Sightseer Lounges back on the City of New Orleans?

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rtabern

rtabern

Conductor
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
1,606
Location
Northwest Wisconsin
I was down in Chicago yesterday (1/2/10) at Union Station and heard from 2 employees that Amtrak was planning to put the Sightseer Lounge cars back on the City of New Orleans, effective January 6th.

Just wondering if anyone heard anything about this?

Both said they were going to run a lounge car and a CCC car... like they currently do on the Texas Eagle.

If this is true this would be great news!! A true sign that the CCC experiment has failed miserably!
 
rtabern said:
I was down in Chicago yesterday (1/2/10) at Union Station and heard from 2 employees that Amtrak was planning to put the Sightseer Lounge cars back on the City of New Orleans, effective January 6th.
Just wondering if anyone heard anything about this?

Both said they were going to run a lounge car and a CCC car... like they currently do on the Texas Eagle.

If this is true this would be great news!! A true sign that the CCC experiment has failed miserably!
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If theyd only get rid of the CCC on the Eagles but with the diner fire in Oakland don't know if this could happen until the daily train starts CHI-LAX sometime in this millennium? Good news for the City though! :)
 
The CCC is okay on the CONO as far as dining capacity goes. It's pretty bad in terms of lounge capacity. If true this will be a welcome relief. The last few times I've taken the train out of CHI, if you are in coach and want something from the lounge, you better line up as soon as the train leaves, or you should expect to be waiting in a long line. The small lounge area in the CCC is poorly designed for the traffic flow that the cars handle.
 
I was surprised on a Capitol Ltd. trip that I liked the CCC, just not on that train. The crew did a good job of handling those in the diner section. But, the lounge section and bar/counter area was not used because of the adjacent lounge car. Another decent idea, poorly executed. In the 'old days' diner-lounge cars were used frequently on secondary overnight and daytime trains with few sleeping car passengers. They are not the right thing for a heavily traveled LD train with multiple sleepers.

This would be a perfect car for the emerging corridor trains market and yes on a train like the overnight CONO with one sleeper and minimal scenery. The problem, I believe, is that Amtrak does not staff the car properly. For it to took work you need a full time person in the lounge area to dole out the food and drinks for coach. If a cafe area can work on NEC, no reason it can't on the CONO with fewer passengers and a late evening departure from Chicago. Perhaps it should be supplemented with a rolling cart through the coaches as on Acela. If Amtrak does put the lounge back on CONO and retain the CCC for dining, it would be great if the lounge area was acutally in service as a first class lounge - shades of the Panama Ltd.
 
Long Train Runnin said:
Where are these cars coming from? I didn't think they had a lot of spares.
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Remember all that stimulus money Amtrak got? Part of it was earmarked for renovation of damaged cars (and purchasing new equipment), and many cars have already returned to service...
 
guest said:
Long Train Runnin said:
Where are these cars coming from? I didn't think they had a lot of spares.
Click to expand...
Remember all that stimulus money Amtrak got? Part of it was earmarked for renovation of damaged cars (and purchasing new equipment), and many cars have already returned to service...
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There were only 4 Sightseer Lounge car wrecks that were targeted for restoration, and so far to my knowledge only one has been completed.

However, I don't think that Sightseer lounge cars were in all that short of supply. Amtrak just decided to cut the costs of running the City of New Orleans by dropping that car and running the CCC.

Dining cars however are in short supply, since Amtrak converted too many into CCC's, which is why the Capitol is waiting for the wreck repairs to be completed, such that it can get real dining cars back.
 
:rolleyes: Does adding the SSL to the CONO mean that Amtrak can drop the deadhead coach that the host railroad required because of that silly axle rule that makes no sense??
 
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If they want to "dump" a CCC, we'll gladly take one for the Heartland Flyer. For that route, a CCC would be perfect especially when the Kansas service begins just so long as I can still get my Breakfast Sandwich in the morning and my Cheeseburger in the evening!
 
jimhudson said:
:rolleyes: Does adding the SSL to the CONO mean that Amtrak can drop the deadhead coach that the host railroad required because of that silly axle rule that makes no sense??
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Jim,

I would figure, and hope for that matter, that being required to haul that extra coach was indeed part of the reason that Amtrak decided to restore the SSL to the CONO. It will also allow them to interline with the Eagle if they wish to do so once again. At least until the rumored revamping of the Eagle/Sunset routes.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
If they want to "dump" a CCC, we'll gladly take one for the Heartland Flyer. For that route, a CCC would be perfect especially when the Kansas service begins just so long as I can still get my Breakfast Sandwich in the morning and my Cheeseburger in the evening!
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When the CCC's come off the Capitol, they're slated to go to the Empire Builder and provide dining car service to the Portland section.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
If they want to "dump" a CCC, we'll gladly take one for the Heartland Flyer. For that route, a CCC would be perfect especially when the Kansas service begins just so long as I can still get my Breakfast Sandwich in the morning and my Cheeseburger in the evening!
Click to expand...
It is not quite a simple as putting a CCC on there. They would have to modify several for push-pull service.

Though I agree it would be a nice addition to the HF.
 
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coxm50 said:
What changes have to be made to a car for push/pull exactly?
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I believe it is only some wiring that has to be installed so the locomotive controls can pass through. If they are running the train from a cab car, they need to be able to control the locomotive on the rear that is pushing the train.

Not many Superliners have the necessary pass throughs form push-pull service.
 
IIRC, all Superliner IIs were built with pass-through wiring; and some rebuilt Superliner Is have been retrofitted.
 
For some reason I did not think any Superliners were originally built with pass through. I could be wrong, though.

As for the Superliners I's, yes, several have had this added. Several of which were added specifically for the HF (and as backups for the HF). Most of the others were done so they could be used in California's fleet.

As for the CCC's, they are all Superliner I's and from what I can tell, none have the pass through.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
If they want to "dump" a CCC, we'll gladly take one for the Heartland Flyer. For that route, a CCC would be perfect especially when the Kansas service begins just so long as I can still get my Breakfast Sandwich in the morning and my Cheeseburger in the evening!
Click to expand...
If they add the KS service they would need to find a 2nd set of Equipment. Not sure there is enough SL spares for that train.
 
wrjensen said:
OlympianHiawatha said:
If they want to "dump" a CCC, we'll gladly take one for the Heartland Flyer. For that route, a CCC would be perfect especially when the Kansas service begins just so long as I can still get my Breakfast Sandwich in the morning and my Cheeseburger in the evening!
Click to expand...
If they add the KS service they would need to find a 2nd set of Equipment. Not sure there is enough SL spares for that train.
Click to expand...
Well if indeed Amtrak gets out an order for bi-level corridor cars, don't be surprised if they come to the Flyer regardless of whether the train ever runs to KS.
 

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