We are contemplating a LD trip after the first of the year but are hesitating due to previous threads complaining about the sleeper cars being right behind the locomotive(s) creating louder than normal horn sound and fumes from the locomotives getting into the sleeper car themselves. I am aware Amtrak has added metal shields over the doorway, but has this really helped with the problems?
Horn noise and fumes
- Thread starter Railspike
- Start date
Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:
Everyone is different, sometimes people love the horn and have no issue with it, including me. While some hate it.
The fumes are only really a problem if you are in the very front of the very first car and there’s no baggage car, but those rooms are usually for crew, and if a transdorm is on that train it is definitely for the crew.
I’ve never really experienced the fumes, and the horn doesn’t bother me. You can always request the car that’s furthest away from the front.
The fumes are only really a problem if you are in the very front of the very first car and there’s no baggage car, but those rooms are usually for crew, and if a transdorm is on that train it is definitely for the crew.
I’ve never really experienced the fumes, and the horn doesn’t bother me. You can always request the car that’s furthest away from the front.
Dakota 400
Engineer
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
- Messages
- 3,741
Nor have I. The sound of the horn, I enjoy hearing. And, certainly enjoy it more than the noise of the jet engine outside my plane seat! Fumes? What fumes?
I was in the sleeper on The Cap Ltd #30 10/23, roomette 3 - middle of the car. The sleeper was the car next to the engine, the horn was really loud. I didn't notice any fumes. Foam earplugs helped with the horn but didn't eliminate it.
Devil's Advocate
⠀⠀⠀
The horn can be quite loud when you're right behind the locomotive but you can ask for another sleeper at booking. Superliner sleepers seem to have little or no air filtration and I can smell diesel fumes during acceleration and brake fumes when stopping. The Siemens Charger locomotives should help cut down on diesel soot. If this is an issue my advice is to start with a shorter trip and see how that goes first.
Fat_Panda_Guy
Train Attendant
I was on Sunset Limited #1 NOL->TUS last week and was in the sleeper. We were the first car. Through San Antonio, I found the horn to be pretty constant. Annoying at first but then it sort of became ingrained. Once we got past San Antonio and into the desert, it wasn’t an issue.
i did notice the fumes in my room, but my dad did not. I didn’t find them to be overwhelming and there were certainly enough “fresh air” stops along the way to clean out the lungs if needed. At least imo. We had bedroom D.Lower level rooms may not have the same exposure though.
i did notice the fumes in my room, but my dad did not. I didn’t find them to be overwhelming and there were certainly enough “fresh air” stops along the way to clean out the lungs if needed. At least imo. We had bedroom D.Lower level rooms may not have the same exposure though.
Everydaymatters
Engineer
The horn never bothered me, but the fumes did. Going to one of the Gatherings the fumes caused me to have a problem which resulted in losing my voice for several weeks. There was a medical term for it, but I can't remember what it was. However, that was a very extreme case and I have never heard of anyone else having that happen.
In summer 1944 some of my family were in an open-wondow coach (Mom & I were in a parlor car on a separate train) and my brother remembers sticking a conical paper cup out the window and having it fill up with cinders though well behind the steam locomotive. But over the decades passenger cars were never next to an engine because so many mail & baggage cars were in between. Today on the Chicago-Saint Louis trains the BC/cafe car may be next to the engine or at the opposite end.
Dakota 400
Engineer
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
- Messages
- 3,741
Obviously before Amtrak, but I do remember the smell of smoke when the engine was burning coal.
I tried to
take a southwest chief train from KC to ABQ. I got on at 11pm thinking it would be a great trip as I’d sleep and wake up in the beautiful desert. Around 5am I realized the trains horn which sounds about as loud as someone screaming at you at full volume was just going to continue to blow every minute. And I mean every minute. There are so many crosssing that every 1-2 miles the horn would blow for 20 seconds so much so it felt like the horn might as well just be constantly sounded since it was blaring more often than not. My sleeper car was right behind the engine or at least it sounded that way. I brought ear plugs that were of zero use, again about as helpful as it would be the have ear plugs in when someone is screaming in your face. Easily the worst travel experience I’ve ever had as i had to get off in dodge city in the middle of nowhere just to get a few hours of rest. Never again….!!!!
