Just not from the Company that made the VLIIs please!
Viewliner I and II discussion
- Thread starter Hans627
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IMHO the viewliner design for sleeping cars and diners is about perfect. A lounge car could be created too. Then use the venture cars with long distance seats.
Mailliw
OBS Chief
There will never be any more Viewliners, but Venture coaches with similar floorplans are a possibility. Hopefully Siemens won't forget about linen closets.
I would put the blame for that on who ordered those plans...
I agree completely that the Viewliner diner design is basically perfect! My one experience was really nice--the dining car felt so light, airy, and with the etched glass and wood paneling etc., quite refined, actually! It was great. Honestly, the Viewliner II diner is the favorite car I've ridden in on Amtrak after the sightseer lounge. Also agree that a regular lounge should be created. Mostly agree on the sleeping car design, though they might want to build some cars with something akin to the smaller/cheaper (?) than a roomette options seen in the Superliner RFP.
Venture cars with long-distance seats is interesting. I assume that it is, indeed possible for Amtrak to spec, um, actual comfortable seats, in which case, this idea makes sense!
The option of placing airline-type lie-flat seats in a coach car has been discussed many times in this forum. I recall mentioning it, too. IMHO, the RFP for the superliner replacement is too ambitious. It would be much better to work with the viewliner and venture designs. I know the current ventures are experiencing problems, but I believe the issues can be addressed. Then they will be a decent car.
In case anyone wonders what happened to CAF-Elmira, they are still there. Here's a video from 2021
Their happy corporate website was updated as recently as Oct 2024.
No mention of Viewliners...
Their happy corporate website was updated as recently as Oct 2024.
No mention of Viewliners...
Perhaps because Amtrak owns that design?
It would have been great if they had produced some Viewliner five bedroom - lounge cars, reminiscent of the SAL Sun Lounges that ran on the Silver Meteor…these could have also had a blunt end obs windows on either side of the end door, and served as an exclusive First Class lounge, leaving the full lounge to serve all passengers. The blunt end would give flexibility to also use mid-train…
thefirewarde
Service Attendant
It would have been great if the Viewliner 2 had been produced properly and wasn't still suffering from equipment availability issues related to manufacturing defects. There were options for substantial additional cars, but it was evidently by 2020 that purchasing further VL2 was a really bad idea from a maintenance perspective.
That would have been the capacity to bridge the equipment shortage until the Superliner replacements came online, and possibly even expand service a little.
That would have been the capacity to bridge the equipment shortage until the Superliner replacements came online, and possibly even expand service a little.
dcipjr
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2012
- Messages
- 54
Hi all,
I recently rode on the Cardinal in a Viewliner II (in the bag-dorm) and was shocked at how poorly these cars seem to be aging.
There were cracks in the plastic all around the room, the door wouldn't slide open and shut well, the table was stuck, and everywhere you looked things were broken. The car itself had flat spots on the wheels and rattled a lot.
The Viewliner I that I rode home on the Floridian was in much better shape. It wasn't as nice-looking on the surface, but the quality of just about everything was better.
I imagine that most of this is fixable stuff, but if Amtrak's new equipment is in this bad shape already, it doesn't really bode well for the future.
Hopefully they get newer sleepers out west, and with decent quality.
I recently rode on the Cardinal in a Viewliner II (in the bag-dorm) and was shocked at how poorly these cars seem to be aging.
There were cracks in the plastic all around the room, the door wouldn't slide open and shut well, the table was stuck, and everywhere you looked things were broken. The car itself had flat spots on the wheels and rattled a lot.
The Viewliner I that I rode home on the Floridian was in much better shape. It wasn't as nice-looking on the surface, but the quality of just about everything was better.
I imagine that most of this is fixable stuff, but if Amtrak's new equipment is in this bad shape already, it doesn't really bode well for the future.
Hopefully they get newer sleepers out west, and with decent quality.
In April, I took a round trip on the LSL (449/448 BOS<->CHI). I was in a VL2 roomette both ways. One was fine, the other had several annoying problems that should not have been there in a basically new car. The table was cracked and unstable. (The table in the other roomette was fine.) One of the cup-holders next to the table was completely broken. Someone had jammed a folded-up cardboard food tray (with the fold-in corners for transporting food and beverages from the cafe or diner) into the hole where the cup holder should have been, so a drink or water bottle wouldn't fall through to the floor. Otherwise, it just looked badly beat up.
Maybe it was just the one roomette, but the wear and tear was obvious and distressing.
Maybe it was just the one roomette, but the wear and tear was obvious and distressing.
Viewliner IIs seem to get shopped and replaced by VL1s quite a lot. On my recent trip on the Lake Shore in the Boston sleeper (which is usually a Viewliner II) it was replaced by a 1. And on my last Silver Meteor trip the car line that’s normally a VL2 was swapped to a 1 - all 3 cars were 1. Clearly there’s some issues with the newer cars.
The same company (RailPlan) manufactured the room modules for both VL! and VL2. While CAF certainly had many issues, I'm not sure interior fittings prematurely aging (like cracking plastic) is something under their control.
gregg_vw
Train Attendant
I had the same experience on the Cardinal in January. Not only was the table and trim in my VL2 roomette compromised, but the restroom had a missing trash can cover and worn trim. Given likely funding cuts, this will probably be the norm for these cars.
