Story 1: I'm glad I got the sleeper
Many years ago, I booked the Coast Starlight from the Bay Area down to Southern California, where my sister was living at the time. Since it's a day trip, I saved a few dollars and booked coach. I was leaving a few days before Thanksgiving and guess people weren't booking the extra sleeper; Amtrak called and gave a good deal to upgrade to a roomette.
Tracking the train the night before, I see that it's late and getting later. By the time I get up in the morning, it's almost 14 hours late. It makes up a few hours during the day, but I end up getting on around 8pm instead of 8am. My day trip is now an overnight.
Based on talking to the passengers and crew, it turns out that most of the switches in the mountains were frozen, and UP wasn't sending out switch tenders in advance. Every time the train came to a stuck switch, they'd have to wait for UP crew to come and free it.
Story 2: Turns out there's a stop between here and there
Again on the CS, this time going north to Portland. I'm sitting in the Parlour Car talking with other passengers when an exasperated conductor comes in.
A passenger who got on during the night had been causing problems on and off, but always straightened up when asked. But now that the next stop of Portland was his stop, he figures that he can do whatever he wants, and is now bouncing off the walls of the cafe, badmouthing the attendant and any customers down there. The conductor, however, has an easy solution.
A few minutes later, we make an unscheduled stop at the station in Oregon City, where local police are waiting. The man apparently sees that the jig is up and is quietly escorted to one of the police cars. We still arrive in Portland early!
Story 3: Sir, can you step off the train so that we can discuss this?
Riding the Southwest Chief to LA. We make the stop at Williams Junction, where a British tour group gets on. Down the hall from me in the sleepers are two women preparing to get off at their stop in Kingman.
A man with a British accent begins yelling at the ladies that they're in the wrong room and need to get out. He's very insistent that this is his room, and that they need to vacate. He eventually bullies them into leaving, and they go downstairs to the vestibule, where they apparently tell their story to the attendant.
The attendant checks his manifest and comes up to talk to the man. After finding that his printed ticket shows that he should be in the room, but that the manifest does not, he calls in the conductor. And this is where things start to go sideways.
The conductor comes up and explains that there's clearly been a mistake and apologizes. The man won't accept it. The conductor asks him to move to another room until the ladies get off at the next stop. He angrily refuses. The conductor tells the man that, if he doesn't vacate the room, that he'll call the police, and they'll make him do it. The man grouses and continues to refuse to leave. The conductor radios to the assistant conductor to call the police, and our attendant goes around telling folks to stay in their rooms until this is sorted out. The conductor has the rest of the train buttoned up.
A few minutes later, the local sheriff has two cars with lights out on the road, and an officer comes aboard and asks the man to step off the train so that they can discuss the situation. After getting the whole song and dance routine about its his room, the officer tells him that he can either walk off or be forcibly removed. The man decides to grab his bag to step off peacefully.
After getting off, the officer listens to the conductor explain what happened, and, then, the man had to sheepishly admit what he had done. He unsuccessfully tries to argue his case. The officer asks the conductor if he would let the man back on the train, and he answers in the negative. They lead the man off to one of the cars, the conductor boards, and we are on our way.
Talking to some of the tour group members in the morning, I discovered that this man had been the tour leader, hired by the British tour company to take them around. The whole group was going to be arriving in LA shortly, with nary an idea of where to go or what to do.
