# Making Lemonade out of Lemons



## JayPea (Aug 10, 2011)

I just returned home from my recent AGR awards trip, which didn't exactly get off to the right start. Here is the topic that discusses our rather rough beginning: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/41472-oh-crap/ I posted that whole topic again rather than rehash everything. I guess for preliminaries, I flew from Spokane to Denver, Denver to Midway, waited about 4 hrs at Midway, then took a bus from Midway to Bloomington. I then spent a couple of days at my uncle and aunt's, who live between Bloomington and Champaign. I will also say in passing that the short trip from Champaign to Chicago was without incident, and was early. Nothing too earth-shattering there.

Anyway, rather than avoid the near-riots that happen every time coach passengers board a long-distance train at CUS, my uncle got ahold of a redcap who "promised to take care of us". He did, too. He got my uncle, his granddaughter and myself, along with our luggage, out to the platform several minutes before the announced boarding time of the SWC. We were second in line, only behind several groups of Boy Scouts headed for the Philmont Scout Ranch and the Raton stop in New Mexico. We were able to avoid that mad dash that way. And the redcap was rewarded handsomely for his efforts: $25.00. After all that, we still had assigned seats, which was no surprise, as the train was sold out. In fact, two extra coaches were added to accomodate those of us displaced from the cancelled California Zephyr and who were rerouted to Los Angeles. My uncle and his granddaughter of course sat together: I was left to the fates as far as seatmates goes; the fates at first were very unkind as I not only had an aisle seat, which I don't like, but the the guy to me at the window seat not only reeked of stale cigarette smoke, but he had obviously not made an acquaintence with Right-Guard. :angry: :angry: If I had to ride all the way to LA like that.....Fortunately, I didn't, as the couple in front of us got lucky and got to upgrade to a sleeper, opening a couple of seats. Mr. Odiferous moved to the seats in front of us, so we had seats to ourselves all the way to Los Angeles. After that I only caught an occasional whiff of him.

Our only meal this day was dinner, and as was the case the next night, us coach passengers were left with Last Call as the only dining option. Last call on this night was about 8PM. The food and the help were both pretty good, as I had a low-cal cod dish and sugar-free cheesecake. The salads to me seemed a little bit more substantial, meaning they seemed to have much more lettuce than I remember.

Our train was on time, or reasonably so, and due to a shortened service stop at Kansas City, we were right on time leaving KC, and would be either on-time or even early throughout the night in Kansas. I experienced much trouble sleeping in the coach seats, however, due almost entirely to Mr. Odiferous and his @#(*&* of a &^#$*())ing cell phone. That idiot was yapping on it constantly from the time we left Chicago, and when it was time to sleep, he didn't have enough intelligence or common courtesy to shut that blasted phone off or even put it on vibrate. And when he was yapping on it, he did so in such a loud voice I'm sure the engineer could have heard it. :angry2: :angry2: Unfortunately there was were no car attendants to be had the entire first day, so we couldn't have them shut the guy up. Finally after my uncle had shushed him loudly enough times, the guy got huffy and moved to the sightseer lounge, where I'm sure he annoyed the bejesus out of those passengers in the SSL. Added to the din was the fact we were seated near the front of the coach car and the Boy Scouts, seated in the car back of us, kept running back and forth to the SSL all night. Not one of my most restful nights sleeping.

(to be continued)


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## amamba (Aug 10, 2011)

Great report so far. I am sorry that you didn't get that great of a night's sleep. Remind me to avoid the SWC all summer long - those boy scouts would drive me nuts.


