Superliner question?

[silva]

I have stayed in the family room on the Superliner lower level was curious what I was sleeping next to. Can anyone provide me infos as to what is in this secion of the trains? Obvious not engines, maybe storage? Or some type of mechanical equipment? Thanks!

 

[Texan Eagle]

Wild guess- I have once seen them open one of those latches to stow an oversized baggage (skis) into it, so I guess some sort of storage area exists there. And then there would be water tanks for the water for toilets and shower and a sewage tank thingie that stores all the waste from toilets before it can be emptied out at designated points, and electrical equipment for AC, heating, lights inside the car.

 

[zephyr17]

Mechanical and plumbing support, water tanks, sewage tanks, HVAC, etc.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

As far as I understand it, most of the area at the bedroom / accessible room end of the car is for plumbing, whereas the other end is the HVAC end. If you look at the diagram, the bedroom end is the "wet" end - all the bathrooms downstairs & the bedrooms (with their own baths) are at that end. The roomette / family bedroom is the "dry" end, which is one of the reasons (aside from space) that there are no plumbing facilities in the family bedroom.

The bathroom upstairs & the coffee area are revisions to that original plan, which is why they're they only plumbing fixtures on the dry end.

 

[AMTK 99]

From "Amtrak Maintenance Training Manual for Superliner Cars, 1977"

"An equipment compartment is located on either end of the car with access only from the outside. The equipment compartment on the "A" end houses an air conditioning unit, hot water tank, two 250 gallon potable water storage tanks, a water raising pressure reservoir, heater box, exhaust blower and a waste treatment system. The equipment com-partment on the "B" end houses an air conditioning unit, main and auxiliary reservoir air storage tanks, a battery charger and an exhaust blower. The batteries are accessible by opening its compartment doors. A utility room also located on the "B" end is used for storage.An equipment compartment is located on either end of the car with access only from the outside. The equipment compartment on the "A" end houses an air conditioning unit, hot water tank, two 250 gallon potable water storage tanks, a water raising pressure reservoir, heater box, exhaust blower and a waste treatment system. The equipment com-partment on the "B" end houses an air conditioning unit, main and auxiliary reservoir air storage tanks, a battery charger and an exhaust blower. The batteries are accessible by opening its compartment doors. A utility room also located on the "B" end is used for storage."

This should answer your question.

Nick

 

[AlanB]

Please keep in mind however that the car in the photo that has the circles on it, is not a sleeper. Based upon the window pattern, that's a dining car.

 

[AMTK 99]

Referring to Alanb's comment. I was curios as to whether that car was a Diner as thay don't have windows on the bottom. Turns out AMTK 33104, a Superliner I, is an Auto Train Lounge. Only five of these cars exist.

 

[AlanB]

Referring to Alanb's comment. I was curios as to whether that car was a Diner as thay don't have windows on the bottom. Turns out AMTK 33104, a Superliner I, is an Auto Train Lounge. Only five of these cars exist.

I couldn't make out the number, but still that makes sense. The AT lounges started life as dining cars and were converted to lounge cars by Amtrak employees.

I just knew that the downstairs window pattern was all wrong for a sleeper, there were no single pane windows for the H-room and the Family room. And upstairs above the door would also normally be all windows in a sleeper car.

 

[silva]

Wow thank you for the responses. I just pulled that image from google. I would assume other, non-sleeping cars share similar equipment, yes?

 

[AlanB]

Wow thank you for the responses. I just pulled that image from google. I would assume other, non-sleeping cars share similar equipment, yes?

Amtrak has two basic types of equipment, single level cars and the bi-level cars in that picture. The bi-level cars operate on the Auto Train, which is what is in that picture, and the Capitol Limited, as well as all routes basically from a line drawn between Chicago & New Orleans and west.

The single level cars operate on trains that go to/from NY City. This includes the Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Crescent, Cardinal, and the Lake Shore Limited.

All of the bi-level cars look more or less the same, other than slightly different window patterns. There are coaches, diners, cafe/lounge cars called Sightseer Lounges, sleeping cars, and a some special cars like that AT lounge. But from the outside, they all look pretty much the same unless you know what to look for.

There is a bit more variety with the single level cars in terms of how they look from the outside.

 

[oldtimer]

Amtrak 99's description is right on. The only significant difference is the dining car that has an additional 250 gallons of potable water.

oldtimer aka Al