I asked this once before but I am still wondering if there is a logical reason why the sleepers are at the head end of most trains? We always watch for the faces of the other passengers the morning after the first night on the train. Almost no one says they got much sleep at all.
crescent-zephyr
Engineer
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2015
- Messages
- 4,631
Many years ago I was in the Trans-dorm on the City of New Orleans with a single locomotive and no baggage car. I don't remember the fumes being an issue but I do remember the horn was pretty bad. I like the noises of the train but with no buffer that horn is loud!
Baggage cars, mail and/or railway express cars, followed by coaches, dining car, and sleeping cars (always with a lounge in half or most of the car) constituted trains traditionally. Locomotive horns or steam whistles were a long way out front.
I meant a lounge in at least one sleeping car. The Milwaukee Road's "Arrow" from Chicago to Sioux Falls, SD had a sleeping car (we had a bedroom) but also a car that had both a parlor (swivel chairs) section where we sat some (as an overnight train the chairs weren't reserved) and a sort of dinette section for all passengers.
I meant a lounge in at least one sleeping car. The Milwaukee Road's "Arrow" from Chicago to Sioux Falls, SD had a sleeping car (we had a bedroom) but also a car that had both a parlor (swivel chairs) section where we sat some (as an overnight train the chairs weren't reserved) and a sort of dinette section for all passengers.
Would it help to keep the walk shorter when arriving at terminal stations like Miami, where the buffers are right next to the station house?
That said, I think my last southbound Silver trip had the sleepers aft of the rest of the passenger cars.
joelkfla
Engineer
Yes, eastern single level trains generally have the sleepers at the rear, just in front of the baggage car (LSL being a partial exception because the train splits at Albany.) Perhaps Superliner trains have the sleepers up front because sometimes there's a transition dorm car right behind the locomotives, which allows the conductor to get to the engine, and they probably want to keep all the sleepers together when possible.
Boston section (448/449) usually has the single sleeper behind the engines, then cafe and coaches. New York section (48/49) has the sleepers at the rear after the coaches and the diner.
Back when 448/449 still had checked baggage, the baggage car was between the engines and sleeper which did provide a little isolation from horn noise. Also having 2 engines helps with horn noise as now the lead engine is a little further away. Personally it has never bothered me on my trips on the LSL which have always been in the Boston sleeper.
Devil's Advocate
⠀⠀⠀
In the past the first full revenue sleeper was always behind a baggage car and a transdorm (on Western trains) and while it was not perfect it helped me a lot.
Last edited:
Thanks for the answers. Never thought of the transdorm reasoning. I will have to check this September and see if any of our three western trains has one. We have been on seven western trails in the last three years and I don't recollect having one on any of those trains but I certainly could be wrong. A green horn for a year or two of those.
I rode 448/449 in a roomette BOS->CHI on April 2 and back to BOS on April 11. I was in roomette 2 both ways, and expected it to be noisy, but it wasn't bad. I was in a VL2 (first time for me) - maybe they have better sound insulation?
East-bound, there were THREE engines! I expected from what the conductor said, they would be dropping one of the engines in Albany, but all three pulled us (1 sleeper, a cafe car and 2 coaches) all the way to Boston. The sleeper was directly behind the 3rd engine. All the engines were the older Genesis P42's. Maybe the extra distance provided by the extra loco made a difference in the noise? I don't know if the 3rd loco was actually running or if it was just dead-heading.
The normal CZ consist 99% of the time is 2-engines+1-baggage+1-trans/dorm+2-sleepers+1-diner+1-lounge+2-coaches. Occasionally there maybe an additional sleeper or coach.
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Also note that the Coast Starlight has the sleepers at the back due to no transdorm.
joelkfla
Engineer
I looked at a SWC yesterday, and it did have a transdorm, but not a baggage car. It probably had a coach/baggage combine at the tail end.
