Worst trip ever taken on Amtrak

[Rasputin]

I'm reminded of a time on the Mainstreeter when I was standing behind the Slumbercoach attendant while he was asked by a polite middle-aged couple as to what time the train was due into Missoula. They may have planned to use the platform mailbox there. The attendant politely doffed his cap as he addressed them. He had the exact time because he had glanced at the paper timetable stuck inside his cap! Of course, he was left over from the Pullman company.

That is a great story. I wonder if that was a common practice years ago. I knew a long time CN and later VIA trainman in the Maritimes (retired as conductor in the early 1990s) who did the same.

 

[Seaboard92]

Honestly it isn't that hard to have a paper timetable put up somewhere in the car. There is a SCA on the Crescent who has a dry erase board that he puts the three next stops on and the estimated time of arrival. I thought that was a nice touch. He also had a paper timetable on display next to it.

Small things like that really aren't that hard to do. And they add to the experience.

Now me I always opt for the sleepers but that is mostly because that's what I've grown up riding so it is what I'm accustomed to. I like sleeping in a bed, and I like laying out even during the daytime. To me I see the value in that. When I want to socialize I go to the lounge car, but when I want to rest, or read I much prefer laying in a bed then being in a chair. And on a train like the Canadian I buy the cheapest sleeper ticket available because I know I won't spend any time in the sleeper at all between the skyline, the diner, and the live musician in the evening. It's a wonder at all on that train that I eventually find a way to my bunk.