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## JayPea (Aug 11, 2011)

The second day: We were staying on-time all throughout the night in Kansas. I had been nervously watching the status maps website which showed some loss of time through Kansas in prior SWC trips, but we stayed on time, and were even early in some places and had to wait for extended periods of time. I finally gave up trying to sleep at Dodge City, and went to wash up a bit. Having had to travel by coach at the last second, I didn't bring wash rags or towels with me, and found it a wee bit challenging to wash my hair and dry it without either. I did manage to do so however, and got myself cleaned up. It was time for breakfast now, so the three of us made our way to the dining car. I had the veggie-filled omellette, biscuit, potatoes, and turkey sausage patties, with milk, like I do every time. All were very good. It seemed to me they were even more generous with their portion sizes. During breakfast, our pal with the hygiene issues and the non-stop cellphone wandered in and when he found out he was going to have to sit with someone at breakfast, he made tracks for the SSL. That saved the poor couple he was going to have to sit with!

After breakfast, fortunately for the rest of the car, he spent most of his time in the SSL. Unfortunately for the rest of us, a young couple who had spent most of the prior day sleeping were wide awake. They alternated between arguing loudly, using THEIR cell phones (though not to the extent of the first man) and using an iPod or Blackberry or whatever those who are not Luddites like me use to play music. Here again, no regard was shown for fellow passengers, as they played it loudly, with no earphones. I suppose I could have stood better had they not been playing gangsta ©rap. I was born in 1960 and as far as I'm concerned, music stopped around 1985 or so. :lol: :lol: :lol: I wished I'd had one of those devices with Lawrence Welk or Slim Whitman or Roger Whittaker songs on them! I could have gone to the SSL, but then I'd have had non-stop phone conversations with the first guy. It was the lesser of two evils.

We were still on time into Raton, where we lost (thankfully) the Boy Scouts. A few got on the train, but these LA-bound scouts were very quiet.

I thought we'd be fine timewise through New Mexico, as BNSF doesn't use the line for freight traffic and we wouldn't be held up for that. Famous last words!  The fun began between Raton and Las Vegas, when we had to stop so the conductor could inspect a bridge before crossing it. I knew there had been washouts earlier in New Mexico and assumed that was the reason for the short delay. Once we crossed the bridge, we started moving----sloooowly. I brought a new toy for the trip-a GPS unit-and according to it we were moving at no more than 20 mph, and mostly well under that. The reason given by the conductor was "poorly-maintained signals" by the BNSF that weren't allowing speeds faster than 20. I don't know how long we moved at 20 mph or less, but by reading highway signs, that began somewhere about 60 highway miles from Las Vegas. We traveled slowly like that enough that when we finally arrived in Las Vegas, we were more than an hour down. The three of us had decided to forego lunch in the diner and grab something from the snack bar because the only lunch reservations we would have had would have put us in the diner during the passage of the S curves outside of Las Vegas. Now as it turned out we'd have been fine. Oh well.

We lost some more time between Las Vegas and Lamy, presumably due to the signals, and were about 1 1/2 hrs late into Lamy. We crawled through the S curves at about 15 mph, and while that makes it a lot easier to photograph the ends of the train that way, it sort of takes away from the whole experience going that slowly. After Lamy, though, we did make up some ground, arriving about 1 hr and 20 minutes late into Albuquerque in the midst of a thunderstorm. The service stop was cut a bit short, and we left Albuquerque about 1 hr and 10 minutes down. While waiting in Albuquerque, an officer from the Albuquerque Police Department boarded and asked us our names and destinations. I don't know what he'd done if anyone was headed for Chemult, OR or Wishram, WA. :lol:

We hadn't cleared the yards at Albuquerque before we came to a halt. We were having to wait for a New Mexico RailRunner train to go around us. That was a 20 minute wait and we were back to 1 1/2 hrs down. We had no sooner gotten up speed from that when the train came to a sudden stop, with the car attendant announcing we were making an emergency stop. Seems some idiot had parked his car on a crossing and had sped off the crossing just as the train approached, apparently playing chicken. Fortunately for him and us (though some might view it as unfortunate) we just missed him. We still had to wait for the train to be inspected, and once that was over with, began crawling at 15 mph for a time. We then sped up.....to 40 mph. We held that speed for quite a long time, before finally getting up to speed. At one point, according to the GPS, we were at 89 mph. And at one point, we must have passed 6 or 7 container trains, all waiting on the sidings, in about a 10 minute stretch. None of this saved us from being about 2 hrs and 15 minutes late into Gallup. It was at this point the "worry" part of my brain began to kick in, knowing that there's a 2 hr gap between the on-time arrival of the SWC and the departure time of the CS. I also knew there was plenty of padding in the schedule, but if there were more mishaps, all the padding in the world wouldn't help. We'd already had to downgrade to coach from Chicago to LA, and the thought of having to bus and/or take trains without sleepers to catch up to the CS in Sacramento was not a good thing.

