Viewliner II Part 2: Dining Car Production, Delivery, Speculation

[jis]

Right. There is net loss of one Roomette which is replaced by two Restrooms. Everything else remains more or less the same.

 

[Lonestar648]

On the SL Sleeper, the bathroom is one half the width of the roomette.

 

[cpotisch]

I believe it is one roomette becomes the 2 bathrooms. The bathrooms don't need to be large, the H room handles accessibility.

My bad. I would have sworn it was two.

 

[PVD]

Because the sinks remain in the roomettes for wash-up/shaving, and handicapped accessibility is provided by the H room, they are using 2 half roomette width toilet modules. It should be more than adequate for the number of rooms in question.

 

[DSS&A]

I found these photos of the baggage-dorms on-line showing both sides of the car. The one side has four top-bottom paired windows, the other side has 5 paired windows and a 6th top-only window.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/download/file.php?id=17692&mode=view

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/489034/

 

[PVD]

For the bag dorm, you would have 8 roomettes (4 pairs on each side, + one set for the shower and the other for the toilet....not sure which is which on the 5th and 6th sets.

 

[IndyLions]

Since Amtrak is getting to the point where they could deploy some of the new Diners to another train this spring/summer - what do we speculate they will do with them? They could let them sit (what a waste), they could put them on the LSL (but all indications seem to be it won’t run to NY this summer), they could add them to the Silver Star or Cardinal (but they’d have to add staff).

Any thoughts?

Sent from my iPad using Amtrak Forum

 

[cpotisch]

Since Amtrak is getting to the point where they could deploy some of the new Diners to another train this spring/summer - what do we speculate they will do with them? They could let them sit (what a waste), they could put them on the LSL (but all indications seem to be it won’t run to NY this summer), they could add them to the Silver Star or Cardinal (but they’d have to add staff).

Any thoughts?

Sent from my iPad using Amtrak Forum

I still expect the LSL to be next. The diner could just run ALB-CHI (or maybe possibly BOS-CHI). The Card is getting cut off at WAS as well, so if it is such a problem, don't expect a diner on that either. And bare in mind that it will possibly be switched to Superliners temporarily. The Lake Shore already has the staff and facilities in place that would support a dining car, so it's really all up to equipment offerings and Amtrak management.

 

[Thirdrail7]

I suspect they will become new diner lite cars or a place to pick up Acela type cart meals.

 

[cpotisch]

I suspect they will become new diner lite cars or a place to pick up Acela type cart meals.

A V-II diner lite doesn't sound that bad. The ambience and layout are terrible in the AF Diner-Lites, so it would be infinitely better with V-IIs.

 

[Dutchrailnut]

I still have no idea , how fantasies have anything to do with production and delivery ??

 

[neroden]

I would be deeply unsurprised if the Diner runs to Boston and the food service continues to be substandard (though, dammit, can they just get some freshly cooked eggs in the morning?). Boston *does* have a commissary, even if it's not equipped for everything the New York commissary is equipped for. It actually makes more sense to have the dining car coming from Boston in some ways.

 

[Brian Battuello]

I happen to have taken the Boston to Albany leg about five times. I find myself in Boston and with infinite Amtrak miles, grab a sleeper to Albany and a whatever back to Croton. For a while they served a weird catered tray in our room, but last time they told us to just go to the lounge car and get one drink, one main dish, and one dessert. Whatever, I'm happy to just sit in my room and enjoy the view.

 

[cpotisch]

So Montpelier and Nashville were delivered 15 days ago. They should be finished in around 2 weeks. That brings the ViewDiner count to 17 (including 8400), definitely sufficient for the LSL. Is it correct that Albany can stock and deal with a diner on the Lake Shore?

 

[PVD]

Not without a major effort in structure, personnel, and contracts. As far as I can recall,there has not been a commissary in Albany for quite a long time. Remember, NYP -ALB trains have no food service. Albany is an enroute or midpoint, not an endpoint for any trains with food.

