Thougts on Viewliner Crew Cars

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Viewliner

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I've pondered the Idea of a Viewliner Dorm Configuration for a while now but think I've reached a conclusion.

As far as a baggage dorm, I don't know that the baggage space would be utilized enough to warrant it.

Dorm-Lounge: The "lounge" is either where crew members smoke, or things like bags of linens are stored in Heritage Cars. If a crew member wants a smoke they could just go to the Viewliner smoking coach (Yes, I have plans for that too). As for the sacks I'll address that in a minute.

Dorm-Table: Crew probably wouldn't like passengers going through the dorm, after all they probably could use a refuge without a lot of foot traffic. (Some crew memberss have a bad attitude as is, we don't need them complaining about privacy.) Besides, I think it would be better to have dedicated Viewliner table cars to have that much more capacity (Maybe a prep area too). Remember, the Pre-Superliner Auto Train did use table cars.

Conclusion: The "Crew" Car should just be a standard sleeper. This way there are fewer car types, as well as a larger pool of sleepers. If you guys remember, on one of Alan's trips the crew did share a sleeper with passengers, due to lack of a dorm. I talked to Battalion51 about this and he suggested that perhaps room H could be the Conductor's office, and the two other deluxe rooms could go the highest ranking crew members in seniority. Since there would still be extra rooms, things like linen bags could be stored in the extra rooms, and as I said crew members could use the Smoking room in Viewliner Smoking coaches. (Besides we wouldn't want the new cars to smell like cigarettes anyway).

Any Thoughts on this Idea?
 
Though I agree with you on designing less equipment, I don't think 8 crew mebers should take a whole car designed for 30. Filling up the other rooms with linens is a waste a space. I think my design for a crew car with 8 Standard Bedrooms, a shower, a conductors office, then in the dining area a crew table, prep area, and 10 dining tables. This untalizes which would have otherwise been wasted space. However, this car would be placed at the center of the train, but if a crew member wants privacy all he or she has to do is shut and lock the door and close the curtains. That's what the rest of us do.
 
Amfleet you have to keep this in mind though. The diner is at the center of the train, not the front where the dorm is. Now if you wanted to design the car so that you have a First class lounge in one half that is a reasonable idea, but thedining car idea won't work. If youwant to put a mail room in one half to handle the bogies of mail that is a reasonable idea. But I think that if we can get some better built sleepers for revenue service, and knock the current sleepers back to crew service that could work. In some emergency situations in the past when they are short on Heritage dorms and a Viewliner has been substituted they have sold Room H and Rooms A and B, a similar plan could be implemented on a permanent basis, but turn the car so that the deluxe rooms are on the non baggage side. In the end though, you really need to have 3/4 of a car dedicated to crew use.
 
Who said the crew car had to be up front? The Crew/Diner would be put in the center of the train right next to the Diner. It would be like the PRR twin-units. I'm sorry, but crews are going to have to be a little more tolerant as there job is to serve passengers, not hide away.
 
OK so let me get this straight, you think the crew should have no place where they can be away from people for the night, no privacy at all. So if the crew is to have it's bedrooms be in the middle of the train, you would be just as willing to have your bedroom be in the middle of Times Square? Remember the crew members are people, not slaves.
 
Hey, if we passengers can deal with our accomadations at night then they can too. After 10pm most people are already in bed anyways. I would not call it "Times Square" either. All a crew member has to do is shut the door, lock it, and close the door. How much more privacy does one need. Remember, sleeping car attendants deal with their accomadations. Until Amtrak came up with the idea of a crew car, employees were spread throughout the train in varous rooms set aside. VIA still follows this practice and their crews seem well off. I can tell you that passengers are not going to go pounding on the door of an employees room at 2am.
 
I'd have to say I kind of agree with Battalion, but I'd like to know how many tables your car would have Amfleet.
 
Here's the plan, sorry it's some what long. 3-4 Sleeping Car and a Baggage Car would be to the right; a Lounge Car, Coach/Smoking Lounge, and 4-5 Coaches would be to the left. Hope this clears something up.

jss_crewdiner.jpg
 
I personally think more than eight rooms are needed. Look at the personnel of a train:

Diner LSA

Diner Waiter

Diner Waiter

Chef

Chef

Lounge LSA

Coach Att

Coach Att

Product Line Supervisor

That's nine employees right there, not to mention the ocassional deadhead employee. The current dorms have ten, the new dorms should have at least that many.
 
Deadhead employees can bunk up with someone else, or take an empty sleeper if avalible. At least one-coach attendant should be in the coaches at all times. I think my design benefits for the passengers and the employees and I will leave it at that.
 
I still think you'd just be better with an additional Sleeper for the crew(/Passengers, as said by Battalion) and a Table car, which could based on your plans provide 18 more booths, in addition to ten in the (Temoinsa-style) diner would provide capacity for 112 (or in your diner 104, which probably would be more accurate)passengers. Amfleet, one other problem I have is that with more seating capacity, you'd need more diner attendants as well as chefs/more people to prep food anyway, considering passengers can have long waits when seated anyway.
 
That's the thing with a Table Car, the capacity would far exceed what the crew and Kitchen could handle. My design right now allows for a capacity for 72 (40/32), which the Dining Crew can hadle. It's baisicly a Superliner Dining Car spread out over two cars, plus some more with the crew rooms. Amtrak employees should not be taking away from the passengers, but at the same time be nicely accomodated, which I believe I have done. In every job you will always have to have some tolerance if you do not like it.
 
Amfleet said:
That's the thing with a Table Car, the capacity would far exceed what the crew and Kitchen could handle. My design right now allows for a capacity for 72 (40/32), which the Dining Crew can hadle. It's baisicly a Superliner Dining Car spread out over two cars, plus some more with the crew rooms. Amtrak employees should not be taking away from the passengers, but at the same time be nicely accomodated, which I believe I have done. In every job you will always have to have some tolerance if you do not like it.
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If it would exceed the capacity, then a few booths in the table car could just be used for the lounge passengers (spill over), as it can be hard to find an open booth in the lounge anyway.
 
The whole point of this though is to conserve how many cars are built. Even if a sleeper were to be used for the crew, 25 would have to be built along with 25 table cars. That's a total of 50 cars. If you have a combined crew/diner only 25 cars are needed.
 
Amfleet said:
The whole point of this though is to conserve how many cars are built. Even if a sleeper were to be used for the crew, 25 would have to be built along with 25 table cars. That's a total of 50 cars. If you have a combined crew/diner only 25 cars are needed.
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We're going to need more sleepers anyway, and it wouldn't hurt to have a larger pool, besides, not every route would necessarilly need a table car.
 
But you do not want to purchase more cars than needed. With half a sleeper untalized by the crew and half a table car used for a diner, then one whole car is not making any revenue or being utalized to its capacity. Also the whole reason, Gunn is storing some many locomotives is becuase they are sitting doing nothing. So ordering more sleepers for a larger pool, with some not making any revenue is bad for overall operating costs.
 
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