Article Comparing the SWC to the Super Chief

[printman2000]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-tr...0,1503845.story

I have not read the article yet. I cannot get past the picture of the Superliner Roomette. What is up with the window? It looks like one small square window instead of the normal double wide window.

 

[JayPea]

I'm not sure about the window either. It looks like it might be partially covered by the curtain. Good article, by the way!

 

[Hytec]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-tr...0,1503845.story
I have not read the article yet. I cannot get past the picture of the Superliner Roomette. What is up with the window? It looks like one small square window instead of the normal double wide window.

I found the article well written and fair. The author was a PR man for the Sante Fe until 1970, and as such was very familiar with service on the Super Chief. However, he said he and his wife were well pleased with service on the Southwest Chief. I don't know about the window in the photo because they were in Bedroom E, and the room in the photo definitely is not a Bedroom.

 

[JayPea]

Reading the fine print, the room described is a roommette.

 

[printman2000]

From the looks of it I think half the window is covered by a curtain. That's what makes it look like one small window.

No, normal roomettes have two windows and there should be a divider right in the middle of that window. You can also clearly see the frame around that small window.

HERE is a google image search to see how it normally is.

 

[greatcats]

Having been on the southwest Chief less than two weeks ago, I too can attest that this is a fairly written article, As my review " Return to Flagstaff " states, I never had a better time on a long distance train. i am writing this from Prince Rupert, BC, having just arrived on the BC Ferry from Vancouver Island, to continue by Alaska Ferry Tuesday morning to Ketchikan. No I don't think I will be trying to ride the Via Rail Prince Rupert train.

 

[jphjaxfl]

The article is very acurate in its comparison of the Amtrak Southwest Chief with the Santa Fe's Super Chief. The Santa Fe did not have High Level Sleeping Cars and I think that is a plus for Amtrak. The Staff of the Super Chief was superior to any Amtrak Staff. I rode the Santa Fe Super Chief the last time in the summer of 1970, the year before Amtrak. The service was excellent. I rode the same train 3 years later under Amtrak. Some of the Santa Fe Staff including the Dining Car Steward were still working the train, but were very disatisfied with working conditions under Amtrak. There was only the one high level dining car for both Sleeping Car and Coach passengers. The Dining Car Steward left Amtrak for a position with a 5 Star Hotel in Chicago. Many of the other Santa Fe employees retired or made similar changes.

 

[greatcats]

The article is very acurate in its comparison of the Amtrak Southwest Chief with the Santa Fe's Super Chief. The Santa Fe did not have High Level Sleeping Cars and I think that is a plus for Amtrak. The Staff of the Super Chief was superior to any Amtrak Staff. I rode the Santa Fe Super Chief the last time in the summer of 1970, the year before Amtrak. The service was excellent. I rode the same train 3 years later under Amtrak. Some of the Santa Fe Staff including the Dining Car Steward were still working the train, but were very disatisfied with working conditions under Amtrak. There was only the one high level dining car for both Sleeping Car and Coach passengers. The Dining Car Steward left Amtrak for a position with a 5 Star Hotel in Chicago. Many of the other Santa Fe employees retired or made similar changes.

All of the above may be true, but I thought the crew on this train leaving Chicago on April 20 were first rate.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I think a key word so far as services goes is the word "consistency".

You can get top notch service under Amtrak which is as good as that rendered by Santa Fe, at times. But not as consistenty. The Super Chief was no ordinary train.

Let us give Amtrak credit for high level sleepers (as noted), that is for sure. And showers. But of course that has nothing to do with personal helpfulness, politeness and service in that sense.

 

[MikeM]

The photo is from a Handicapped bedroom on the lower level. One side of the room is configured like an economy bedroom, with two seats facing one another, converts to upper and lower bunk. The other side of the room has a toilet / sink, and can be closed off by drapes. The room goes across the width of the car, and is located behind the bathrooms in the lower level, opposite the other bedrooms and family bedroom.

 

[sunchaser]

That is not the H bedroom. You can see the sliding door on the left & the steps identifying it as a roomette. Is it possibly a transdorm roomette? Or simply an older Superliner?

 

[Donctor]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-tr...0,1503845.story
I have not read the article yet. I cannot get past the picture of the Superliner Roomette. What is up with the window? It looks like one small square window instead of the normal double wide window.

Is the main picture of the Super Chief? It looks more like the El Capitan before the two were merged.

The Tribune's fact-checkers are either illiterate or nonexistent. Which is why, as a Chicagoan, I read the NYT (when I read the paper at all).

 

[railiner]

I think a key word so far as services goes is the word "consistency".
You can get top notch service under Amtrak which is as good as that rendered by Santa Fe, at times. But not as consistenty. The Super Chief was no ordinary train.

Let us give Amtrak credit for high level sleepers (as noted), that is for sure. And showers. But of course that has nothing to do with personal helpfulness, politeness and service in that sense.

The sleeper attendants on the Super Chief were trained by the Pullman Company, and the diner staff were trained by the Fred Harvey company, both to very high standards of service, that Amtrak cannot quite match.

