# Jamie's trip report PART 4



## amtrakmichigan (Dec 18, 2003)

Sorry it's taking me so long to get my trip report complete. Time is not on my side currently 

11/26/03

I called Amtrak the day before departure to check on the status of the EB Sunset, since it would turnaround to become our train the following day. The report showed it currently was running 8 hours late (suprise suprise). I was doing this by the way to get a head start on alternate plans in case they were going to "bus us" to B.F.E. ! Well later in the day the report showed it was running 11 hours late. I asked "Julie" to connect me with an Agent to find out if my departing train the next day would be effected. The verdict was YES it would effect my travel. I was informed that we would at least be bussed from Orlando to Sanford, due to a short turnaround time. Well this wasn't a big deal in my opinion. I wasn't going to ride a bus to say Pensacola or somewhere like that.

11/27/03 Thanksgiving day

Our train the WB Sunset was due to depart at 1:45 PM. We left for the station at about 11:30 giving more then plenty of time to travel. We arrived at the Orlando station at about 12:10 Pm. There was more people traveling on Thanksgiving then I thought there would be. The NB Meteor was due in a few minutes, so I figured I would just wait until it left before I ask about the status of the Sunset, instaed fighting all the people in the station.

I watched the Meteor pull into the station about 10 minutes late. An anouncement was made, but I didn't pay any attention to it since I wasn't going to ride the Meteor. Kim ran up to me, interupting me playing railfan and asked if I heard the announcement. I said no, why? She said if anyone was departing on the Sunset Limited, that they were to board here and ride to Jacksonville. OK! So we grabbed our bags and got in the long line to board the Meteor. A Conductor asked where we were going, and told him we were supposed to be on the Sunset. He directed us to one of the last coaches(a long walk). I explained to him that we had a Sleeper booked on the Sunset. He explained that he didn't have any available, funny since the Agent the night before said they had "plenty" incase if I had to change plans and go through WAS on the way home. I think this was a case of "were not going to dirty up a room for you to ride for 3 hours during the day" thought. I asked him about a refund for this portion of the trip for my sleeper. He said he didn't have time to deal with it right now, but would see what he can do. We boarded in the next to the last coach and waited for departure.

#98 Silver Meteor consist (sorry didn't get car numbers)

1) Genesis Locomotive

2) Baggage

3) Amfleet coach (must have been "dead heading" because of where it was

in the consist)

4) Dorm/Sleeper/Lounge

5) Viewliner Sleeper

6) Viewliner Sleeper

7) Herritage Diner

8) Amfleet II Lounge/smoking

9) Amfleet II Coach

10) Amfleet II Coach

11) Amfleet II Coach

12)#25093 Amfleet II Coach << OUR CAR

13) Amfleet II Coach

I couln't complain too much, we had the whole car to ourselves practically, since the rest of the coaches were packed and looked more like cattle cars then coaches. Our Coach was equipped with the luggage rack mounted video screens through out the entire car. This made me think this was either a NEC Business Class car or a Palmetto Business class car. After getting home I checked my trusty "official Amtrak Equipment Diagram book" (current as of 4/03) to find out if indeed this was a Business Class car. Amtrak doesn't list it as a B/C car, just a regular 59 seat Coach with no monitors being shown on the diagram (kind of intresting).

Our train departed at 12:38 Pm, 17 minutes behind. About 15 minutes latter the same Conductor came back as promised. He offered us lunch at no charge in the Diner for the Sleeper inconvience. Not a bad deal since we would have NOT been served lunch on the Sunset due to it's 1:45 departure. We accepted and headed off to the Diner for lunch. When we got to the Diner, the LSA told us it would be about 5 minutes before an empty table would be available. He asked us to take a seat in the lounge and he would come get us when they were ready. He was right on with the time and was seated about 5 minutes latter.

I had the angus burger again. Kim had a corned beef sandwhich and Danielle had the same thing as me. Again the food was excellent. Kim's sandwich was huge, and I ended up eating part of it. Service was very good too.