Being in the coaches, we got the dreaded Last Call for dinner, which was a little after 9 pm, before we got to Gallup. The only entrees left at this point were roast yuck duck and the steak. I'd rather eat rat poison than duck, so had to settle for the steak, which wasn't too bad.

This time, when Mr. Odiferous began his BS with the cell phone, the car attendant said something to him. It must have been the magic word, because he slammed his phone shut and wandered off to the SSL. Without him and without the Boy Scouts, I slept marginally better. Problem was I'd get into one position, and something would begin to ache. I'd find another position, and something else would ache. But at least the sleeping was somewhat better. On the times I was awake, I noticed by the GPS we stayed between 2 hrs and 10 minutes and 2 1/2 hrs. behind. A bit of concern there, but the closer we got to LA, the more I relaxed. I awoke for good around Barstow, where we went for breakfast. I had the usual, and it was good as usual.

After being treated to one more argument between the young couple, one more gangsta ©rap concert, and one more cell phone conversation filled with gutter language, we got into LA about 1 hr and 15 minutes down, plenty of time to catch our breath in LAX. As it turned out, the CS didn't even get to the platform at 10:20, much less leave at 10:20, so we had even more time to catch our breath. Mr Odiferous was in character to the end, yakking on his cell phone while detraining, and after three days of not bathing and not changing his clothes, well......Anyway, all's well that ends well.

I have to say other than the three inconsiderate yahoos, the coach trip turned out better than I expected. Everyone else in our car were polite and respectful of everyone. I wouldn't go cross-country in coach again by choice (my need for privacy the biggest reason) but if having to choose between downgrading to coach and not going at all, I'd downgrade. At least I was on a train!!!! :lol: :lol: I'd of course plan a coach trip a little better, making provisions for cleaning up much better. But it worked out, and glad I have that experience behind me.

The Coast Starlight trip was anti-climactic after the SWC trip. That will be my next thoroughly entertaining :lol: :lol: post!!!


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 11, 2011)

Good Report Jeff, thanks! Wonder where the attendant and the Conductor(s) were during all the time the Cell Phone Junkie and the Rap Crap Battling Couple were pulling their violations of Amtrak rules??? :angry2: :help: These jerks shoulda both been warned, then put off the Train in the middle of nowhere if they refused to comply with the Amtrak rules/crew requests!

As you know now, 2 days and nights in Coach is a perhaps a tad too much, we people of a certain age (you think you're old, I was born in 1944!!! :giggle: )need our rest!! :lol: Think I might break up this trip in ABQ but of course I know it was an AGR Award, and as a subsitute you did the best you could! 

Im sure youll contact Customer Relations with your concerns and complaints, you should receive a Voucher, if nothing else, for the downgrade to Coach when your original Itenerary was cancelled due to the CZ miseries! Glad you made it home, looking forward to the happier CS Report from the PPC!!! :wub:


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## JayPea (Aug 12, 2011)

And now on with our regularly scheduled drivel trip report! :lol: The Coast Starlight!

After a couple of days in coach, the Coast Starlight trip was anti-climactic. Our scheduled 10:20 departure was delayed, mainly because the CS wasn't even at the platform by 10:20. For one thing, a car attendant called in sick at the last minute and their replacement hadn't arrived yet. For another, they had to swap out dining cars, and unload and reload the diners. And for a third, they "forgot" to add the PPC! :wacko: :wacko: Now, I think Amtrak gets a bad rap for things beyond their control, but forgetting to put on a car??? What's next??? Forgetting the engines??? Amtrak deserves their poor reputation on that one!!!

