# Recent Overnighter on #98 - Silver Meteor



## Notelvis

We had a family event (on my wife's side) in Florida this Memorial Day weekend which required my presence only part-time. As a result, I was able to do a 'quick overnight' Amtrak trip departing Winter Park Sunday afternoon on #98, the Silver Meteor. I rode overnight to Baltimore Penn Station, caught the light rail to BWI, and flew home on Memorial Day.

There is much construction going on at the Winter Park station area due to the coming of Sunrail. One job that is completed now - the small middle platform has been removed and the outer track has been moved nearer the existing station. New platforms are under construction 'across the tracks' where the outer track used to be. This new platform seems to be complete in the block north of the existing station but seems to be waiting for inlaid brick across the tracks from the station.

South of the existing station the platform roof has been removed and new platforms are under construction. Some trees (but not as many as one might expect) have been removed and the foundation has been poured for a new Amtrak station building. Renderings of the new station are posted and while it looks very attractive, it does not appear that the new station is going to be any larger than the existing station. This was somewhat of a surprise.

It was also a surprise (this one pleasant) that much of this construction is hardly evident from the park on the east side of the railroad tracks.

Even on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, there was some signal work going on between Winter Park and Sanford. This work delayed the southbound Silver Meteor by an hour beyond the 30 minutes it was already running late. The northbound Silver Meteor, on-time as far as Orlando, lost an hour through the work zone as well. It was not clear to me whether the signal work was 'part of the plan' or if it was some unforseen problem which the guys in hard hats were trying to correct. I suspect the latter. With schedule padding, the train was not even thirty minutes late into Washington, DC and, at most, only ten minutes late at Baltimore.

Some reactions - The original Viewliner Sleepers are becoming threadbare. The help which is on the way for them cannot arrive soon enough. Things worked but there were rattles from the compartment and buzzing from the various fixtures which suggested something less than a first class experience.

My roomette was oriented in such a way that I could either sleep with my head nearer the front of the train or with my head by the toilet. I went with head forward even though I normally do not sleep as well that direction.

I've concluded that I prefer the superliner roomettes...... either upstairs or down..... simply because I prefer not having the toilet in the room with me. If I ever used the upper berth (which I do not), I would likely think differently. I also would not book a roomette if I were traveling with another adult.

Of course I 'really' most liked the roomettes in the old 10 & 6 Heritage fleet sleeping cars. Think 'thicker bedding' here.

The train was pretty nearly full with three sleepers and five coaches. The coach load benefitted from a girl scout troop boarding in Jessup, GA.

I was hoping for the prototype Viewliner Diner but was not disappointed to instead get one of the remaining Heritage Fleet Veterans. The dining car staff was not unpleasant though they could have been a little more efficient. I wasn't able to determine whether one of the servers was brand new or if it was the first time this dining car crew had worked together. What needed to be done got done but it seemed like at times the youngest server had no clue as to what should happen next.

There were a couple or three things I had never seen done before which this dining car crew did - 1st, at lunch (where I just made 'last call') the LSA in the diner also took our dinner reservation but distributed no little slips. 2nd, the LSA asked us if we wanted to have an alcoholic beverage with dinner and took prepaid orders from those who said yes BECAUSE it was Sunday and the Blue Laws prevented her from selling alcohol with dinner as we would be in Georgia and then South Carolina.

Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.

Why is this? Are they hoping to increase the amount of their tips (and I generally tip at 15% of what my check would have been......a little more for exceptional service) by making it clear what our bills 'would have been'? Are they providing us with a tool for expense account travelers to use in preparing their tax returns? Why would we suddenly need our receipt for a dinner that was paid for as part of the accommodation charge when we did not before?

But I digress - the trip was 'more positive than negative' but until some stunning new equipment arrives and needs to be tried out, I'd opt to spend my recreational train riding resources on trains with more interesting scenery than the Silver Service trains can offer.


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## ALC Rail Writer

I'm starting to think there ought to be a gratuity charge built into the sleeper fare which is split among the OBS crew. Of course then sleepers would be fifty bucks more expensive, but alas...


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## RichardK

Do you suppose Amtrak is doing nothing to maintain these sleepers, knowing the new ones are on the way?


