Southwest Chief Ft. Madison station stop

[Mike G]

46
192
sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Coach Baggage
Coach Baggage

NO Baggage car
No Sightseer

As the train slow at the platform the Diner door open. After stopping the local Agent push a cart to the door with brown bags and boxes. They were quickly loaded. 34 minutes late.

 

[Willbridge]

If the only coaches were Coach-Baggage they would have some ADA exposure.

And were the brown bags and boxes a resupply of Dinty Moore beef stew? Perhaps the commissary forgot to stock it. Don't leave home without it!

 

[mlanoue]

No sightseer on the Chief is pretty depressing. But, these are interesting times.

 

[Bob Dylan]

No sightseer on the Chief is pretty depressing. But, these are interesting times.

This seems to be becoming a plague with Sightseer Lounges disappearing on more and more LD Trains.

 

[zephyr17]

This seems to be becoming a plague with Sightseer Lounges disappearing on more and more LD Trains.

Well, of course, you must understand that Amtrak management is utterly helpless in the face of insurmountable staffing shortages to do anything at all about the situation. It isn't their fault, of course. Nothing is.

 

[thully]

Hmm - wondering if I might end up with this consist on my 9/24 trip. I sure hope not, but if this was 3(19) and it turns same-day in LA to become 4(21) and then turns next-day after CHI arrival, it would be 3(24).

 

[zephyr17]

It indeed does a same day turn in LA. It is possible 8th St Yard might swipe one off Sunset (as well as a coach with ADA seating), there will be two Sunset consists there on Wednesday, one that arrived that morning and one that arrived Monday, but I would not count on it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

It indeed does a same day turn in LA. It is possible 8th St Yard might swipe one off Sunset (as well as a coach with ADA seating), there will be two Sunset consists there on Wednesday, one that arrived that morning and one that arrived Monday, but I would not count on it.

The Sunset is a 2 night LD Train just like the Chief, I sure hope they don't do this when I ride #2 from LAX-SAS when returning from the San Diego Gatheting in 2 weeks!( its bad enough being a Prisoner in your Room or Seat on the Texas Eaglette North of SAS!)

 

[thully]

Also, was one of the sleepers a transdorm, or was it two regular sleepers? I’m currently booked in the transdorm on 3(24). Hope the coach passengers can get something to eat - they could do some kind of mini-cafe service out of the diner as they had on 8 the first night out of Seattle, though for a 2 night trip I’m not sure if that’s enough.

 

[zephyr17]

The Sunset is a 2 night LD Train just like the Chief, I sure hope they don't do this when I ride #2 from LAX-SAS when returning from the San Diego Gatheting in 2 weeks!( its bad enough being a Prisoner in your Room or Seat on the Texas Eaglette North of SAS!)

They can shuffle the Sunset's consist around in LA, since the consist lays over for at least a couple days there and sometimes there are two. The consist that arrived Monday's Sightseer can be put on the Chief since it leaves earlier, and Wednesday's arrival on the Sunset. Then they have to turn Friday's Sightseer the same day instead of using Wednesday's.

8th St has often used laying over Sunset consists as an emergency car source in the past. Also, since it is the maintenance base for the Sunset and the Starlight, it has some small capacity to shuffle the deck around like Chicago has in a much bigger way.

 

[thully]

They can shuffle the Sunset's consist around in LA, since the consist lays over for at least a couple days there and sometimes there are two. The consist that arrived Monday's Sightseer can be put on the Chief since it leaves earlier, and Wednesday's arrival on the Sunset. Then they have to turn Friday's Sightseer the same day instead of using Wednesday's.

8th St has often used laying over Sunset consists as an emergency car source in the past. Also, since it is the maintenance base for the Sunset and the Starlight, it has some small capacity to shuffle the deck around like Chicago has in a much bigger way.

Interesting - though if they take cars from the Sunset for the Chief, wouldn’t the Sunset then be missing cars?

 

[zephyr17]

Interesting - though if they take cars from the Sunset for the Chief, wouldn’t the Sunset then be missing cars?

As I said, there will be two Sunset consists there on Wednesday. They'd have to do a same day turn instead of a two day turn with Sunset Sightseers for awhile until they got another Sightseer to LA.

