# Texas Eagle Trip Review



## Striker

*Northbound 22 from Fort Worth to St. Louis*

So with this being my first trip with Amtrak I was eager to begin my journey. With it being the Christmas season I was expecting the same delays as usual however some of my previous posts about this subject on this forum, members indicated that during the holiday season that Amtrak tends to run faster and on time. Well they were correct about that. The Eagle arrived and departed on-time and the train's arrival brought us into St. Louis a full 90 minutes EARLY! More about that later though.

So I boarded in mid-afternoon and got accustomed to my sleeper car. I had upgraded to a full bedroom (with in-room toilet/shower). I have to say I was very surprised to see the size of a roomette; frankly it's much smaller than I thought after looking at the diagrams. At first I had thought that one of these was my bedroom but I quickly realized I was on the wrong side of the car and found my room without a problem. The attendant promptly introduced himself and let me know to call upon him if I had any questions. My initial impressions of the bedroom was about on par with what I had expected, and in fact I had a bit more room to store my belongings than I had planned. I took about an hour to just sit back and relax and familiarize myself with my room a bit. Everything seemed to be working ok and I took the time to get my gps unit out to set it up for offroad travel. It worked just fine and the detailed maps in my gps even displayed the tracks. I noticed I had to keep the gps near the window or otherwise I couldn't get a signal closer to the middle of the car.

I got up a little later and explored the train some, first heading downstairs and checking out the public restrooms/showers. I have to say that during the whole trip the public ones were still clean and well-maintained. If I had to book a roomette I wouldn't have any problems with using the public facilities. The public luggage rack downstairs was used by a lot of people but there was always room for a few more pieces just in case. I then checked out the rooms downstairs briefly, remembering that each sleeper car had 1 family bedroom and 1 handicapped bedroom. I then walked through the diner and stopped in the lounge car for a bit. After a few moments I headed back to my room and waited for dinner.

Dinner was where I had one of my first learning experiences with the food. I ordered the flat-iron steak which was sub-par in my opinion. I made a mental note to never order this item again. It was undercooked and the flavor wasn't necessarily bad but it wasn't good either, not to mention the texture of the meat wasn't what I would consider decent. I was glad I brought along some snacks but I ate the potato that came with it and ordered an ice cream for dessert and that was ok for me for the night. I remembered hearing at least two other people ordering the angus burger and thought that must indicate something; I made a note to order that on the return trip.

*So for my first question...*

Throughout the trip I noticed that dinner reservations were held by those who had upgraded to full bedrooms, which is understandable, but if you book a roomette, do you get your meals included in the ticket price also? It seemed like at every meal they would only take, at most, 3 rounds of reservations and with 2 sleeper car it didn't seem to get around to everyone. I also found that for the simple reheating the crew has to do for a meal that could they not accomodate more people? I know that practically everyone in coach on that trip had to rely on the cafe for food.

I decided to turn in early that night for bed and a couple of the items that people listed here came in very handy, the duct tape especially. I set things up and turned out my lights as we pulled into either Marshall or Texarkana...can't remember. I do remember that our train was there for almost 30 minutes and seemed like they were doing some sort of maintenance. The car lost power twice and only the small emergency lights were on. Here was another lesson learned for me - I brought along my alarm clock just for keeping time and to wake me up for breakfast. Well when power went out, it did too. I should have brought a 9V battery to keep its memory. So if you are relying on one of those, remember a battery, or if you have a cell phone with an alarm that might work better.

I figured I'd get a quick shower before climbing into bed. Apparently the car or room I was in may have been an old one because there was no push button for the water, just a knob that turned the water on and simultaneously acted as the temperature control. There was no cutoff after a couple minutes, so I had unlimited water essentially. The only problem with this was the temperature "control" didn't work it seems as there was either cold or really hot, so I had to set the dial so low to get a decent temperature that the flow rate was incredibly low- maybe 0.5 gpm at the most. I thought about trying the public shower, but figured I'd go ahead and finish here.

So later after getting in bed, it was also getting rather warm in my room; second lesson learned was to pack a small oscillating fan with a clip-on base. Thankfully though after fumbling with the vent I managed to open it up a _bit_ more to get some more air in, but I think the crew also turned down the master temperature control while we were in station because the air was gradually getting cooler so that helped to make sleep come a little easier.

Little rattles throughout the night would occasionally wake me up so I had to get out of bed each time to apply duct tape. Overall I'd say I got maybe 6 hours of sleep. The mattress cushion they provide isn't exactly the most comfortable so I had to switch positions a lot, but 6 hours of sleep is better than nothing.

