Sleeper car placement

[busboy]

On the CZ and EB, are the sleeper cars at the tail end of the train? I am booked on both trains in the near future. On a recent trip from CLT to NYP, the car I was in was at the front of the train. The blowing whistle was somewhat annoying while sleeping. Just wondering.

 

[jis]

On the CZ and EB, are the sleeper cars at the tail end of the train? I am booked on both trains in the near future. On a recent trip from CLT to NYP, the car I was in was at the front of the train. The blowing whistle was somewhat annoying while sleeping. Just wondering.

On the EB there are Sleepers at both ends. The Seattle Sleeper(s) are in the front and the Portland Sleeper is in the rear. CZ used to change between summer and winter. I don;t know what the deal is these days.

 

[Ryan]

I think that they're on the front of the CZ, except for when there is a Devner sleeper, that one rides on the rear so it can get cut off easily.

 

[amamba]

I highly recommend earplugs, the soft foam ones that are readily available at any CVS or Walgreens type store. They completely cut out the train noise and whistle noise for me.

 

[ACVitale]

On the Easycoast Viewliners they have been "experimenting" it seems. Could be wrong but, On the trains in Dec, Jan, Feb and part of March the sleepers were in the rear. In later Mar and Apr they have been in the front. When in the rear the baggage car was moved to the end of the train for about half the time. (Feb, Mar)

I like the sleepers on the rear better then on the front when in them. But, only when the baggage car was on the back which helped in minimizing the back and forth swaying.

The downside is that the trains seemed to need to reposition 2x-3x at some stations to accomodate the sleepers and baggage in the rear of the train.

Thus despite the "better ride" on the viewliners in the rear with the baggage at the rear I think we will see them upfront.

One nice thing was when the sleepers were in the rear and the baggage up front you had a neat view from the back sleeper rear of the car.

 

[busboy]

Oh well, I was hoping they would be in the rear. Guess I'll bring along some of those foam earplugs.

 

[Trogdor]

The Zephyr has sleepers on the rear.

The Builder has the Seattle sleepers up front and Portland sleeper on the rear.

The Viewliner front/rear thing isn't due to experimenting, but due to the need to rotate the Lake Shore consist (which has the NYP sleepers on the rear) through to Miami during the winter.

 

[AlanB]

The downside is that the trains seemed to need to reposition 2x-3x at some stations to accomodate the sleepers and baggage in the rear of the train.

That happens without regard to where the sleepers or the baggage car are located. Some station platforms are simply too short to accomodate the entire train. So if baggage work needs to be done and/or someone is boarding/detraining from a sleeper, you're going to see a double spot, maybe even a triple spot at that station.

 

[ABDeh88]

Lately the CZ has been like this:

Loco

Loco

Baggage

Transition sleeper

Coach

Coach

Coach

Lounge

Dining

Sleeper

Sleeper

Taking the CZ on a short trip tomorrow.

 

[Steve4031]

Taking the cz on wednsday. Is 631 the last sleeper?

 

[ABDeh88]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but 631 should be closest to the dining car.

 

[ABDeh88]

On my above post regarding car order. That was the CZ #5 at Denver. Not sure if/where/when they add cars throughout the route.

 

[battalion51]

Right now the Zephyr is staying with a static consist throughout the trip with the sleepers on the bottom of the train.

 

[Cristobal]

I can verify that yesterday's e/b CZ had the sleepers on the back since I found myself trapped on the wrong side of the tracks at MTZ when it arrived and I had to walk down the ROW behind it to catch my connecting w/b Capitol Corridor train (which ended up being held back from the station a few minutes to allow all CZ pax to cross the platform but still arrived before the CZ departed).

I've done that particular 'points run' many times and have never been caught-out like I was yesterday (I usually see the CZ go by us a few minutes after departing MTZ on #729). It was pretty embarrassing and will certainly never happen again. :blush: