# Boxcar & Caboose's excellent Adventure



## Boxcar (Jun 23, 2006)

Well, the old Boxcar Dummy and his treasured Caboose have survived our first, but not last (GOD willing)LD train trip. I was warned not to have high expections and to expect delays. We had plenty of both.  . I don't want to come off as complaining here, because I'm not. I am posting both the high points as well as the low about our trip and our own personal observations and what a new traveler may expect.

We boarded the Texas Eagle (22)Wednesday the 14th in Austin, bound to New York city by way of Chicago and on to NYP on the Lakeshore Limited.

As a Texan, I'm somewhat ashamed of the train bearing my states name.

The restrooms were not what I'd considered dirty but had a strong urine smell and no blue disinfection chemical to fight the smell. The vacume system was also weak and required several flushes to remove TP. The lounge car was tired and worn and also had a faint urine smell at times even upstairs and the restroom had always been closed. An attended quitely under her breath told me about possible leaking pipes. <_< It could have used a good cleaning also.

We were also the last car in the train set and our room was at the back which was nice because of no traffic but in the middle of the night around St Louis they added a couple of coachs behind and we had coach passengers passing through our sleeper :angry:

This was also a low point in our trip. I know you have to accept that there will be kids in the sleeper car as well as everywhere on the train. You can only hope there aren't any close to your roomette or that the parents try to contain their children. Not our luck  We had a mother and her daughter right in front of us that slept most of the day as well as two preteen boys in the sleepette across from them. At bedtime they had their doors open and were wide awake and shouting across the aisle.

In front of them was a mother and young daughter and across from them was the father and son. The had their doors open and loudly visited late into the night. We had one of the Phantom attendents on our sleeper so that was no recourse. Around midnight I rather loudly announced that there were people trying to sleep in their sleepers. To my surprise and delight, all noise stopped and everyone slept. I take some blame for this disturbing me as I had planned on taking a small pocket radio and ear phones but forgot to pack it. 

On arrival at Chicago, we had another train deboarding beside us at the same time. The platform was so packed one could not move. The assistent conductor on the train we just deboarded was a couple of cars in front of us and rudely shouted for us to move over for a red cap cart. There was no place to move too and giving our frame of mind by now, we both told him what he could do with that cart. 

The high point of this leg was the fact that the Angus cheeseburger and Bob Evans was fairly good. The wife liked the braised beef well enough but the Country(chicken) fried steak was terrible. The cheesecake was great as well as the chocolate cake.The milk was fresh and good .

Will I take the Eagle again? You bet, but I will be more prepaired.......BD


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## caravanman (Jun 25, 2006)

It is a problem sometimes to know how to deal with others behaviour, we all have different expectations. It is good to know that a straight request for quiet produced the desired result. Once again, with the restrooms, like poorly cleaned windows, it is the small things that build to a bigger irritation with problems that could, on the face of it, be easily fixed.

Ed. B)


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## AmtrakFan (Jun 27, 2006)

Those Coaches that were added were the Chicago-St.Louis Coachces, for local riders. It always drives me nuts when Coach People try to walk into your Sleeper.


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## Boxcar (Jun 27, 2006)

AmtrakFan said:


> Those Coaches that were added were the Chicago-St.Louis Coachces, for local riders.  It always drives me nuts when Coach People try to walk into your Sleeper.


It was really a shock too me Amtrakfan. It was very late at night when we arrived in St. Louis and we were asleep. We seemed to be there for a long long time. I never felt us hooking them up. As I said we were the last car till then. Think of my surprise when the rear door opened and about 7 people came tromping through the car.


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## AlanB (Jun 27, 2006)

Boxcar Dummy said:


> Think of my surprise when the rear door opened and about 7 people came tromping through the car.


Where's Jim Neighbors when you really need him? :unsure:

Suprise, Surprise, Surprise! :lol: :lol:


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## Boxcar (Jun 27, 2006)

AlanB said:


> Boxcar Dummy said:
> 
> 
> > Think of my surprise when the rear door opened and about 7 people came tromping through the car.
> ...


 Ok......So I had just chastised them and they had gone to sleep.


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## had8ley (Jul 23, 2006)

Boxcar Dummy said:


> Well, the old Boxcar Dummy and his treasured Caboose have survived our first, but not last (GOD willing)LD train trip. I was warned not to have high expections and to expect delays. We had plenty of both.  . I don't want to come off as complaining here, because I'm not. I am posting both the high points as well as the low about our trip and our own personal observations and what a new traveler may expect.We boarded the Texas Eagle (22)Wednesday the 14th in Austin, bound to New York city by way of Chicago and on to NYP on the Lakeshore Limited.
> 
> As a Texan, I'm somewhat ashamed of the train bearing my states name.
> 
> ...


Hang in there....there are good trips left to be taken.


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