FOOD QUALITY: A

SERVICE: A-

During lunch 3 teenagers were walking through the Diner heading for the Sleepers. One of the waiters stoped them and asked where they were heading. One replied that they were "taking a tour". The waiter informed them that "there tour ended here and couldn't go any further since the cars ahead were 'private' cars". intresting way to put it, but was effective.

We headed back to our seats, Kim played college student, Danielle played the role of a typical 8 year old girl and I played Railfan. We were running 17 minutes late out of DeLand, Fl and then 30 minutes late out of Palakta. this was due to our stopping waiting for #97 Meteor to pass us.

We arrived into Jacksonville at 3:40 PM, 5 minutes early. We departed the train and went inside the station to find out what we were to do next. I waited for the initial rush of people to leave the ticket counter before I headed there. The Sunset would be about 1hour and 15 minutes late arriving. Not too bad. We enjoyed the outdoors the rest of the evening playing games and reading books since it was such a beautifull evening. We took full advantage of the outdoor patio type setup that the Jacksonville station has between the station building and the platform. There was nothing to watch as far as railfanning went. One CSX switch engine past, and the thrill of the evening, a NB Auto Train running probably 40 MPH past the station. I enjoyed talking to a real nice baggage handleing person. He was telling me about all the US Postal business that they handle out of Jacksonville. Mostly 1st Class mail running North and South on the Silver Service trains.

The fellow told me that the Sunset was running about 5 minutes behind the NB Star and would arrive in about 30 minutes. The NB Star pulled in about 10 minutes early, passing the station, then backing into the Mail car track lead to couple with a handfull of mail cars. This move would have been fine if the Sunset wasn't right behind the Star. Remember the Star was running 10 minutes early, so it had about 30 to 40 minutes before it could depart. Our Sunset Limited was already running 1 hour and 15 minutes late, due to being 13 hours late the night before coming from LAX, and took the normal track lead upon it's arrival. Well this became A HUGE HEADACHE ! The problem is we now have a train thats 1 hour and 15 minutes late behind a train that must sit for 40 minutes before it can depart. For another words, nobody could board the late train, because the early train was blocking the platform and walk way to the late train ! The Conductor from the Star was mad as all hell (he was really a nice guy, we talked railroads for sometime while we were both waiting). he latter said to me that "only a moron would line this mess up!" and he was right! Whoever screwed those two trains up wasn't too bright. The Conductor from the Star entertained me for about 30 minutes. His lastname was WARD(don't remember the first name) 30+ years with the railroad.

The Silver Star finally pulled out on time, leaving our train in plain view now on the next track. We boarded after meeting Dennis our Attendent. We had a Deluxe room(E) for our ride to New Orleans. Shortly after boarding Dennis came by and offered to explain everything about our room. I told him politely not to waste his breath since I was "too familiar" with the rooms. He seemed to be happy that he didn't have to do the speech of "how the room works"again. I told him that I would make up the beds, since we like to stay up a while after dinner. He seemed to be happy with that, and informed us he would be back in a few minutes for the dinner call. I made a before dinner cocktail for the 2 of us. About 2 minutes latter the "first and only call" for the dinner was made. Well we slammed our drinks and changed clothes quick, and headed down.

