Sleeper - Late Night Boarding

[GPSTraveler]

Hello all,

I am thinking of taking the Lake Shore Limited East from Toledo - Boarding at 3:30am. If I am a sleeping car passenger, will the bed already be turned down before I board? Actually, lets also make this a system-wide question.... Will the bed be turned down ahead of time when passengers board the sleeper in the middle of the night? I would think it would be very difficult to grab the SCA, and ask him/her to turn the bed down at such a late hour, not to mention possibly waking other passengers from the hallway (with the noisy conversation in the hall).

So how does this work?

Thanks

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

The bed should be turned down and ready to go and in many cases, the Conductor rather than the SCA will board you since the SCAs are allowed at least 4 hours of sleep per night.

 

[NY Penn]

The bed should be turned down and ready to go and in many cases, the Conductor rather than the SCA will board you since the SCAs are allowed at least 4 hours of sleep per night.

That raises this question:

When does the conductor sleep?

 

[Ispolkom]

The conductor sleeps when his or her shift is over.

 

[Tumbleweed]

What if you do not wish to have the beds down?

 

[dart330]

My first LD trip boarded around 2AM, the conductor let us on and we found our way upstairs to the roomette with the beds already made. She even came back by once we were rolling and showed us where all the buttons were for the lights as it was really dark in there and I couldn't see them.

Wish I would of had a nightcap as I didn't get a minute of sleep that first short night.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

The bed should be turned down and ready to go and in many cases, the Conductor rather than the SCA will board you since the SCAs are allowed at least 4 hours of sleep per night.

That raises this question:

When does the conductor sleep?

The conductor, like the engineer, is on a completely different work plan than sleeping car crew, dining car crew, etc. They do not travel the entire distance, only a few hours. A conductor working a train in the middle of the night is a person sleeping at his end point or home in the day. Whereas dining car,lounge car and car attendants travel the entire journey and thus must have sleep.I think the conductors and engineers work day is based upon mileage.

But note on the Canadian the sleeping car and dining car crew change in Winnipeg. And in this country when the Sunset Limited used to go from FLorida to Los Angeles the SCA and diner crew changed in New Orleans.

 

[Acela150]

The bed should be turned down and ready to go and in many cases, the Conductor rather than the SCA will board you since the SCAs are allowed at least 4 hours of sleep per night.

That raises this question:

When does the conductor sleep?

The conductor, like the engineer, is on a completely different work plan than sleeping car crew, dining car crew, etc. They do not travel the entire distance, only a few hours. A conductor working a train in the middle of the night is a person sleeping at his end point or home in the day. Whereas dining car,lounge car and car attendants travel the entire journey and thus must have sleep.I think the conductors and engineers work day is based upon mileage.

But note on the Canadian the sleeping car and dining car crew change in Winnipeg. And in this country when the Sunset Limited used to go from FLorida to Los Angeles the SCA and diner crew changed in New Orleans.

To add on to that first statement Conductors and Engineers are limited to 12 hours straight time. If they start their shift at 12:23pm and their train is in the middle of say Idaho the train must stop at 12:23am or sooner and a new crew will replace them.

As for the SL IF the SL ever goes back to FLA would Amtrak keep that same policy?

 

[AlanB]

What if you do not wish to have the beds down?

Put bluntly, you lose!

Or if you know how, put the seats back up.

But pretty much anyone boarding after 10 PM and certainly 11 PM will find the beds already down, without regard to whether or not the attendant is asleep yet. It's generally assumed that anyone boarding that late will want to go right to bed.

 

[AlanB]

And in this country when the Sunset Limited used to go from FLorida to Los Angeles the SCA and diner crew changed in New Orleans.

As for the SL IF the SL ever goes back to FLA would Amtrak keep that same policy?

Most likely they would.

 

[jis]

What if you do not wish to have the beds down?

Put bluntly, you lose!

Or if you know how, put the seats back up.

But pretty much anyone boarding after 10 PM and certainly 11 PM will find the beds already down, without regard to whether or not the attendant is asleep yet. It's generally assumed that anyone boarding that late will want to go right to bed.

One exception is if the room that you are in was vacated at the very station where you board. I have done so at Cleveland under such circumstances, and the SCA placed my bags in the room and offered to let me sit either in his room or in the adjacent Diner while he fixed up the room, and of course I got to choose which berth to set up as a result. Normally they will set up the lower. Was just a metter of 5 mins.

 

[zephyr17]

The bed should be turned down and ready to go and in many cases, the Conductor rather than the SCA will board you since the SCAs are allowed at least 4 hours of sleep per night.

That raises this question:

When does the conductor sleep?

The conductor, like the engineer, is on a completely different work plan than sleeping car crew, dining car crew, etc. They do not travel the entire distance, only a few hours. A conductor working a train in the middle of the night is a person sleeping at his end point or home in the day. Whereas dining car,lounge car and car attendants travel the entire journey and thus must have sleep.I think the conductors and engineers work day is based upon mileage.

But note on the Canadian the sleeping car and dining car crew change in Winnipeg. And in this country when the Sunset Limited used to go from FLorida to Los Angeles the SCA and diner crew changed in New Orleans.

The Sunset only changed the OBS crew at New Orleans when it still went through to Miami. When they cut it back to Orlando, the same crew went all the way from LA. When I rode it LA-Orlando in 1999, we had the same OBS crew over the whole route.