# Quick Heartland Flyer Round Trip



## printman2000 (Mar 18, 2009)

Wanting desperately to get on a train, my family and I drove to Oklahoma City Sunday to catch the HF Monday morning and return Monday evening.

The tracks at the station in OKC is elevated. There is a nice old Santa Fe station on the street level.







The stinky thing is, they do not use the station. It was locked up. There is a small waiting room directly under the tracks behind the station. The parking lot in the picture is where I planned to park, however, it was closed that day so I dropped the family off and parked on the other side of the tracks.

When I got back to the family, my wife gave me this look of "I cannot believe this is happening." Then I heard it myself, it was a woman barking out instructions very loudly. I later found out this was the snack bar attendant for the train. Believe it not, statement like "If you get in my way I will kick you" and "Fewer people on the train, the fewer I have to put up with" came out of her mouth. Now I realize this was a very lame attempt to be humorous, but when you add it to the militant style she used and yelling at people for insignificant things, I was embarrassed for Amtrak. I actually had a nice conversation with her late in the trip, but how she handled herself was bad.

She then started lining people up. She took large groups first, the smaller groups. I assume this is to allow the groups to make sure they can sit together. However, this meant us waiting out on the very cold platform for close to 30 minutes waiting for the train to be pulled up. In the picture above, the platform is on the other side of the train. Where it is in this picture is a storage track. They have to move it to the other side to board and depart. When we went out, it was down the track waiting for the approval to move out onto the main line.






They finally pulled it up. It had four coaches and two locomotives, one on each end. This keeps them from having to turn the train in Fort Worth. We were put in the fourth coach, which happened to be the snack-coach. Smartly, I decided to sit to the REAR of the stairwell. That way, we would not have tons of people passing us the whole trip going to the snack bar. It was also cool to look out the rear door and see a loco there.

The sncak bar on this train is pretty pitiful. They have nothing near the menu on regular lounge cars. In fact, because it is a regional train, they do not use the standard Amtrak food. They even had Dr Pepper! Basically, if you take the lower lever seats out of a standard coach and stick a counter on one end of that room, you have a HF snack-coach. No tables. The line is pretty much always down the hall reaching to the restrooms. The food is stocked in Fort Worth, so the OKC-FW run has pretty slim pickings.

As I was boarding, I asked the conductor how his shifts work. They start with the FTW-OKC run, stay over in OKC, then do the OKC-FTW run the next day. The crews are based in FTW. The train ususally runs with three coaches, but because of Spring Break, they added the fourth. From the loud women mentioned above, she used the 300 number as the number of passengers on board.

We were right on time on all of our stops and it was a pretty uneventful trip. We hung out in Fort Worth (went to the zoo) and returned to the station as they were b acking up the trin to the platform. We were put on the second coach (which is not the car right behind the snack coach). Since I figured we might want to fall asleep, I looked for 4 seats together where all the leg rests worked. Could not find any! This car was in BAD shape as far ar leg and foot rests go.

Again, this trip ran on time and was uneventful. We actually got to OKC about 30 minutes early.

One lingering question I have is if both locomotives are working during the trips. Does the rear one actually push? Or do they use the rear one for HEP only? I did notice some unusual (for me) lurches in the car from having a loco right behind us. I am unsure if that is from it pushing or simply having that weight behind us.

Overall, a fund little trip to tie me over until our big trip this summer to NYC.


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## MrFSS (Mar 18, 2009)

printman2000 said:


> When I got back to the family, my wife gave me this look of "I cannot believe this is happening." Then I heard it myself, it was a woman barking out instructions very loudly. I later found out this was the snack bar attendant for the train. Believe it not, statement like "If you get in my way I will kick you" and "Fewer people on the train, the fewer I have to put up with" came out of her mouth. Now I realize this was a very lame attempt to be humorous, but when you add it to the militant style she used and yelling at people for insignificant things, I was embarrassed for Amtrak. I actually had a nice conversation with her late in the trip, but how she handled herself was bad.


Glad you had a good trip, Craig.

The above situation sounds like communication with Amtrak is needed. Someone at headquarters needs to know about that!


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## Stephen J. Levine (Mar 24, 2009)

The LSA sounds like Lila. She is a character! But, when you get to know her, you cannot help but like her.

In answer to the question about how the train operates when two locomotives are on it, the front one operates in variable mode and pulls the train. The rear one operates in constant mode and provides hotel power.

We in Oklahoma are just grateful to have the train. It took 20 years to get it back after the Lone Star was discontinued. The funding for the train is split 50/50 between Oklahoma and Texas. There are efforts underway here to try to get the train extended north.

sjl


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## printman2000 (Mar 24, 2009)

Stephen J. Levine said:


> The LSA sounds like Lila. She is a character! But, when you get to know her, you cannot help but like her.
> In answer to the question about how the train operates when two locomotives are on it, the front one operates in variable mode and pulls the train. The rear one operates in constant mode and provides hotel power.
> 
> We in Oklahoma are just grateful to have the train. It took 20 years to get it back after the Lone Star was discontinued. The funding for the train is split 50/50 between Oklahoma and Texas. There are efforts underway here to try to get the train extended north.
> ...


As for Lila, yes, I did have a nice one-on-one conversation. However, if I were sending a newbie to Amtrak for the first time, she would be one of the last people I would want them to encounter.

Thanks foe the other info on the locos. That is what I thought but wanted to confirm. Any idea why they sometimes use the cabbage? And where is the cabbage stored when they are not using it?


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## Stephen J. Levine (Mar 24, 2009)

printman2000 said:


> Thanks foe the other info on the locos. That is what I thought but wanted to confirm. Any idea why they sometimes use the cabbage? And where is the cabbage stored when they are not using it?


We are actually supposed to be using the Cabbage instead of the second locomotive. I believe that is what we pay for. The Cabbage has been specifically assigned to the Flyer and it has Oklahoma State flags painted on both sides of its nose. It is stored in Fort Worth when not in use.

The second locomotive is an extra <shhhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone>.

sjl


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## amtrakwolverine (Mar 25, 2009)

both locos are moving the train. they run at 50% power each via the onboard computer. BTW the employee who said if you get in my way i will kick you is asking for a assault charge.


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## printman2000 (Mar 25, 2009)

Okay, either I am misunderstanding or I am getting two different answers. One person says the rear loco merely provides HEP and one person says it is actually pushing. :huh:


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## Upstate (Mar 25, 2009)

Its bad that people like that LSA are employed at Amtrak. The majority of employees are good, but there is a significant percentage like this person that makes Amtrak seem more 3rd worldish. I am sure that they are out there, but I have never had a flight attendant just being downright rude to me. I have even had a check in clerk at the airport that I got pissed at because they canceled my flight and would do nothing but refund my money and she still kept a smile on her face. It is unreasonable to expect people to ride the train when they are immediately treated like crap just for showing up. I don't care if they are nice once you get to know them, I am not paying Amtrak for the opportunity to look past someone's outer rudeness and see their inner beauty.


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## Steve4031 (Mar 25, 2009)

The boorish behavior by the LSA is not acceptable. If I am spending money to go from point A to point B, I should not have to "get to know" somebody to be treated nicely. I'm not asking anybody to wait on me hand in foot. Just provide clear, reasonable instruction in a polite manner so that I can follow them. And to answer questions that need to be answered in a courteous manner. If somebody can't do that, they should not be working with the public.


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