They can shuffle the Sunset's consist around in LA, since the consist lays over for at least a couple days there and sometimes there are two. The consist that arrived Monday's Sightseer can be put on the Chief since it leaves earlier, and Wednesday's arrival on the Sunset. Then they have to turn Friday's Sightseer the same day instead of using Wednesday's.

8th St has often used laying over Sunset consists as an emergency car source in the past. Also, since it is the maintenance base for the Sunset and the Starlight, it has some small capacity to shuffle the deck around like Chicago has in a much bigger way.

 

[frequentflyer]

Why were they brown bagging it on the SWC?

 

[thully]

Why were they brown bagging it on the SWC?

Perhaps that was food for the coach passengers, since no Sightseer Lounge means no cafe car…

 

[thully]

So I bought a Railstream subscription to see this consist. I looked in Chicago and saw the missing Sightseer, though was unsure whether one of the sleepers was a transdorm (I didn't see a difference between the two sleepers) and was a bit surprised to see one non-sleeper with windows on the bottom level, though I wasn't knowledgeable enough to 100% identify all these cars. Caught it again in Fullerton this morning, and this time had the idea to note the car numbers and cross-reference them with the list of equipment here. What I saw was the following:

Engine 48
Engine 192
Transdorm 39014
Sleeping Car 32077
Diner 38064
Coach 34027
Coach/Baggage 31000

Given that, it seems they do in fact have an ADA-accessible coach, and one of the sleepers is a transdorm, though the Sightseer is in fact missing (though I could tell that on the Chicago cam given the lack of a car with big windows). Will take another look at Fullerton this evening shortly after the SWC departure from LAX - will be interesting to see if there are any changes to the consist. The Fullerton cam is actually free here (I subscribed for one month to get Chicago - was hoping for Venture cars as well but found no cams on the Wolverine line), though rewinding more than a few minutes is only for paying subscribers.

 

[Mike G]

{ Virtual Railfan Live } Wednesday 9/21

Galesburg
CZ #5 6 minutes late
7
127
Baggage
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach Baggage
Coach Baggage ( side painted battleship gray )

SWC #3 11 minutes late
15
169
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach
Coach Baggage ( Checked bags down and up loaded )

No Baggage Car

 

[thully]

Just saw 4(21) out of Fullerton on the webcam, and it had the following consist:

Engine 48
Engine 188
Transdorm 39023
Sleeping Car 32002
Diner 38024
Sightseer 33002
Coach 34049
Coach/Baggage 31045

The only car that was on 3(19) is the first engine 48 - the rest of the consist is different, and now there is a Sightseer Lounge. Still no full baggage car, but there is a Coach/Baggage (and given the suspension of baggage service announcement, that's definitely better than what could have been).

 

[Mike G]

{ Virtual Railfan Live } Thursday 9/22

Galesburg
CZ #5 1 hour 22 minutes late
152
182
Baggage
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach
Coach


SWC #3 41 minutes late
201
75
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach
Coach Baggage ( Checked bags down and up loaded )

No Baggage Car

 

[zephyr17]

Just saw 4(21) out of Fullerton on the webcam, and it had the following consist:

Engine 48
Engine 188
Transdorm 39023
Sleeping Car 32002
Diner 38024
Sightseer 33002
Coach 34049
Coach/Baggage 31045

The only car that was on 3(19) is the first engine 48 - the rest of the consist is different, and now there is a Sightseer Lounge. Still no full baggage car, but there is a Coach/Baggage (and given the suspension of baggage service announcement, that's definitely better than what could have been).

Sound like 8th St swiped one of most of one the two Sunset consists that were there on Wednesday. Bet the incoming Chief's consist Wednesday is going out on Friday's Sunset, with a Sightseer from Friday's incoming consist.

 

[Mike G]

{ Virtual Railfan Live } Friday 9/23
Galesburg

CZ #5 3 hours 1 minute late out of Chicago
3 hours 37 minutes late

60
171
Baggage
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach
Coach
* Sightseer *

SWC #3 16 minutes late

172
40
22
Transition Sleeper
Sleeper
Diner
Sightseer
Coach
Coach Baggage { Winter Park Express }

No Baggage Car