Single level trains/Superliner comparison

[peteypablo]

Its hard booking a bedroom on this train as there are only two. We booked ours 10 months out and they were very expensive.
There is a 3rd BR - it is mobility impaired handicap - HC booking restrictions applies - possible upgrade from
a Roomette ? In any event if stuck with a Roomette for 2 would suggest booking another objective single occupancy. Animals in kennels have more civilized space !

Perhaps it's because I first experienced the Superliner roomettes, but I find the Viewliner roomettes refreshingly roomy. The upper bunk is a few inches wider on one end to accommodate someone with shoulders, and the greater height of the celinig means the person sleeping in the upper bunk can look out the window, and not feel like he is in a coffin. Plus, there's that enormous space for storing luggage.

 

[west point]

Agree, Upper berth of SL roomettes are somewhat confined. Also no ooutsi8de view which is not good for rail fans.

 

[Cal]

Also no ooutsi8de view which is not good for rail fans.

Anyone*

 

[zephyr17]

Perhaps it's because I first experienced the Superliner roomettes, but I find the Viewliner roomettes refreshingly roomy. The upper bunk is a few inches wider on one end to accommodate someone with shoulders, and the greater height of the celinig means the person sleeping in the upper bunk can look out the window, and not feel like he is in a coffin. Plus, there's that enormous space for storing luggage.

Agree, Upper berth of SL roomettes are somewhat confined. Also no ooutsi8de view which is not good for rail fans.

I like Viewliner roomettes much more than Superliner roomettes. The higher ceiling and upper windows makes them feel larger. The ventilation is better. An adult can actually sit upright in the upper.

With that said, overall I prefer Superliner trains. The single level trains do not have good lounge/non-rev common space. Amcafes do not cut it, even if the crew don't homestead the tables or the LSA doesn't chase out anyone not actively eating cafe food. The Viewliner diners do serve as pretty good lounge space where they are operated as a "sleeper lounge" on trains with Flex, though as such they are probably the most expensive lounges ever built. I assume they are operated solely as diners on trains that "traditional" has been restored on.

Superliner trains without Sightseers are the worst of both worlds.

 

[MARC Rider]

I like Viewliner roomettes much more than Superliner roomettes. An adult can actually sit upright in the upper.

This is probably most important, at least for me. I just can't get in and out of a Superliner upper berth.

 

[MARC Rider]

Superliner trains without Sightseers are the worst of both worlds.

I've ridden the Capitol a few time over the last few years, and it was OK. No sightseer lounge, but they let people hang out in the Cross Country Cafe between meal times. Because I travel by myself, I don't have to worry about the upper berth.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Excellent summary of the two sleeper fleets. I don't mind the Superliner roomette by myself, but it is a bit of a challenge for two, especially when you and your spouse have to fight over the beds. OTOH, our kids absolutely loved the top berth of a Viewliner, where they could set up their electronics and play all day.

Still nothing beats a Sightseer Lounge, except a VIA Canadian dome car. Don't get me started....

 

[TinCan782]

This is a Viewliner bedroom "plus" for this guy in his mid-seventies ... a grab-iron on the overhead to help get in and out of the upper bunk. This was on the Cardinal a few weeks ago.

 

[dlagrua]

My wife who is 17 yrs younger won't allow me to take the upper bedroom bunk. What she loves about the Cardinal is the easier access and having her own window up there. I appreciate the high ceiling and the extra space but wow these bedrooms (PHL-CHI) are getting very expensive and they still serve you poor quality food loaded with caustic chemicals.

 

[Siegmund]

Superliner trains without Sightseers are the worst of both worlds.

IMO that's a sleeper-specific view.
Having done most my traveling by coach unless an employer was paying for the room... I will take the view and legroom of a Superliner coach seat, and dinner in a Superliner diner, over AmAnything. By a mile. The SSL is nice -- but I enjoyed my trips on the old Pioneer and the Seattle section of the Empire Builder much more than I enjoyed the Cardinal or LSL.

 

[zephyr17]

I will take the view and legroom of a Superliner coach seat, and dinner in a Superliner diner, over AmAnything.

Just pointing out that Superliners are very much part of "AmAnything".

 

[Cal]

"AmAnything".

Not Amfleets though.

 

[Cal]

Neither are Viewliners. Nor Horizons. I used the term "single level trains" deliberately and consider "Am" to be a general use prefix for Amtrak, so "AmAnything" would be highly inclusive.

I think they were mostly talking about long-distance coach, which are all Amfleets, Amcafes, etc.

 

[Siegmund]

Neither are Viewliners. Nor Horizons. I used the term "single level trains" deliberately and consider "Am" to be a general use prefix for Amtrak, so "AmAnything" would be highly inclusive.

I intended it to mean amcoach/amcafe/amlounge/amdinette/amclub/whatever other awful names they have given to Amfleet configurations, and to include Amfleet II as being better than Amfleet I but a far cry from a Superliner. I don't recall seeing the prefix used for anything other than Amfleet (and yes, I'm showing my age to remember the original config of the Amfleet cars.)

 

[zephyr17]

I intended it to mean amcoach/amcafe/amlounge/amdinette/amclub/whatever other awful names they have given to Amfleet configurations, and to include Amfleet II as being better than Amfleet I but a far cry from a Superliner. I don't recall seeing the prefix used for anything other than Amfleet (and yes, I'm showing my age to remember the original config of the Amfleet cars.)

"They" is us. The Am prefix is railfan shorthand and is wholly unofficial. The Amtrak names for the car types are "cafe", "dinette", etc.

As for me, I use the Am prefix for anything Amtrak, as one of the "they" that bestowed it in the first place.

BTW, the Amfleet II long distance coaches have exactly the same seats and seat pitch as Superliner coaches.

 

[Siegmund]

"They" is us. The Am prefix is railfan shorthand and is wholly unofficial. The Amtrak names for the car types are "cafe", "dinette", etc.

Amtrak has since abandoned those names, and removed them from the cars as they have been refurbished, but the Am-words are the actual words that were painted on the Amfleet cars as delivered. (And when a railfan calls a station an Amshack or beverage an Amcoffee, they mean "this item is as bad as an Amfleet I car and deserves as stupid of a name as Amtrak gave to Amfleet I cars.")

 

[John Santos]

VL 1 bedrooms (including the H room) have toilets and showers. VL1 roomettes have toilets and a shared shower at the end of the car, occupying the space of what would be the last roomette. VL2 roomettes don't have private toilets. Instead there are two shared toilets at the end of the car, opposite the shower, in the space used by the last roomette in VL1s.

One of the ways to tell a VL1 from a VL2 from the outside is the windows. Neither the shower nor the pair of toilets have windows, so the lack of windows at the roomette end of the car on both sides means it is a VL2. If it has windows on only one side, it is a VL1. I think the hallway on the bedroom end of the cars only has lower windows, no upper windows as in the roomettes, so the roomette end of the car is the end with both lower and upper windows, but I'm not sure if the bedrooms have upper windows, so maybe this doesn't help if you are looking at the wrong side of the car! Another way to tell is by the car numbers (5-digit numbers painted on the side of the car, not the 4-digit changeable numbers that indicate the route and position of the car in the train, which are supposed to be set by the train crew before departure, but are often wrong! Hard-core rail fans know all this by heart. If I'm looking at a train in a station, it usually has left by the time I've figured it out, hopefully not without me if I was supposed to be on it! There's no way I can tell a VL1 from a VL2 watching a moving train or a video.

Then there are the special cases, like the bag-dorm cars (half baggage room, half roomettes, usually for the crew) and I think there are a few other peculiar cases. The bag-dorm cars have no windows in the baggage room, and have a big door in the middle, like a regular baggage car.

 

[joelkfla]

VL 1 bedrooms (including the H room) have toilets and showers. VL1 roomettes have toilets and a shared shower at the end of the car, occupying the space of what would be the last roomette. VL2 roomettes don't have private toilets. Instead there are two shared toilets at the end of the car, opposite the shower, in the space used by the last roomette in VL1s.

One of the ways to tell a VL1 from a VL2 from the outside is the windows. Neither the shower nor the pair of toilets have windows, so the lack of windows at the roomette end of the car on both sides means it is a VL2. If it has windows on only one side, it is a VL1. I think the hallway on the bedroom end of the cars only has lower windows, no upper windows as in the roomettes, so the roomette end of the car is the end with both lower and upper windows, but I'm not sure if the bedrooms have upper windows, so maybe this doesn't help if you are looking at the wrong side of the car! Another way to tell is by the car numbers (5-digit numbers painted on the side of the car, not the 4-digit changeable numbers that indicate the route and position of the car in the train, which are supposed to be set by the train crew before departure, but are often wrong! Hard-core rail fans know all this by heart. If I'm looking at a train in a station, it usually has left by the time I've figured it out, hopefully not without me if I was supposed to be on it! There's no way I can tell a VL1 from a VL2 watching a moving train or a video.

Then there are the special cases, like the bag-dorm cars (half baggage room, half roomettes, usually for the crew) and I think there are a few other peculiar cases. The bag-dorm cars have no windows in the baggage room, and have a big door in the middle, like a regular baggage car.

It's the end without the doors. Actually, one side of the VL2 (I think it's the shower) has an upper window but no lower at that end; it's still fairly easy to spot.

Depending on the viewing angle and lighting, other ways to tell them apart are the conduit tunnel running down the center of the roof of the VL1, and the almost full skirt over the undercarriage on the VL2.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Depending on the viewing angle and lighting, other ways to tell them apart are the conduit tunnel running down the center of the roof of the VL1, and the almost full skirt over the undercarriage on the VL2.

Also the Viewliner I's have the mostly blue band along the windows with the small red stripes, while the VII's have equal sized red white and blue stripes.

 

[Trogdor]

Also the Viewliner I's have the mostly blue band along the windows with the small red stripes, while the VII's have equal sized red white and blue stripes.

Except for the one (maybe more?) Viewliner I that was restriped into Phase III.