I woke up in time to get first seating at breakfest and tried the french toast; I figured there probably wasn't much they could do to screw that up and it turned out to be pretty good. That would hold me over for a couple hours, but just 30 minutes after finishing breakfast we had arrived in St. Louis. We ended up arriving pretty early so I guess the conductor must have been booking it during the night and/or only spending just a few minutes at the smaller stations. I recall that before I went to sleep I checked my gps again and the train was already at its speed limit.

The new St. Louis station was quite nice and well-organized. But like a couple others have complained I wish they had some sort of status display and also some automatic doors. There is also hardly any short-term parking; it's in this cramped lot that's almost always full. There's also no room at all for people who just want to take 5 minutes to drop someone off or pick them up; taxis take up most of the curb and the close parking spots are either for the handicapped or some city employees.

One last thing about the trip north was that I noticed the rails throughout Texas seemed pretty smooth and easy to ride but when I woke up already in Missouri the ride was rougher presumably either because the line there was older or hadn't been maintained as well.

So I will take a few moments to write up part 2 of my trip, the southbound return trip on 21


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## Striker

*Southbound 21 from St. Louis to Fort Worth; UP screws us over!*

I arrived at the St. Louis station about 90 minutes early and checked in my luggage and had some time to kill. I took a more detailed look around the station; apparently a KFC/Taco Bell will be opening up soon, but that's not the sort of fare I really go for. I then remembered the first class lounge they had here and located it without any problem, but it was locked. So I went up to the ticket counter and inquired if I may use the lounge since I was a first-class passenger. "No," the lady promptly replied. She explained that since it was so close to the train's arrival that they didn't bother opening it up. That answer really chaffed me. I never said which train I was booked for and I didn't expect any sort of free food or drinks; I just wanted to sit on something more comfortable than those hard seats, but she never even tried to meet me halfway. What the hell is the point of having the lounge there if you only open it up at certain times of the day when you know you have trains running out of there beyond those hours? I was rather put off by that.

The train was on-time again and we departed at roughly 8PM. The room I had this time had a nice wood paneling, as did the entire sleeper car. It gave it a pleasing appearance. I noticed that my toilet/shower actually had a bit more room than my previous one and this one actually had the push-button shower that many members here have talked about. The same guy from my northbound trip was my attendant on this ride again and he handed me a dinner reservation as soon as I got settled, so I headed on down to the diner car. I remembered to give the angus burger a try this time and now I understand why so many people had been ordering this item; it was quite good and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone for lunch or dinner.

After I had finished dinner I got a quick shower, this time the temperature worked much better than the last room's shower. When I got out it started to dawn on me that the room was a bit warm, then I cursed myself for not remembering to get a small fan for the room. This was going to be fun. I went to bed around 9:30 or so and had to lay on top of my mattress without any sheets or covers and stripped down to what little clothing I could spare. I had already fiddled with the vent and couldn't get anymore air to come out but airflow wasn't really the problem as much as the temperature. I was a bit reluctant to leave my door open, but after about an hour of lying in bed I opened it up about halfway. That helped get more air into the room, but it still was not cool at all. I must have dozed off for a bit because I remember waking up suddenly with the room really warm. I knew there was no way I could take this for sleeping and figured I had better try to find my car attendant or someone ask them about this. I checked all around my sleeping car but no one was around. I noticed also that a lot of people in the roomette section had left their doors open also because of the warmth. So I started looking around the train for someone.

Apparently there was only 1 sleeper car on this route (the northbound one had 2) because the first car I checked out was the transition sleeper for the crew. I noticed it was also cooler in this car so I took my time looking for someone and just checking things out. All crew get a roomette it would appear and downstairs they have a nice lounge area for them with a good deal of open space. Across from that lounge area I noticed were some other rooms, one labeled room "H".

*So my next question is...*

On crew cars, what is room "H"? Is that assigned specifically for the conductor? Does the conductor gets his own private bedroom with toilet/shower?

Well that question would have to wait a while since I still couldn't locate anyone. I went back upstairs and headed toward the end of the car except there was no door on the upstairs, rather it went down and the door was there. I was about to head through then I realized the engine was up ahead which was why the stairs went down...plus it was noisier too. My curiosity about seeing the engine almost got the best of me as I would have loved to see it all and that I could explain my being there to the conductor as a simple mistake of walking the wrong way and that I was a first time Amtrak passenger (which was true), but figured I'd let the guy work and that I didn't need to be there anyway. So I headed the other way to continue searching.

