Viewliner carry-ons

[65Imperial]

Hi all, My girlfriend and I will be taking The Lake Shore Limited to Boston in June. This will be myfirst time on a Viewliner train so I have a couple of questions. First, Is there a place in the car to store luggage besides in our roomette???? Also what type of meal service could we expect on the train???And lastly, what's the on-time performance of the Lake Shore??? Oh and one more....How do thet get a toilet in the roomette???? Is it magic or what??? Thanks, David

 

[AlanB]

First, Is there a place in the car to store luggage besides in our roomette????

No, there is no place except in your room to efficiently store luggage. If you have a bag that is too big, then my advice is to check it.

The rolling suitcase that I normally travel with is 14 inches wide, stands 23 inches tall, and is 7 inches thick. If I had two of those bags, I could just barely fit both of them side by side in the cubbyhole above the hall. The same sized bag can also fit underneath your seats. One bag could be a little wider than mine by maybe an inch or two, the other I’d say could be approximately 5 or 6 inches wider. They could not be much taller or thicker and still fit underneath the seats. There is also room for a shoulder bag next to the larger of the two seats. If you need anything more than that, then I would recommend checking some luggage and letting it go into the baggage car. Your car attendant will try to accommodate larger bags, but it is very difficult for him to do so. He/she usually has to store them in the shower room, and in the vestibule of the car. This means that they have to keep moving them around as people enter and exit the train at stations, or if someone wants to take a shower.

..How do thet get a toilet in the roomette???? Is it magic or what???  

I don't know that I'd call it magic, maybe some creative engineering though. Amtrak tappered the beds at the foot end. This makes it easier to climb up into the upper bunk and it also provides just enough space for the toilet. It does however make one chair smaller than the other.

You can view pictures of the roomette on Amtrak site here. Right in the first picture, before you even click on it for the tour, you can see the toilet to the left side of the chair.

 

[Superliner Diner]

I just got back from a round trip on a Viewliner-equipped train going to and from Florida.

Going down was no problem. The suitcase easily fit into the space above the hallway.

During our time in Florida, my parents gave both myself and my teenaged son some presents for our birthdays, which caused the same suitcase to be a lot heavier and thicker. In fact, it technically was against regulations as it exceeded the required width, and it also might have been more than 50 pounds. I could not have checked it because I needed the overnight toiletries inside and a change of clothes for the second day of travel.

The crew at the station gate in Tampa did not give me any problem, nor did the attendants who were involved in boarding us and showing us to our compartment. The joke was on me though, as it took two of us to lift the dead weight suitcase over our heads in the narrow space and then turn it 90 degrees to get it into the storage space. Somehow we did it, and then we had to do the reverse to get the suitcase out long before our destination. In our case, I was still glad not to have checked it because we had a very tight connection in Philadelphia with another train, one we definitely would have missed if we had to await checked baggage.

 

[AlanB]

The joke was on me though, as it took two of us to lift the dead weight suitcase over our heads in the narrow space and then turn it 90 degrees to get it into the storage space. Somehow we did it, and then we had to do the reverse to get the suitcase out long before our destination.

Next time Kevin, lower the upper bunk to the halfway position. Then lift the suitcase up onto that bed. From there it is much easier to manuever the suitcase into the cubby hole.