Odd consist for the Cardinal.

[Rule G]

There is a very strong rumor floating about that says tomorrow's Cardinal (51) will have and unusual configuration.

They say the consist will have a baggage car behind the locomotive, followed by the viewliner sleeper, then a coach, then the diner lite, and finally 2 more coaches.

Its gonna be hard for crews to work the train efficiently like this.

No idea who came up with the plan or why.

 

[Big Iron]

Hope someone get some pics. Certainly will make the dine-lite crews job more difficult policing access to the sleeper. A logical reason for doing this evades me.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Could the baggage car be the new VLII undergoing tests on this Route?

And as for the Coach between the Diner Lite and the Sleeper, it is strange but this happens Daily on the Portland Section of the EB and on #421/ #422 on the SAS-LAX leg of the Sunset/Eagle!

 

[CREW-DORM#2524]

51(20)

606 Nyp-Was

175 Was-Chi

1161 Bag

62032 Sleeper

25091 AM2 Coach

28012 AM2 Diner/Lounge

25070 AM2 Coach

25018 AM2 Coach

 

[City of Miami]

Nope.

At cvs 51 was 1 loco, 1 heritage bag car, 1 Viewliner, 1 Amfleet cafe car, 3 coaches.

 

[Trogdor]

If it's just a matter of what was entered into Arrow, that has been known to be wrong at times.

 

[Rule G]

Nope.

At cvs 51 was 1 loco, 1 heritage bag car, 1 Viewliner, 1 Amfleet cafe car, 3 coaches.

Nope.

One of the coaches was ahead of the cafe and two were behind it.

 

[Rule G]

The set of equipment that came in as train 50 last night will be set up this way too when it comes out as 51 tomorrow.

 

[City of Miami]

One of the coaches was ahead of the cafe and two were behind it.

Not in Charlottesville: I walked down and looked at it. Perhaps BBRR was up to some mischief! :angry2:

 

[Ryan]

If only there were some kind if device where one could record an image and share it with others.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Maybe JackieTakesTheTrain can let us know.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Sounds like Amtrak might be playing Musical Cars with the Card!

Eyeballing the consist is usually good enough for me so I ' d take John's info from CVS as Gospel except hr posted that he might be wrong!!!!

Edited to reflect CoM's post that who gonna believe, me or your lying eyes? LOL

 

[Rule G]

Rumor is that the order to change the consist came from Indy.

No idea why it would matter to them.

This makes it difficult to work the train at stops with short platforms.

Even at Charlottesville which has a long platform, there was some confusion yesterday as 8 passengers were boarded in the car between the diner and sleeper, and the rest of the passengers were boarded in the rear.

 

[City of Miami]

Sounds like Rule G was working the train so I'd say he knows. Not the first time I can't perceive what's right before me!

 

[neroden]

That's just a weird thing to do; I just don't see why you'd tuck one coach in front of the cafe rather than behind it, unless it's a one-shot thing for a particularly complicated piece of shunting which is planned.

 

[battalion51]

Rumor is that the order to change the consist came from Indy.

No idea why it would matter to them.

This makes it difficult to work the train at stops with short platforms.

Even at Charlottesville which has a long platform, there was some confusion yesterday as 8 passengers were boarded in the car between the diner and sleeper, and the rest of the passengers were boarded in the rear.

Don't they typically add cars at Indy for the "Hoosier State" portion of the trip? Maybe setting the train up that way allows those cars to be more easily serviced west of Indy.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

It allows them access to the rest of the train.

 

[Linda T]

We (some CDL crew and myself) were talking about this strange consist yesterday on my way to WAS. One of the problems that we could see was coach pax searching for a bathroom and walking through the sleeper. It's probably not going to be real popular to have extra people in the narrow passageway, and/or peaking into the rooms (occupied or not) . I have to repeat the already asked question, what were they thinking with that layout? ETA, I'm heading home tomorrow on 51. More later...

 

[neroden]

Don't they typically add cars at Indy for the "Hoosier State" portion of the trip? Maybe setting the train up that way allows those cars to be more easily serviced west of Indy.

No, that doesn't make sense. You could swap coach #1 and the diner/lounge and get the same results, surely.
Is there a platform somewhere along this route which can platform *exactly two cars*? In this case this consist would allow for a double stop rather than a triple stop. (Said platform should be lengthened, obviously.) That is the only thing I can think of.

 

[battalion51]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hadn't they been running the train Engine-Bag Car-Coaches-Lounge-Sleeper (winter mode for the Cardinal, since everything is in permanent winter mode)? If that's the case then it makes a little bit more sense if the "Hoosier" coaches were tacked on behind the sleeper. You would then have coach passengers walking through the sleeper to get to the cafe, and have a challenge for the Conductors keeping up with everyone.

That first coach could very easily be filled up with passengers going for the majority of the trip so that it can be loaded up at Chicago/on the NEC and just be "along for the ride" through VA/WV/OH/IN.

 

[Ryan]

The Cardinal doesn't interline with the other consists, so there is no "winter mode" for 50/51.

 

[dlagrua]

6/9/14 Cardinal consist that we were on. Engine, baggage car, three coaches, diner lite, and sleeper at the end. In Indianapolis two coaches for the Hoosier State were coupled on but passengers were accommodated in the Card coach section and the two coaches behind rode along empty to CUS.

 

[City of Miami]

Today again the consist was as Rule G said. The conductors are forced to open 2 doors for coach pax. Before they would usually open 1 door for all 3 coaches. It took a good while for all the smokers and pax with their baggage to get out before boarding could even begin so there is a long (15-20 min) dwell in CVS regardless of the schedule.

 

[neroden]

I wonder if this is an attempt to force the conductors to open all the doors, which they probably should be doing anyway.

 

[Rule G]

I wonder if this is an attempt to force the conductors to open all the doors, which they probably should be doing anyway.

Thats gonna be harder to do now.

If you have one conductor working the baggage car, its going to take awhile to get to all of the doors.