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## Bob Dylan

Neat Solution to the Idiotic Blue Laws regarding Alcohol! (And the Southern States are the Moonshine/Bootleg Capitol of the Bible Belt! Give me that Old Time Religion indeed!)) As to the Diner Crew, sounds like you got one of the Less than Crack Teams that Usually Works this Route, I've always had really good OBS on the Silver trains, especially the SCAs!!! I agree that the Viewliners are getting "Rode Hard and Put Up Wet!", time for the New Equipment!!!


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## Cho Cho Charlie

RichardK said:


> Do you suppose Amtrak is doing nothing to maintain these sleepers, knowing the new ones are on the way?


I thought the new Viewliners were additional cars, not replacement cars.


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## Cho Cho Charlie

Notelvis said:


> Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.
> Why is this? Are they hoping to increase the amount of their tips (and I generally tip at 15% of what my check would have been......a little more for exceptional service) by making it clear what our bills 'would have been'? Are they providing us with a tool for expense account travelers to use in preparing their tax returns? Why would we suddenly need our receipt for a dinner that was paid for as part of the accommodation charge when we did not before?


Is giving a totaled up receipt something new? I have never had such.

I have had receipts that showed what we ordered, my car/room number, and I had to sign it. But it had no dollar amount total.


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## crescent2

No jabs at religion, Southern or otherwise, please.


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## bill

I just returned from a CA Zephyr - Capitol Limited - Silver Meteor trip from Nebraska to Orlando. Overall a good trip but the service on the Meteor was similar to the one's mentioned. Great SCA's (we had Sonny...he even helped out in the diner...great employee). Overall the dining car crew was a bit slow but the food was good. I still think the Viewliners are in pretty good shape, they were clean, and everything worked.

The one issue I had was on the Meteor there were no announcements at all. No " we are arriving Richmond", no "the cafe car will be closed", no "this is the final call to dinner"...nothing. On the Zephyr and Capitol there were constant announcements.

Since this was the first time I have ridden the Meteor, was wondering if this was a lazy operating crew or just the way things are done on the Florida trains?


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## Sactobob

Cho Cho Charlie said:


> RichardK said:
> 
> 
> 
> Do you suppose Amtrak is doing nothing to maintain these sleepers, knowing the new ones are on the way?
> 
> 
> 
> I thought the new Viewliners were additional cars, not replacement cars.
Click to expand...

Yes, they are replacement cars, but they will also allow some of the old batch to be taken out of service for major overhaul. That is not possible now to having very few spares.


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## jimhudson

crescent2 said:


> No jabs at religion, Southern or otherwise, please.


Sorry, It was a weak attempt @ Humor, just pointing out the Hypocrisy of Blue Laws being based on Religious Beliefs! No offense meant to any of the Devout but Chrisitians are a Minority in the World! <_<


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## crescent2

None taken, Jim, and thanks for your post. It just sort of came across as a jab to us Bible-belt folks even if not intended that way.

Actually, there are probably more Christians around than you might think. (I just *had* to look it up, LOL!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_by_country

Not that that matters here on AU.

BTW, I agree with you that the blue laws seem silly, but AFAIK, neither the Southern Baptist Convention nor the Vatican (nor any other religious organization or church) makes the laws in GA and SC. I don't think we can blame them on Jesus, either. His first recorded miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding celebration.

And always, thanks for all the wonderful advice and info you share about Amtrak.


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## Angela1117

Thanks for posting about your trip.

We are taking the Silver Meteor from Orlando to Boston for Christmas so I'm always happy to read of others experiences there.

We board at 1:35 so I was wondering if that gives us enough time for lunch or should we just have something before we board?

Glad to hear of the progress for the Sun Rail tracks. I live in Orlando but work in Sanford and am more than sick and tired of I-4!

Angela1117


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## Notelvis

I boarded the train in Winter Park at 1:55pm and they were making the last call for lunch, at least for those of us in the sleepers at that time. To be honest, I had not expected to still get lunch.

I'm thinking that you may get lunch boarding in Orlando. I'd certainly ask about the possibility as soon as you board.

@Charlie - Yes I think. This was the first trip I've been in sleeper on where the dining car staff made certain I had a totaled receipt every meal. I don't know if this is something new system wide or something unique to the Silver Service trains as it has been several years since me last trip on one of them. I've been on the Crescent, California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Southwest Chief, and Texas Eagle all within the last two years and have not been given such a receipt until now.


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## TraneMan

Thanks for the "review", will give me something to expect, than having a high one that I am used to on the Superliner on the Empire Builder.


