They did not "ditch you in the middle of the night". They left you off at an enclosed station in a large city when it was almost daylight.
The website says the station closes at 5am. I wonder whether they kept the station open and staffed until a decent hour, or kicked everyone out 30 minutes after they'd arrived.
Nor for the vast majority of travelers.
Back when the major railroads still offered long distance passenger service, extra sleeping cars would be added depending on the demand for bedrooms on a particular train and date. We don't expect the bedroom situation on long distance Amtrak trains to improve anytime soon.
They also would run "Specials" and Extra Sections when demand was heavy since Railroads had so much equipment and Staff back in the day!
I believe the straw that broke the camel's back was an incident where human waste was dropped from a train toilet while a train was going over a bridge that didn't have a solid bridge deck. The stuff landed on a couple of fishermen in a boat just under the bridge. Also, I don't think track workers appreciated finding the stuff lying around. And human waste is kind of dangerous, that's why our society is so particular about keeping the general population away from sewage and treating it whenever possible.
Why should Amtrak bother to spend money to increase capacity at lower fares? They're filling up the trains with half the number of sleeping cars and charging twice as much! I'll be interested to see their bottom-line financial figures at the end of the fiscal year.
Yeah, the fact that for years there were direct drop on track toilets therefore it was OK is a rather weak argument. For years the main sewage system was the middle of the street too. That is not an argument against having a proper sewage system or insisting everyone use Septic Tanks either.
Working on the tracks should not come with the risk of bio hazards. Amtrak should have just rebuild those cars along with more of the heritage sleeper fleet.
Since these cars were last made in the early 1950's, they would 70+ years old by now. Even for good quality railroad equipment, that is pushing it. Despite this, some of these cars are still rolling.
Yeah, I'm guessing you've heard of VIA Rail.
And now those 70-year-old cars are at the end of their useful life, with no replacements in sight.Yeah, I'm guessing you've heard of VIA Rail.
It also roamed far beyond the L&N. It made a stop at Ashland, VA (RF&P) while I was in college there. I rode it to the next town and wrote an article for our newspaper. Great trip - but never took a photo!
There is an addendum to your account of the refurbished General's tour in the 1960s. The engine was at the center of an ownership tug of war between the L&N and the city of Chattanooga. The details of the second hijacking of the General are pretty well covered in this short article. As a kid in the middle 50s I remember seeing the General on display in Union Station and Judge Wilson's description of that display was sadly accurate. The General was on the official city seal until it was moved to Kennesaw becasue the city had raised funds to preserve it when it was scheduled to be scrapped.
What I recall of the "Executive Sleeper" while it was parked occupied it NYP, was that they placed "honey buckets" under the car, in case any toilets were flushed while the car was in the station. I don't recall them having retention toilets, but perhaps they did later on...
The "honey bucket" system was the norm for drop off and early occupancy sleepers throughout the country for many years. In the mid 1950's my parents came in (into Memphis) on the Panama Limited's drop off sleeper once when I was in my early teens, and I rode with my grandfather to pick them up. Remember the splash of one of the buckets being used while waiting for them to get out. Got to walk in and look at the bunks down bedroom setup. I know he made several trips in section sleepers during WW2, and my mother had made a few trips to/from Washington DC in coach during the late 1930's (Pullman? No way I am spending that kind of money.), so this was their first, and I think only trip in a room sleeper.