Finally in the diner car I spotted two folks and I spoke with one gentleman who appeared to be on a break and inquired if there was anything that could be done about temperature in the sleeping car because it was really warm back there. He was very courteous to me and eager to investigate my complaint. I can't say I remember seeing the guy anywhere on the train in the previous hours as one of the diner crew or sleeper crew. Anyway he came back with me and agreed it was pretty warm and even took a look at my room vent for me. He whipped out his pocket knife and forced the louvers open a bit more. After that he said he was going to check the temperature and see about turning it down just a bit. I thanked him profusely for helping me out. I then decided to get some ice for my water only to realize the ice bucket next to my room was empty, so I had to search out for some more. Well, to make a long story short I never found any, but I did run into the same guy again still adjusting the temperature, so at least now I know _where_ the temperature controls for a car are located; of course I have no key so it really doesn't make any difference.

I went back to bed and fell asleep somewhat fitfully. I then woke up about 2 hours later almost freezing and broke out the Amtrak blankets and 1 blanket I had brought with me. That guy had really turned down the temperature it seemed; no complaints from me though. I sleep better that way and quickly warmed up in bed and went back to sleep. I judged that quite possibly the guy I spoke with must have been a conductor or assistant conductor, though he didn't have his hat that I could verify this suspicion.

The next morning at breakfast I overheard some other people talking about how hot they were last night trying to sleep but that it finally cooled down late at night. So the moral of this story is if you are uncomfortable in your sleeper car, just ask someone if they could look into it. Other people might be waiting for someone else to speak up. If I hadn't gone searching for someone, we all would have had to suffer the whole night. While true everyone has different levels of comfort, I think it was pretty safe to say that our whole sleeper car was just too warm and stuffy.

I had french toast again that morning and settled back in my room for a quick shower then plopped down to read a book for a while. I had noticed as I was finishing breakfast that we had been stopped for a little bit and when I got out of the shower we still had not moved. I figured it wouldn't be too long so I started reading. After an hour I was getting a bit impatient but remember to keep my cool because this stuff happens. Well, again, to make a long story short, it took us almost 4 hours to get from Texarkana to Marshall. What had happened was a freight train was ahead of us and kept stalling out. The conductor mentioned a problem with their air system, which to me meant a brake problem, but I suppose it could have been something else. In my opinion, UP was slow in getting some kind of response to the problem engine. Now true there likely wasn't anyplace for the train to pull over, but finally we did make it into the Marshall station and I saw the culprit freight train so it would seem that UP had the means to get the train moving and placed on a side track. The conductor even mentioned during his announcement he was sorry to all the passengers for the manner in which the host railroad had treated us. That sort of reinforced my original assessment. Plus I remembered other members here posting that BNSF is often a much better host railroad than UP; well this seemed to be proof positive.

The conductor managed to make up some time on the way back to Fort Worth; we arrived about 3 hours, 15 minutes later than our original schedule. I then was forced to wait at the ticket counter almost 30 minutes just to pick up my luggage because it seemed at that moment about a dozen people decided to purchase tickets. No, they didn't have a reservation made, just purchasing a ticket at the last minute. Ugh.

So my last question to the members here: should I complain about the St. Louis lounge not being open during my wait time?


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## AlanB

Striker said:


> *So for my first question...*Throughout the trip I noticed that dinner reservations were held by those who had upgraded to full bedrooms, which is understandable, but if you book a roomette, do you get your meals included in the ticket price also? It seemed like at every meal they would only take, at most, 3 rounds of reservations and with 2 sleeper car it didn't seem to get around to everyone. I also found that for the simple reheating the crew has to do for a meal that could they not accomodate more people? I know that practically everyone in coach on that trip had to rely on the cafe for food.


Everyone in a sleeping compartment gets free meals, regardless of what type of room they booked.

And I'm not sure just why you mean by 3 rounds of reservations, but the correct procedure would be as follows. They should seat X number of people at 5:00 PM, then another X at 5:30 PM, and so on until all those who want to eat in the diner in theory have had dinner. The X is determined by how many passengers are on board, which in turn determines who many people make up the crew in the diner.