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## OBS

Notelvis said:


> I boarded the train in Winter Park at 1:55pm and they were making the last call for lunch, at least for those of us in the sleepers at that time. To be honest, I had not expected to still get lunch.
> I'm thinking that you may get lunch boarding in Orlando. I'd certainly ask about the possibility as soon as you board.
> 
> @Charlie - Yes I think. This was the first trip I've been in sleeper on where the dining car staff made certain I had a totaled receipt every meal. I don't know if this is something new system wide or something unique to the Silver Service trains as it has been several years since me last trip on one of them. I've been on the Crescent, California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Southwest Chief, and Texas Eagle all within the last two years and have not been given such a receipt until now.


Certainly not systemwide in regards to receipts. My guess is something the Mia crewbase Diner LSA's came up with to help passengers with tipping guidelines.


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## OBS

bill said:


> I just returned from a CA Zephyr - Capitol Limited - Silver Meteor trip from Nebraska to Orlando. Overall a good trip but the service on the Meteor was similar to the one's mentioned. Great SCA's (we had Sonny...he even helped out in the diner...great employee). Overall the dining car crew was a bit slow but the food was good. I still think the Viewliners are in pretty good shape, they were clean, and everything worked.
> The one issue I had was on the Meteor there were no announcements at all. No " we are arriving Richmond", no "the cafe car will be closed", no "this is the final call to dinner"...nothing. On the Zephyr and Capitol there were constant announcements.
> 
> Since this was the first time I have ridden the Meteor, was wondering if this was a lazy operating crew or just the way things are done on the Florida trains?


It sounds like the PA system was either not working, or turned off in your sleeper.


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## xyzzy

To be clear, the statewide ban in Georgia on alcohol sales on Sundays was lifted in 2011 although it had not applied to Atlanta and a handful of other locations for years before that. Local communities have had an option since 2011 to hold a referendum on the topic. Savannah did, for example, and it passed. Amtrak simply doesn't want to bother with which communities have greenlighted the sales and which have not.

Only an issue in North Carolina prior to noon on Sundays. Don't know about South Carolina. Don't think it's an issue in Virginia, at least not at times when the dining and lounge cars on Amtrak trains are open.


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## Notelvis

xyzzy said:


> To be clear, the statewide ban in Georgia on alcohol sales on Sundays was lifted in 2011 although it had not applied to Atlanta and a handful of other locations for years before that. Local communities have had an option since 2011 to hold a referendum on the topic. Savannah did, for example, and it passed. Amtrak simply doesn't want to bother with which communities have greenlighted the sales and which have not.
> Only an issue in North Carolina prior to noon on Sundays. Don't know about South Carolina. Don't think it's an issue in Virginia, at least not at times when the dining and lounge cars on Amtrak trains are open.


The thing with 'blue laws' is that they evolve over time and have generally become more liberal over the last 30 years. What I knew to be the case as a college student working part-time in a North Carolina convenience store then no longer applies/

The one constant - as you note - is that the laws have always differed from state to state, county to county, and even municipality to municipality. Can't blame Amtrak for not wanting to run afoul of the law because some guy in the café didn't finish his beer before the train crossed the bridge at County Line Creek.


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## crescent2

In my county alcohol including mixed drinks can be purchased with meals, but there are no liquor stores, only beer and wine sales. This was a local decision decided upon by voters. Several adjoining counties have liquor stores. So it's still a mix of laws. No Amtrak so it's a moot point here on AU.


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## Aaron

Notelvis said:


> Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.
> Why is this?


Short answer: They're required to. The Service Standards Manual (_The Blue Book_) has this blurb in it:







Of course, it seems like this doesn't happen very often, and I guess it's possible that the most recent revision of the Blue Book changes this, but unless it does, they're just the only ones following the rules.


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## OBS

Aaron said:


> Notelvis said:
> 
> 
> 
> Finally - the dining car staff made it a point of providing receipts to every patron..... even those of us in sleeper..... showing what the cost of our meal would have been had we been paying for it outright.
> Why is this?
> 
> 
> 
> Short answer: They're required to. The Service Standards Manual (_The Blue Book_) has this blurb in it:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Of course, it seems like this doesn't happen very often, and I guess it's possible that the most recent revision of the Blue Book changes this, but unless it does, they're just the only ones following the rules.
Click to expand...

Thanks for reading "the manual". Things have changed since I last worked a diner...7-8 years ago/


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