They could use a baggage that has two doors on each side, put a barrier halfway and shelving in and say you can only use the front half and the two front doors.
Well first, let's be clear. There are plenty of rumors that suggest that the entire 75 cars will be bag-dorms. And then there are plenty of rumors that suggest that some portion will be baggage only.
No clue.
They don't wye just the Trans/Dorm, they wye the entire train; at least in most cases. The Auto Train never wyes its consist, so the sleepers lead when going north and trail when going south. But on most other Superliner equiped trains, Amtrak wants the sleepers up front. That means that they wye the entire train when it reaches the terminals, be it LAX, EMY, SEA, PDX, CHI, NOL, WAS.
AFAIK for all LD trains, the entire train is wyed. So I don't understand why this has suddenly become an issue for Bag-Dorms or Trans-Dorms individually.
Man! The entire train is wyeed. Why are you particularly worried about the Trans-Dorm. It just gets wyed with the rest of the train. No one would take the trouble to pull it out of the consist so that it does not get wyed when the rest of the train does, just to satisfy us worry-warts.
There doesn't even need to be a barrier of any sort. Just ask the crew to try it out, and let the crews know that if the crews trying it out don't come up with concrete evidence that using only that half of the car doesn't work or suggestions for cheap/easy improvements, that's what they're going to be stuck with in the future, so it's in their best interests to try to find the problems with it.
Do attendant roomettes have two bunks?
How long is the period of time between when the first Viewliner and last Viewliner will likely be delivered?
Honestly, the diners are a race item. We could use the extra sleepers and baggage-dorms. But we NEED the diners. If the whole program goes kaput again, we need to have the diners online.
The cars are presumably going to be built at a rate of at least one Viewliner a week, possibly somewhat more. If we ``only'' get two Viewliner Diners rolling off the assembly line a month, is that going to cause a critical shortage?
The current ones do, and since as GML pointed out, these cars are modular they just slide the pre-fabed rooms right into the car and bolt it down, I'd guess that they'll just leave the extra bunk in the room. It probably wouldn't save very much by eliminating it. In fact, they might even get charged more to have it removed.
I have no idea, since I'm neither holding the contract nor am I versed in how fast a production line can roll cars off.
It's also important to note that Amtrak employees traveling on the train are also instructed to book a crew-side Transdorm (and soon to be Baggage Dorm) room, and if it's a big group, they sometimes have to double bunk, so there is a use for having the bunk bed, even if it's used on rare occasions.
What I recall from the past is the Superliner crew dorms have a small lounge area in the downstairs with a table and seating for crew members while on break or off duty. As for sleeper attendants, I'm with the group that thinks it'd result in worse service if you took car attendants from sleepers, keep them with the paying passengers where they can help with ongoing questions or routine housekeeping.
Man! The entire train is wyeed. Why are you particularly worried about the Trans-Dorm. It just gets wyed with the rest of the train. No one would take the trouble to pull it out of the consist so that it does not get wyed when the rest of the train does, just to satisfy us worry-warts.
No wonder I was confused. I always figured it took a triangle to turn a train around, not a Y. You cleared it up.
It does take a "triangle". I think the correct word is wye.
Good to hear! Hopefully #839 will be among them. It wasn't on the list, but there has to be one in place of #807 (listed for refurbishment, but wrecked in 1999). I think it will be #839, because that is the only unit that was in the Auto Train pool that hasn't been either sold or sent to BG.
