existing station but seems to be waiting for inlaid brick across the tracks from the station.
South of the existing station the platform roof has been removed and new platforms are under construction. Some trees (but not as many as one might expect) have been removed and the foundation has been poured for a new Amtrak station building. Renderings of the new station are posted and while it looks very attractive, it does not appear that the new station is going to be any larger than the existing station. This was somewhat of a surprise.
It was also a surprise (this one pleasant) that much of this construction is hardly evident from the park on the east side of the railroad tracks.
Even on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, there was some signal work going on between Winter Park and Sanford. This work delayed the southbound Silver Meteor by an hour beyond the 30 minutes it was already running late. The northbound Silver Meteor, on-time as far as Orlando, lost an hour through the work zone as well. It was not clear to me whether the signal work was 'part of the plan' or if it was some unforseen problem which the guys in hard hats were trying to correct. I suspect the latter. With schedule padding, the train was not even thirty minutes late into Washington, DC and, at most, only ten minutes late at Baltimore.
Some reactions - The original Viewliner Sleepers are becoming threadbare. The help which is on the way for them cannot arrive soon enough. Things worked but there were rattles from the compartment and buzzing from the various fixtures which suggested something less than a first class experience.
My roomette was oriented in such a way that I could either sleep with my head nearer the front of the train or with my head by the toilet. I went with head forward even though I normally do not sleep as well that direction.
I've concluded that I prefer the superliner roomettes...... either upstairs or down..... simply because I prefer not having the toilet in the room with me. If I ever used the upper berth (which I do not), I would likely think differently. I also would not book a roomette if I were traveling with another adult.
Of course I 'really' most liked the roomettes in the old 10 & 6 Heritage fleet sleeping cars. Think 'thicker bedding' here.
The train was pretty nearly full with three sleepers and five coaches. The coach load benefitted from a girl scout troop boarding in Jessup, GA.
I was hoping for the prototype Viewliner Diner but was not disappointed to instead get one of the remaining Heritage Fleet Veterans. The dining car staff was not unpleasant though they could have been a little more efficient. I wasn't able to determine whether one of the servers was brand new or if it was the first time this dining car crew had worked together. What needed to be done got done but it seemed like at times the youngest server had no clue as to what should happen next.
There were a couple or three things I had never seen done before which this dining car crew did - 1st, at lunch (where I just made 'last call') the LSA in the diner also took our dinner reservation but distributed no little slips. 2nd, the LSA asked us if we wanted to have an alcoholic beverage with dinner and took prepaid orders from those who said yes BECAUSE it was Sunday and the Blue Laws prevented her from selling alcohol with dinner as we would be in Georgia and then South Carolina.
Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.
Why is this? Are they hoping to increase the amount of their tips (and I generally tip at 15% of what my check would have been......a little more for exceptional service) by making it clear what our bills 'would have been'? Are they providing us with a tool for expense account travelers to use in preparing their tax returns? Why would we suddenly need our receipt for a dinner that was paid for as part of the accommodation charge when we did not before?
But I digress - the trip was 'more positive than negative' but until some stunning new equipment arrives and needs to be tried out, I'd opt to spend my recreational train riding resources on trains with more interesting scenery than the Silver Service trains can offer.
There is much construction going on at the Winter Park station area due to the coming of Sunrail. One job that is completed now - the small middle platform has been removed and the outer track has been moved nearer the existing station. New platforms are under construction 'across the tracks' where the outer track used to be. This new platform seems to be complete in the block north of the existing station but seems to be waiting for inlaid brick across the tracks from the station.
South of the existing station the platform roof has been removed and new platforms are under construction. Some trees (but not as many as one might expect) have been removed and the foundation has been poured for a new Amtrak station building. Renderings of the new station are posted and while it looks very attractive, it does not appear that the new station is going to be any larger than the existing station. This was somewhat of a surprise.
It was also a surprise (this one pleasant) that much of this construction is hardly evident from the park on the east side of the railroad tracks.
Even on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, there was some signal work going on between Winter Park and Sanford. This work delayed the southbound Silver Meteor by an hour beyond the 30 minutes it was already running late. The northbound Silver Meteor, on-time as far as Orlando, lost an hour through the work zone as well. It was not clear to me whether the signal work was 'part of the plan' or if it was some unforseen problem which the guys in hard hats were trying to correct. I suspect the latter. With schedule padding, the train was not even thirty minutes late into Washington, DC and, at most, only ten minutes late at Baltimore.
Some reactions - The original Viewliner Sleepers are becoming threadbare. The help which is on the way for them cannot arrive soon enough. Things worked but there were rattles from the compartment and buzzing from the various fixtures which suggested something less than a first class experience.
My roomette was oriented in such a way that I could either sleep with my head nearer the front of the train or with my head by the toilet. I went with head forward even though I normally do not sleep as well that direction.
I've concluded that I prefer the superliner roomettes...... either upstairs or down..... simply because I prefer not having the toilet in the room with me. If I ever used the upper berth (which I do not), I would likely think differently. I also would not book a roomette if I were traveling with another adult.
Of course I 'really' most liked the roomettes in the old 10 & 6 Heritage fleet sleeping cars. Think 'thicker bedding' here.
The train was pretty nearly full with three sleepers and five coaches. The coach load benefitted from a girl scout troop boarding in Jessup, GA.
I was hoping for the prototype Viewliner Diner but was not disappointed to instead get one of the remaining Heritage Fleet Veterans. The dining car staff was not unpleasant though they could have been a little more efficient. I wasn't able to determine whether one of the servers was brand new or if it was the first time this dining car crew had worked together. What needed to be done got done but it seemed like at times the youngest server had no clue as to what should happen next.
There were a couple or three things I had never seen done before which this dining car crew did - 1st, at lunch (where I just made 'last call') the LSA in the diner also took our dinner reservation but distributed no little slips. 2nd, the LSA asked us if we wanted to have an alcoholic beverage with dinner and took prepaid orders from those who said yes BECAUSE it was Sunday and the Blue Laws prevented her from selling alcohol with dinner as we would be in Georgia and then South Carolina.
Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.
Why is this? Are they hoping to increase the amount of their tips (and I generally tip at 15% of what my check would have been......a little more for exceptional service) by making it clear what our bills 'would have been'? Are they providing us with a tool for expense account travelers to use in preparing their tax returns? Why would we suddenly need our receipt for a dinner that was paid for as part of the accommodation charge when we did not before?
But I digress - the trip was 'more positive than negative' but until some stunning new equipment arrives and needs to be tried out, I'd opt to spend my recreational train riding resources on trains with more interesting scenery than the Silver Service trains can offer.
