From: sheldon@.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Steve Sheldon)
Subject: My Amtrak Vacation
Reply-To: sheldon@.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Steve Sheldon)
Organization: NCR Corporation, Rancho Bernardo
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 21:29:07 GMT

                        My Amtrak Vacation

My son  Alex and I  went on  a 3-week tour  of the east  coast on
Amtrak.  We left on June 19 on a "San Diegan"  from San Diego and
changed to the "Desert Wind" in Fullerton.  The "Desert Wind" was
4 hours late,  and there was no  explanation as to why.   When it
finally arrived, the coach attendant gave us a seat assignment at
the door, and  we found our seats.  The Amtrak superliner coaches
are very nice.

The next  day, because we  were still 4 hours  late, we connected
with  the "Pioneer"  in  Ogden, rather  than  the "San  Francisco
Zephyr" in Salt Lake  City.  The passengers for  stations between
Salt Lake City and Denver were  transported in a small van that I
saw in the SLC station parking lot.

We  spent some time in  Ogden because the  "Pioneer's" dining car
was broken.   The "Desert Wind" dining car was only stocked to go
back to Los Angeles, and the "Pioneer" dining car was supposed to
operate through to Chicago.   The food was exchanged  between the
two dining cars  on baggage  carts pulled  by a  tractor and  the
necessary  switching  moves  were   made.    The  locomotive  was
fortified  with a  unit  borrowed from  the Union  Pacific, which
operated in front,  presumably because the Amtrak engine  had the
head end power.

We left Ogden and stopped  in Evanston, Wyoming, to take on  food
for a "complimentary" lunch from Amtrak.  The Seattle  passengers
had  done without  because of  the bad  car.   There was  a "mis-
communication", as my car attendant  said, and what was delivered
to  the train in a taxi was trays  of cold cuts and rolls, rather
than  prepared sandwiches.    The dining  car  crew and  the  car
attendants  spent  the  next  hours making  sandwiches,  and  the
passengers were called, by car, to come to the diner to pick them
up and return to their  seat to eat them.   We were in the  coach
next to the diner.

The trip  across Wyoming  on the  Union  Pacific was  interesting
because  there were lots of antelope running around and there was
frequent Union  Pacific freight  traffic in the  other direction.
My son was disappointed that we did not get to see the Rockies.

We arrived  in Denver  about  5 hours  late.   We  went into  the
station  to use the restrooms because the crew announced that the
restrooms  would  be  locked in  the  train  because  of a  local
ordinance.    Many passengers  were  annoyed that  they  were not
allowed  to reboard,  especially the  ones that just  stepped off
onto the platform, who were ordered into the station building.

We finally were allowed back on board, and the train left about 1
a.m.   The  train was  now the  combined "San  Francisco Zephyr,"
which had  been held  in Denver,  along with  the  cars from  the
"Pioneer" and the "Desert Wind".   We slept across Colorado and a
lot of Nebraska, and arrived in Omaha.   The Amtrak station there
is a small bus depot like building.  The massive stone Burlington
station  towers above the tracks and there is an abandoned postal
facility next to the platforms.

The train chief was making an announcement about how Amtrak would
deal with the missed connections in Chicago when the power in the
train went out.   The conductor had decided that  the baggage car
was broken, and  was taking  it out of  the train.   An hour  was
spent doing that and transporting  the baggage down the  platform
in baggage wagons to stow in the downstairs baggage  compartments
in the superliner coaches.

I asked the train chief  if she knew the conductor's  intent, and
she said that she did not.

Amtrak  deals with the missed  connections by sending the "missed
connections team" in a van out  to Galesburg.  They deal with all
passengers  with  connections in  Chicago  and arrange  alternate
transportation or provide  hotel vouchers.   Alex and  I did  not
need their services because we were staying a couple of nights in
Chicago.

We left Omaha  and crossed the Missouri River to  Iowa.  It could
not have been more than  45 minutes later that the  conductor was
in  our car explaining the  missed connections again.   The power
went out,  and he must have  felt something, because he  said "Uh
oh" and fell into  the seat across the  aisle and in front of  me
and braced himself by putting his feet up on the back of the seat
in front of him.

The  conductor had a walky-talky  and he asked  the engineer what
had happened.   The engineer said  the train  had broken in  two.
When we rolled to a stop, the conductor asked  the engineer where
he was, and the engineer replied that he was about half a mile in
front of us.  The conductor left the car.

The  train had  broken  in two  where the  baggage  car had  been
removed,  between the Santa Fe Hilevel coach and what looked like
a box  car.  The engine backed  up and the rear  of the train was
reattached, but a power connector had been damaged, and there was
no  power or air-conditioning in  the train.   The explanation of
the train chief on all of this was that we had "lost our power."

There was an  announcement that  we had to  operate without  air-
conditioning until a siding could be found to set out the damaged
car.  The conductor was  in our car again, when I  heard over his
walky-talky that  there was  a side  track.   After a pause,  the
engineer said  that he could  not find  a switch.   The conductor
said, "Well  don't set  out  the car."   We  finally  did find  a
suitable track, and the damaged car  was moved to the rear of the
train, and power was restored.  We were now 8 hours late.

Because we were so late, the "missed connection team" was able to
travel even farther out from Chicago, to  Burlington, Iowa, where
they  boarded the  train, along  with another  complimentary meal
from  Amtrak,  which  was from  the  Colonel  this  time.   Again
everyone had to go to the diner to get his free meal and carry it
back  to his car.  We were still  next to the diner.  The "missed
connection team"  was also in the  diner, interviewing passengers
and examining tickets.

We got into Chicago about 1 am and took a taxi to our hotel.

Two  days later we departed  Chicago on the  "Lake Shore Limited"
for Boston, which  was the last train before the  strike.  In the
morning, in  Massachusetts, there were television  crews at every
station to see the last train before the strike.

Aside  from our bad  experience on the  Desert Wind/San Francisco
Zephyr,  all our other  Amtrak trains were more  or less on time,
and  we arrived  back  in  San  Diego within  5  minutes  of  the
advertised  time.  Other parts of the trip were also interesting,
but this is getting too long.  Would I make such an extended trip
on Amtrak again?  No.
Stephen Sheldon
E&M San Diego, NCR Corp.
Newsgroups: rec.railroad