Viewliner II - Part 1 - Initial Production and Delivery

[jis]

The sad part of it is that pre packaged meals don't have to be bad, fly international first class and you get some pretty good stuff.

Yes. pre-packaged food is somewhere between very good to spectacularly excellent, depending on which airline and which class (Business or First) we are talking about. Of course absolutely nothing is freshly prepared on board a plane except minor things like baking chocolate chip cookies and such.

 

[PVD]

Midwest Express 717 - fresh baked choc. chip whole cabin smelled great....

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

Hopefully they won't serve "Boardman Slop" on that beauty! http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2015/06/18/18-oitnb-food.w529.h352.jpg Bring back fresh, cooked-to-order meals on all overnite trains!

Wow, the kitchen area in the Viewliner diners is much larger than I remember.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I doubt we'll ever see freshly prepared food on Amtrak ever again. Thankfully there's still Iowa Pacific for those who would like to experience such a thing as tasty food on a train.

 

[CraigDK]

I have also just heard from a reliable source that the new diner is coming south on the Silver Meteor tomorrow evening (November 2nd) to go to Hialeah for final fitting. That would suggest it coming out of CAF some time today, I would imagine.

I wonder final fitting involves.

Someone posted pictures of the move on another rail forum; "Annapolis" is the name of the dining car

According to trainorders, the dining car that is being moved to Albany is 68001 Annapolis. This is the second diner car in the production sequence. 68000 Albany was the initial Viewliner II diner car that was sent out twice previously for testing.

Shots of the exterior will not reveal much. What will be interesting whenever they get posted are shots of the interior so we can see if there are visible changes from the "baseline" seen earlier.

It is good to see a picture of it even if the exterior doesn't answer too many questions; at least we now there has been some sort of progress. Some of the speculation (and even comments after it rolled out) on the diners elsewhere...

 

[Thirdrail7]

Perhaps ThirdRail could be nice enough to confirm that plan? Cause if it is. I will go out and get a photo or two.

Confirmed...if everything goes according to plan.

I doubt we'll ever see freshly prepared food on Amtrak ever again. Thankfully there's still Iowa Pacific for those who would like to experience such a thing as tasty food on a train.

Amtrak add on stuff like Wifi installation etc.

 

[capltd29]

I doubt we'll ever see freshly prepared food on Amtrak ever again. Thankfully there's still Iowa Pacific for those who would like to experience such a thing as tasty food on a train.

With a few notable exceptions, I've had good food on Amtrak. I'm not an uppity food snob, but I've never felt like I had to send it back. Hardly "slop"...but whatever fits the AU narrative.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

What are you talking about DA? That is indeed an Amtrak train! h34r: :hi:

I honestly have no strong opinion about whatever subforum is best for Iowa Pacific. I felt PRR made a reasonable case for leaving it where it was. I guess I just didn't really understand the controversy.

I doubt we'll ever see freshly prepared food on Amtrak ever again. Thankfully there's still Iowa Pacific for those who would like to experience such a thing as tasty food on a train.

With a few notable exceptions, I've had good food on Amtrak. I'm not an uppity food snob, but I've never felt like I had to send it back. Hardly "slop"...but whatever fits the AU narrative.

Good compared to what, exactly? I cannot recall ever seening anyone on Amtrak send the food back. Possibly because sending it back wouldn't accomplish anything if they didn't bother to cook it on the train in the first place.

 

[StriderGDM]

You've never ridden with me then.I have sent food back and gotten better food in its place. I believe once it was a steak on the Crescent and the other time was a meal on the Acela that was overcooked.

 

[Palmetto]

The sad part of it is that pre packaged meals don't have to be bad, fly international first class and you get some pretty good stuff.

Yes. pre-packaged food is somewhere between very good to spectacularly excellent, depending on which airline and which class (Business or First) we are talking about. Of course absolutely nothing is freshly prepared on board a plane except minor things like baking chocolate chip cookies and such.

I had a nice fresh-made raspberry sundae on American last month. Big deal

 

[Devil's Advocate]

You've never ridden with me then.I have sent food back and gotten better food in its place. I believe once it was a steak on the Crescent and the other time was a meal on the Acela that was overcooked.

This is a bit of a tangent but in a former life I worked in the restaurant industry and after seeing what can happen around corners and behind doors I never sent anything back again. I either eat it as-is or have it removed from my bill. I doubt you're at much risk on Amtrak's single level trains. On the dual level trains I'd probably avoid sending anything back just to be on the safe side.

 

[Fan Railer]

68001 went south on today's 97.

 

[mgl1978]

Here's my video today of the new viewliner diner headed south on silver meteor. Also on the train are 2 CSX cars.

https://youtu.be/_eJ0qv9moek

 

[Maglev]

Here's my video today of the new viewliner diner headed south on silver meteor. Also on the train are 2 CSX cars.

https://youtu.be/_eJ0qv9moek

I get a message that says, "Sorry, that video is Private."

 

[Acela150]

No longer private.

 

[Maglev]

Wow, that diner is shiny!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Here's my video today of the new viewliner diner headed south on silver meteor. Also on the train are 2 CSX cars.

Just as an FYI, pasting a URL using this format...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJ0qv9moek

Provides a playable inline video like this...

 

[Palmetto]

The CSX business cars must have been added in Washington. I've seen video of this train east of DC and they weren't trailing up there.

 

[OBS]

They were added last night in Was......

 

[jis]

I wonder how long it will take for it to enter into service.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I wonder how long it will take for it to enter into service.

Not in time for your points run.

 

[tommylicious]

She's a beauty! Just really hope Amtrak enable good food to actually be made and served on it.

 

[neroden]

I will bet Amtrak is trying to get as many of these as possible in service before the Thanksgiving rush, the busiest weekend of the year for Amtrak. Even a couple would help alleviate the crunch. I know Amtrak attempts to basically get every possible piece of rolling stock in service, nothing in the shops, for that weekend. If they can get 3 diners onto the LSL, they can use the Amfleet II cafes currently used on the LSL to supplement other (shorter-distance) trains. Same if they can cram 2 into service on the Cardinal. Adding 4 back to the Silver Star for the weekend might be appropriate to avoid overloading the cafe.

Of course there's the problem of "training", but perhaps there was enough training on #8400 and on the Viewliner II baggage cars to allow for a quick deployment on at least some routes?

On Track On Line believes there are only 11 active heritage diners on the roster, plus #8400. That's very strained.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

Here's my video today of the new viewliner diner headed south on silver meteor. Also on the train are 2 CSX cars.

https://youtu.be/_eJ0qv9moek

So, only the last Viewliner in that consist, is the new Viewliner II Diner?

 

[CCC1007]

Here's my video today of the new viewliner diner headed south on silver meteor. Also on the train are 2 CSX cars.

Yep