The consist included:

2 engines

baggage car

transdorm

3 sleepers

PPC

diner

SSL

4 coaches

And, bringing up the rear, a couple of private cars, an old streamliner Vista dome and streamliner dome-Observation car. They were part of the Trainorders.com Sierra Fantasy Limited to Reno. The excursion cost far more than I could have afforded, but it might have been worth it to ride in the Vista Dome over Donner Pass.....and through the S-curves through Cuesta Pass north of San Luis Obispo, for that matter.

At any rate, we got started about 40 minutes down, and we lost time gradually throughout the day. Our excellent SCA, Gabriel, soon brought my uncle and I the bottles of champagne, which I quickly downed. I almost never drink, unless it's champagne on the CS, so for me,the champagne constitued a good stiff drink---which I needed after two days in coach!! :blink: :blink: I then headed immediately for a nice warm blissful shower. One unfortunate problem popped up right away in that our toilets in our car stopped working. Turns out the train had been delayed the night before getting into LA and the service crew "forgot" to empty the tank. Oops! We had to use the toilets in the next car, until they could be flushed at Oakland. That didn't make Amtrak service personnel look too good in my eyes either.

We had lunch during our run through the LA suburbs. I had the Angus burger with all the trimmings. It seemed to me the burger was much larger than I remember in times past, and the potato chips were different....kettle style, which is also different than I remember. We had a lunch companion with us who wasn't too talkative. All we got from him was that he was headed to San Francisco. Our server was Deena, who was good at her job but seemed easily rattled. She dropped part of our meal on the floor, and was visibly upset by that.

After lunch, it was time to start enjoying the California coastline. I spent most of my time in the solitude of our deluxe bedroom, instead of the PPC. I guess after two days in coach, I wanted solitude more than I wanted the ambiance of the PPC. Plus the menus in the PPC were not that great. William, he of the mixed reviews from AU members was the attendant. What little I was around him on this trip, he seemed personable and professional. For the trip up the coast to San Luis Obispo, the staff would have been Texas Sunset's dream staff---no announcements whatsoever, including the various station stops. I guess they figured we could read the route list for ourselves. We continued to lose time going northward, though only once, at the Lompoc-Surf station, were we put into the hole, that for a southbound Pacific Surfliner train.

Headed north out of San Luis Obispo, with a different conductor, we were now part of Texas Sunset's nightmare---a conductor who made announcements about various towns and scenic highlights. He was much more thorough and entertaining than any I'd ever had. I believe he was the same conductor we'd had the year previous on the CS in that stretch and he was even more informative and entertaining this year than last. For dinner, one of the entrees was salmon, which I chose. It was excellent.

Rolling into San Jose, my uncle and I got the good news that instead of playing musical cars and rooms at Martinez (we originally had to go to the H room in the next car for an hour until Sacramento) that we could move into the room we had originally been booked into, which happened to be the next room in the same car. We moved at San Jose, and I immediately got into bed. I set a new Amtrak record be remaining in bed for 10 hours, until just before Dunsmuir. I did awake a couple of times in the night to see we were now a couple hours late, half of which was made up by the time we got to Klamath Falls.

After a nice shower again, we went to breakfast, where I had the old stanby of veggie omlette, biscuit, potatoes, and milk. It was excellent as usual. Our breakfast companion was a woman who also wasn't talkative. I spent the day again in the solitude of my room, only briefly pausing in the PPC. It was a beautiful day and ride through the mountains. At lunch, I again had an enormous Angus burger. We had been from Klamath Falls about an hour late, but made up time into Portland. I'm sure those passengers bound for the EB were nervous about the tight schedule, but we made it into Portland in time for them to catch their train. We left Portland about 40 minutes behind. At dinner, I had salmon, as I had the night before. They had run out of salads AND dessert, however. I'm not sure how they could run out of both. I'd never seen that happen before. I would think they would have made a little bit more careful calculation than that on what would be needed. Oh well.