But if you have the most minimal sized crew, that means one cook, one waiter, and one supervisor (LSA). So if for some reason the sleepers fill up at the last minute and Amtrak can't add another crew member, it can be very tough for the crew to serve everyone. And it's pretty hard for even the best waiter in a regular restaurant under the best of conditions to serve more than 5 or 6 tables at the same time. An Amtrak dining car is definitely not the best of conditions. Everything is in a cabinet that must be opened and closed. You get several tables all arriving at the same time, rather than staggered like a normal restaurant. As well as other issues.



Striker said:


> I figured I'd get a quick shower before climbing into bed. Apparently the car or room I was in may have been an old one because there was no push button for the water, just a knob that turned the water on and simultaneously acted as the temperature control. There was no cutoff after a couple minutes, so I had unlimited water essentially. The only problem with this was the temperature "control" didn't work it seems as there was either cold or really hot, so I had to set the dial so low to get a decent temperature that the flow rate was incredibly low- maybe 0.5 gpm at the most. I thought about trying the public shower, but figured I'd go ahead and finish here.


I've hit a few of those showers that just don't seem to want to cooperate temperature wise. And many, many of the showers has had the timing button either removed or at least deactivated.


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## AlanB

Striker said:


> *So my next question is...*On crew cars, what is room "H"? Is that assigned specifically for the conductor? Does the conductor gets his own private bedroom with toilet/shower?


No, the H room is a standard handicapped room that can be sold to anyone who meets the qualifications. The problem is that not all dorm cars actually have an H room, so I'm not sure if Amtrak actually sells the room since they can't always predict that the dorm will have an H room.

The conductor does not get a room, since he/she is only on duty for a maximum of 12 hours before a new crew takes over.



Striker said:


> So my last question to the members here: should I complain about the St. Louis lounge not being open during my wait time?


You can certainly try, but I wouldn't expect to get much, maybe a couple of bucks in the form of a voucher. My guess is that they are just having issues related to the fact that the lounge is brand new. They may not yet have enough staff to cover everything properly with the new station and lounge.


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## Striker

AlanB said:


> And I'm not sure just why you mean by 3 rounds of reservations, but the correct procedure would be as follows. They should seat X number of people at 5:00 PM, then another X at 5:30 PM, and so on until all those who want to eat in the diner in theory have had dinner. The X is determined by how many passengers are on board, which in turn determines who many people make up the crew in the diner.
> But if you have the most minimal sized crew, that means one cook, one waiter, and one supervisor (LSA). So if for some reason the sleepers fill up at the last minute and Amtrak can't add another crew member, it can be very tough for the crew to serve everyone. And it's pretty hard for even the best waiter in a regular restaurant under the best of conditions to serve more than 5 or 6 tables at the same time. An Amtrak dining car is definitely not the best of conditions. Everything is in a cabinet that must be opened and closed. You get several tables all arriving at the same time, rather than staggered like a normal restaurant. As well as other issues.


They did it two ways during my trips. They would hand out reservation numbers to people and as a couple of people finished up, they'd call out 2 or 3 more numbers. The other way I noticed them doing it on my southbound trip was waiting until _everyone_ was finished and gone before calling out another 6 numbers. During both trips I noticed that the maximum number of tables in use at any given time was 6, even though they had more. So I don't know if they were short on crew or just lazy or what.

I did forget to mention that on my return trip, the "main guy" was there too. I don't know what you call him, but he took reservations, took orders, called out dining reservations over the speakers...kinda doing a lot of stuff. Well my last lunch on the train I ordered to take back to my room and so I sat down at one of the unused tables that the crew used. He came by to sit and fill out some paperwork and commented on how much this trip was busting him up...though he used more colorful wording, but I didn't mind. :lol: Apparently he had been working there for 23 years and was getting close to retirement. Heck that isn't bad for a position that's essentially a busy waiter, being able to get a full pension and other retirement benefits I mean.


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## AlanB

Striker said:


> Heck that isn't bad for a position that's essentially a busy waiter, being able to get a full pension and other retirement benefits I mean.


He's far more than a busy waiter. He's responsible for all customer service aspects on the entire train. The sleeping car attendants, cafe attendant, and coach attendants all report to him. He's also responsible for all the money collected and all the food loaded on the train. If he doesn't have enough money and credit card receipts to cover the missing food, he's in big trouble.

And he still get's to play waiter for about 15 hours a day, in addition to trying to find time to sleep and take care of his own needs.


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## had8ley

Just one comment to a good report~ the Engineer is responsible for getting the train over the road. The conductor is in charge of the entire train but running the engine is the one responsibility left to the engineer.


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