 

[Ryan]

That is not the H bedroom. You can see the sliding door on the left & the steps identifying it as a roomette. Is it possibly a transdorm roomette? Or simply an older Superliner?

I absolutely agree, but I don't think that the trans-dorms have any little windows like that. What's the markings on that locomotive out the window? (it might help pin down a location)

 

[Hytec]

The sleeper attendants on the Super Chief were trained by the Pullman Company, and the diner staff were trained by the Fred Harvey company, both to very high standards of service, that Amtrak cannot quite match.

Nor can Amtrak afford the Pullman and Harvey payscales.

The one thing that most people have forgotten is that the major railroads understood that their class-1 passenger train costs were mostly a marketing expense. When corporate CEOs and top managers were treated well on the passenger trains, they were more likely to ship their products by those railroads. They also remembered the railroads that gave sloppy service and poor schedule keeping.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-tr...0,1503845.story
I have not read the article yet. I cannot get past the picture of the Superliner Roomette. What is up with the window? It looks like one small square window instead of the normal double wide window.

Is the main picture of the Super Chief? It looks more like the El Capitan before the two were merged.

The Tribune's fact-checkers are either illiterate or nonexistent. Which is why, as a Chicagoan, I read the NYT (when I read the paper at all).

Where is the picture you mention?

 

[Donctor]

Where is the picture you mention?

Sorry, it must not be online. I can't seem to find it, so I'll describe it:

Warbonnet F3 (or F7) A-unit #042

B-unit

B-unit

A-unit (or C-unit)

Pullman baggage

Baggage/dorm

Hi-Level trans coach

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level diner

Hi-Level lounge

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level trans coach

Train is rounding some type of curve somewhere in the Southwest. I'm not incredibly familiar with Santa Fe's operations, but this looks to me like the 1956 El Capitan. It seems too short to be a post-1964 train, and is definitely not combined with the Super Chief.

 

[railiner]

The room pictured with the single pane window has to be the family bedroom, the only such one on the car.

 

[sunchaser]

The room pictured with the single pane window has to be the family bedroom, the only such one on the car.

Here is a 360 degree view of the family bedroom. http://www.360cities.net/image/amtrak-slee...8.72,26.08,80.0 While it does have the small window, you will notice there are no steps to the upper bunk, there is also no sliding door.

I still think it may be a downstairs transdorm roomette. It's not a bedroom, it's way too small.

 

[Donctor]

The room pictured with the single pane window has to be the family bedroom, the only such one on the car.

Could the picture be doctored? The Tribune has certainly done it before.

 

[guest]

Where is the picture you mention?

Sorry, it must not be online. I can't seem to find it, so I'll describe it:

Warbonnet F3 (or F7) A-unit #042

B-unit

B-unit

A-unit (or C-unit)

Pullman baggage

Baggage/dorm

Hi-Level trans coach

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level diner

Hi-Level lounge

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level coach

Hi-Level trans coach

Train is rounding some type of curve somewhere in the Southwest. I'm not incredibly familiar with Santa Fe's operations, but this looks to me like the 1956 El Capitan. It seems too short to be a post-1964 train, and is definitely not combined with the Super Chief.

Except during busy holiday periods and some summertime periods, the Super Chief and the El Capitan ran as one very long consist. I remember that there was a velvet rope at the end of the Super Chief dining car prohibiting walkthroughs up the stairs into the hi-level El Capitan chair car section.

But it sounds like the Tribune editors who selected the photos had no idea about this, nor apparently any idea about the difference between an Amtrak deluxe and economy bedroom. I am continually amazed at how many Americans have literally no clue as to anything about Amtrak. But an editor might have the idea to consult an information source, like the person who wrote the article!!!!!

 

[Donctor]

Except during busy holiday periods and some summertime periods, the Super Chief and the El Capitan ran as one very long consist. I remember that there was a velvet rope at the end of the Super Chief dining car prohibiting walkthroughs up the stairs into the hi-level El Capitan chair car section.

My understanding (from the "Santa Fe Chiefs" book I found a few minutes ago) is that El Cap ran independently 1956-1958.

 

[alanh]

The photo is credited to "HANDOUT" which suggests it's out of an Amtrak brochure. Amtrak has certainly been known to "improve" photos. It's possible they didn't like the view out of the window and pasted in a family room window between the curtains.

However, I'm pretty sure it's the accessible H room. It has steps for the upper bunk, and the "latch" is actually the hook for the curtain that closes off the toilet area.

The article itself describes the (deluxe) bedroom, of course.

 

[AlanB]

I still think it may be a downstairs transdorm roomette. It's not a bedroom, it's way too small.

There are no roomettes downstairs in the transdorm, that area normally occupied by the roomettes and the family room is given over to the crew lounge. The only room downstairs at all is the H-room in most cars, although there are a few Trans/Dorms that don't even have an H-room downstairs.

 

[printman2000]

I think the H room is the right answer. Here is a pic from the opposite direction...

Also, if you think about it, if it were a roomette, you would be able to see the door wall on the right side of the picture.

Thanks alanh.