 

[OBS]

Not without a major effort in structure, personnel, and contracts. As far as I can recall,there has not been a commissary in Albany for quite a long time. Remember, NYP -ALB trains have no food service. Albany is an enroute or midpoint, not an endpoint for any trains with food.

Correct.

 

[Steve4031]

Is it possible to stock a viewliner diner in Chicago for a round trip to boston?

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[cpotisch]

Is it possible to stock a viewliner diner in Chicago for a round trip to boston?

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

That would primarily come down to capacity onboard, though the infrastructure is already in place. If they were to use the baggage car to store food (maybe use a large cooler or fridge), then they could probably stock the train sufficiently.

 

[PVD]

Where are the present dining car employees based? I don't know, but I'm sure someone on the board will have an answer. If NY, you would then need to bid the jobs in a new city, train the new people, hire to fill the jobs they may have bid out of, only to lay off the people when it all reverts. Also, you are adding another city to the list of places where a protect diner should be, as well as line maintenance capabilities. As to space, the LSL carries 2 bags when it splits one to NYP one to BOS,, if you keep the second car, space would not be a problem, but the expense of installing secure storage and power for an abbreviated period of time just might not fly. I'd still put my money on Albany.

 

[user 14106]

Boston could likely handle servicing and stocking the diner because it has a commissary for the NEC trains does it not? But another problem is staff. No diner crew normally staff the Boston section because its normally just the cafe one sleeper and a coach. I doubt they want to change the crew that have to go between Albany and Boston. I could see them physically running the whole train to Boston in order to stock the diner, but only selling tickets for the normal Boston section to avoid altering the staffing on the train, and only open up the other cars at Albany. I'd assume you'd also need to shuttle crew on an Empire train (or a special shuttle train if they do some type of LSL Shuttle to GCT) between Albany and New York to get staff to where they normally go. I would imagine they dont want to change anything staffing wise since this is just a summer unless they are planning on making permanent changes to the train.

On that note where are the diner and sleeper staff based out of? I guess it wouldn't matter if they were all Chicago based, but if its a mix of New York and Chicago then they probably don't want to change anything.

 

[jis]

NEC trains serve only pre-packaged food, unlike what is expected in a full service Diner. However, the current Dinette fare can probably be served easily out of Boston with some additional effort. The bigger problem will be servicing the full length LSL at Southampton Street. Perhaps Third Rail can throw some more reliable info into the mix on this matter.

 

[KnightRail]

I still have no idea , how fantasies have anything to do with production and delivery ??

And neither do the aprox. last ten posts have anything to do with VII production and delivery. They all have to do with LSL summer reroute and should be moved into that thread.

 

[Thirdrail7]

I still have no idea , how fantasies have anything to do with production and delivery ??

And neither do the aprox. last ten posts have anything to do with VII production and delivery. They all have to do with LSL summer reroute and should be moved into that thread.

This thread is 1622 posts. If we moved everything that wasn't related to actual production and delivery and eliminated fantasy posts, the thread would likely be 80 posts!

As for Southampton's yard, if they service it in the S&I, the length would be an issue. There is nothing saying they can't break it up but it may hinder servicing the other trains.

As for commissary, the national network has different products than the regional trains. It would be a matter of seeing if they have the stock available at the servicing locations.

 

[cpotisch]

I still have no idea , how fantasies have anything to do with production and delivery ??

And neither do the aprox. last ten posts have anything to do with VII production and delivery. They all have to do with LSL summer reroute and should be moved into that thread.

While I agree, this conversation started off with the prospect of adding a V-II diner to the LSL, and then segued to the LSL termination. I would agree that these posts be moved to the "Empire Service to GCT, Numerous NYP adjustments 2018" thread.

 

[jis]

That is why we have moderators. Everyone does not need to become ersatz moderators, even though sometimes I do get that urge too.