Thanks to the magic of padding, we were EARLY into Seattle by about 5 minutes. That must have caught the cabbies off-guard, as there were none waiting outside King St. Station. We had to wait several minutes before one finally arrived.

We spent the weekend doing the regular touristy things in Seattle. On Monday, I rode back to this neck of the woods with my sister, brother-in-law, and mom (along with my sister's grandsons) as they had been in Seattle visiting my nephew and family.

And that ended that. Not the way I'd planned it but it worked out all right in the end. Instead of being on the CZ, and missing the great scenery in the Rockies and Sierras (and wondering if we'd make our Sacramento connection) I got to enjoy the Coast Starlight in its entirety instead. And I'd been wanting to travel on the SWC again anyway. I'd rather do it in a room however. And the excellent AGR agent, Mario, went above and beyond in securing a deluxe bedroom from LA to Seattle for my uncle and myself and a separate roomette for his 12 year old granddaughter. And I proved if need be I could survive cross-country in coach. And it would have been fine without the cell-phone idiot and the arguing couple and their rap concerts. Even then, I guess the fact I was on a train at all was great!!


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## JayPea (Aug 12, 2011)

jimhudson said:


> Good Report Jeff, thanks! Wonder where the attendant and the Conductor(s) were during all the time the Cell Phone Junkie and the Rap Crap Battling Couple were pulling their violations of Amtrak rules??? :angry2: :help: These jerks shoulda both been warned, then put off the Train in the middle of nowhere if they refused to comply with the Amtrak rules/crew requests!
> 
> As you know now, 2 days and nights in Coach is a perhaps a tad too much, we people of a certain age (you think you're old, I was born in 1944!!! :giggle: )need our rest!! :lol: Think I might break up this trip in ABQ but of course I know it was an AGR Award, and as a subsitute you did the best you could!
> 
> Im sure youll contact Customer Relations with your concerns and complaints, you should receive a Voucher, if nothing else, for the downgrade to Coach when your original Itenerary was cancelled due to the CZ miseries! Glad you made it home, looking forward to the happier CS Report from the PPC!!! :wub:




Jim, if it had been just my uncle and I involved, it's quite likely we would have cancelled altogether. However, with his granddaughter involved, he just couldn't tell her that all of a sudden we weren't going. So we toughed it out in coach. And after contacting both Amtrak Customer Relations and AGR, I will recieve a $150 voucher for the meals and have already gotten a 10,000 point refund. Now I'm ready to go on a train trip again!! :lol: This voucher, along with a previous voucher I got for rotten service, will almost completely pay for my trip to and from the Gathering and the Cascades round-trip between Seattle and Portland (1st class both ways of course! :lol: ) Makes me look forward to the Gathering that much more!!! :lol:


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## Shanghai (Aug 14, 2011)

Wow, what a report!! Two days in coach would be tough for me,

especially with the fool and his cell phone. You were a good

sport and made the best of the situation. I hope your travel

to and from the Gathering will be better.


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## JayPea (Aug 14, 2011)

Shanghai said:


> Wow, what a report!! Two days in coach would be tough for me,
> 
> especially with the fool and his cell phone. You were a good
> 
> ...



Considering it's only about an 8 hr ride between Spokane and Seattle on the EB, I should be fine. Nothing could go wrong in that short a distance, could it???


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## leemell (Aug 14, 2011)

JayPea said:


> Shanghai said:
> 
> 
> > Wow, what a report!! Two days in coach would be tough for me,
> ...


Ha, ha, ha ,ha,ha. :lol:  :giggle: hboy:


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## JayPea (Aug 15, 2011)

leemell said:


> JayPea said:
> 
> 
> > Shanghai said:
> ...



:lol:


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