SUNSET LIMITED CONSIST

1) Genesis Locomotive

2) Baggage

3) 39026 Transition Sleeper

4) 32092 Superliner II Sleeper

5) 32091 Superliner II Sleeper << our car room E

6) 38067 Superliner II Diner

7) ? Superliner Lounge

8) ? Superliner Coach

9) ? Superliner Coach

For our Thanksgiving dinner, Henry was our server. We started out with a bottle of wine. I ordered a salad, Delmonico steak, carrots, mashed potatoes and gravey and cheesecake. Kim had the ravoli primavera and Danielle ordered her trusty mac and cheese (again!) with carrots. Our food was outstanding, and Henry was a wonderfull server! This man truly enjoyed his job. By the end of dinner Danielle was fighting herself to stay awake. Henry came over and made a few cool jokes to her, then offered to make a big ice cream sundae just for her, because she did such a great job eating her dinner. Danielle's response was "no thank you". HUH ? DID I HEAR THAT CORRECTLY........YOUR TURNING DOWN AN ICE CREAM SUNDAE?? yep she sure was, she said she just wanted to go back to the room, and climb in bed and go to sleep. OK whatever you want my love! I usually leave $5 as a tip for dinner, but Henry was so cool and served us so well with his graet personality, I did not hesitate to leave him $10. I think he liked that, since he was asking if we would be in for breakfast in the morning, and wished us a nice evening etc..etc.

FOOD: A+

HENRY'S SERVICE: A+ (the best I have had so far from a server on any trip)

The one thing i don't understand about Amtrak's fleet planning for this train is there is not a smoking area. This is Amtrak's most long distance run, and they dont have a smoking area? Who is coming up with these decisions? The conductor made an anouncement out of JAX as to where the smoking stops would be made all the way to New orleans. They have 3 stops along this stretch, with each being about 10 minutes. It probably wouldn't normally be this long, but our conductor seemed to enjoy smoking himself.

We took advantage of 2 of the smoking stops during the night, before going to sleep.

We woke up in the morning, I took a shower in our "phone booth" before breakfast. We headed off to the Diner. And guess who was watching for us...yep Henry. When he saw us, he flagged us over from the other end of the Diner. We took a seat and Henry was our server again. he was joking with Danielle about how she looked a little more awake then the last time he seen her. There wasn't anybody hardly in the Diner at this time, and Henry talked a while with me in between serving us and a few others abouth the politics with Amtrak and there funding.

All 3 of us ordered the Quisch(spelling ?), hashbrowns, sausage and bacon. There wan't any balking about ordering 2 sides like there was on the Silver Meteor on our way to Florida. Again the food was out of this world ! And henrys service was well polished like the night before. Henry earned himself $8 this time and was very thankfull. I in turn told Henry his service was top notch and he deserved it! He seemed to be very proud and happy with my comment. I feel people need to know when they are doing an outstanding job, especially in customer service.

FOOD: A+

HENRY: A+

Upon arrival to our sleeper, I found Dennis had our room set with the beds up. We watch the scenes go by out the window, for about 45 minutes then arrived into New Orleans at 9:25 Am. WOW, remember we left Jacksonville at 7:55pm 2hours and 25 minutes late, and arrived into New Orleans 5 minutes late. That is A LOT of padding!

I will continue as time permits with the next part. The Next Part gets Very Intresting with a "double booked" sleeper. Stay tuned!


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## AlanB (Dec 18, 2003)

amtrakmichigan said:


> I couln't complain too much, we had the whole car to ourselves practically, since the rest of the coaches were packed and looked more like cattle cars then coaches. Our Coach was equipped with the luggage rack mounted video screens through out the entire car. This made me think this was either a NEC Business Class car or a Palmetto Business class car. After getting home I checked my trusty "official Amtrak Equipment Diagram book" (current as of 4/03) to find out if indeed this was a Business Class car. Amtrak doesn't list it as a B/C car, just a regular 59 seat Coach with no monitors being shown on the diagram (kind of intresting).


Jamie,

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/3 to 1/2 of all the Amfleet II coaches had those TV monitors installed. While a few of the cars are now used to provide the enhanced Business Class service on the Carolinian, they originally were strickly intended for long distance coach service.

Except for the Carolinian though, I haven't heard any reports of the monitors working anymore. In fact I think that I recall hearing that the VCR's were removed from the cars, either by theft or to prevent theft.


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## Noordam (Dec 18, 2003)

amtrakmichigan said:


> We headed back to our seats, Kim played college student, Danielle played the role of a typical 8 year old girl and *I played Railfan*.


:blink: :wacko: :blink: :wacko: :blink: :wacko: :blink:

What a group........

I like your reports so far....


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## battalion51 (Dec 19, 2003)

I'd say the fleet of Amfleets with the monitors is more like 1/4-1/8. As for why they don't work, one word, Sunnyside. It's really a wonder they haven't started taking the monitors.



> Quisch(spelling ?)


 quiche. And it's good to hear that you all had great service on the Sunset. On an unrelated note, it seems as though the 32092 is always in the Sunset's consist when I hear about it or when I see it. As for the Conductors out of JAX, there's a reason why they're one of the best crew bases in the system, and highest seniority.


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## amtrakmichigan (Dec 19, 2003)

battalion51 said:


> Conductors out of JAX, there's a reason why they're one of the best crew bases in the system, and highest seniority.


Actually our onboard service crew was out of LAX.


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## Amfleet (Dec 19, 2003)

amtrakmichigan said:


> battalion51 said:
> 
> 
> > Conductors out of JAX, there's a reason why they're one of the best crew bases in the system, and highest seniority.
> ...


Conductors, Assistant Conductors, and Engineers switch off along the route at designated crew change points. They'll work 8-10 hour shifts until a relief crew comes on board to replace them. Only the on-board service crew (Attendants, Chefs, etc.) stays on the entire trip. However, on the Sunset Limited even the on-board service changes in New Orleans where a new crew takes over for the remainder of the trip to Los Angeles.


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## battalion51 (Dec 19, 2003)

I'm sorry please play again. No crew change even for the on board guys. They work 7 days on, 9 days off. Only changes in NOUPT are power and T/E crews.


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## AlanB (Dec 19, 2003)

Well unless this is a recent development as in within the last year, the OSB crew does indeed change at NOL. This however is or was the only Amtrak train where the OSB crew changed enroute.


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## battalion51 (Dec 19, 2003)

I've talked with OBs guys from the Sunset itself, a guy who got called to work the train extra out of Orlando, plus T/E, every single one of them says crew base is LA.


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## AlanB (Dec 19, 2003)

battalion51 said:


> I've talked with OBs guys from the Sunset itself, a guy who got called to work the train extra out of Orlando, plus T/E, every single one of them says crew base is LA.


Hmm, this must be a recent development then, perhaps a David Gunn improvement.  Because again up until at least last year, OSB crews did change at NOL. Like I said above, this was the only Amtrak train in the system that had such a crew change.

It had always been deemed too hard on the OSB crews to have to work at peak productivity for three days straight. Hence the crew change in NOL, which left the LA based crews working a normal two day run, while leaving the ORL/SAN based crews to pick up the slack of a one day run from NOL to ORL.

While I've no doubt that this can take it's toll on the crew, especially in the sleepers this of great benefit however to the passengers who no longer have to deal with different crew members during their 3 day journey.


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## battalion51 (Dec 19, 2003)

There's no doubt it's wearing on the crew. Many choose to work the Sunset though because of the amazing pay rates that you get (most months you start earning overtime halfway through your second trip). The incentive to work the train though are the nine days off in between.


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## amtrakmichigan (Dec 20, 2003)

Allen is correct, there is no longer a change of the service crew in NOL. Henry our server explained that Amtrak started this sometime ago.


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## Noordam (Dec 20, 2003)

battalion51 said:


> There's no doubt it's wearing on the crew. Many choose to work the Sunset though because of the amazing pay rates that you get (most months you start earning overtime halfway through your second trip). The incentive to work the train though are the nine days off in between.


I do not know the amount of money they make in tips, but IMHO the longer you serve somebody the more likely they will tip.


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## battalion51 (Dec 21, 2003)

Well if you do the math on it, assume that as an attendant on a Superliner you have 21 rooms to serve, every room occupied by the same people the entire trip, no one geeting off at an intermediate point. If each room leaves $10 that's $210 by the end of the trip. Most of the time more than one set of people occupies the room on a long trip like that, so you could easily make upwards of $300 in tips alone by the end of the trip, one way.


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## piedpiper13 (Dec 22, 2003)

Jamie - waiting with baited breath for part #5 :lol: :lol:


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