Silver Meteor Departing NYP

mattfels wrote:

Rhinecliff wrote:It is being done with enough frequency that crew members have complained to me about its impact on the cleanliness of the equipment.

To a passenger? How odd. I've never had such a conversation with even one crew member, let alone several. How exactly did the correspondent find himself in the position of being "complained to"?

I have. All you have to do is be friendly to the crewmember(s) in question, and show an interest in the operation. If the crewmember happens to be in the mood to talk, they'll share all sorts of stories.

I had one such sleeping car attendant on my Empire Builder in December. The inbound Superliner II sleeper had been removed, and replaced with a Superliner I sleeper that had been sitting in the coach yards for some time, and had all sorts of useful things picked off of it (presumably to supply other cars/trains that were missing those items). Some examples included mattresses missing, no beds made up prior to departure, etc. Anyway, the attendant and I had a couple of interesting discussions about how things can and do go wrong (and also, when things go right).

Then again, every time a crewmember says something to me, I don't immediately confront them demanding to see written documentation proving what they just said, so they are a bit more comfortable in talking to me, I guess.

mattfels wrote:Of course there's no "French" to pardon in any of that. No need to be coy. What does "STFU" stand for? Write out all four words. This is not a difficult question.

fermez la bouche

Mr. Fels complains:

I've never had such a conversation with even one crew member, let alone several.

No surprises there.

One of my favorite aspects of train travel is visiting with the crews. By and large, I find Amtrak's front-line employees to be some of the most creative and hard-working individuals in the transportation industry.

That's three words. What part of "all four words" wasn't clear?

Rhinecliff wrote:Mr. Fels complains:

No, he doesn't. In fact, he doesn't do a lot of things that "Rhinecliff" does on board trains. Like snoop around private sleeping compartments with his 2-year-old son.

I'm enjoying the latest installment of "When Railfans Attack." But this is the Amtrak forum.

RMadisonWI wrote:(presumably to supply other cars/trains that were missing those items).

OBJECTION! Assuming facts not yet estalished! Did you physically witness some person remove the items from said sleeper and place them in another unit? Unless you can say yes, all you are doing is providing the group with what most likely is another falsity! This forum does not permit speculation, conjecture, hyperbole, or bantering. Please comply with my idiotic request! :D

Those who do not have much else to do can settle this issue, just take a
ride up to Harmon where 48 makes a stop and jot down the car numbers
then later in the day, take a little ride to Newark and again just jot down
the car numbers. If the numbers match, presto, the question has been
answered.
I would like to make two more points.
We should stop sniping at each other on here.
We should be boosting Amtrak and not tearing it down with this kind of
stuff. It is our nation passenger train system, we all know that it is not
perfect but it is still running and we need to help boost it whenever we
can.
We have made our points, lets go on.
Noel Weaver

Matt, drop it. We all know what STFU means.

Dinky, you are rattling the saber in more then a few forums, so pipe down. This is a community forum (with rules) and we absolutly do not use that kind of language, spelled out or not.

mattfels wrote:In fact, he [Fels] doesn't do a lot of things that "Rhinecliff" does on board trains. Like snoop around private sleeping compartments with his 2-year-old son.

Have you witnessed that activity. If you haven't, I must object. You have no foundation to make such a remark.

Rhinecliff wrote:One of my favorite aspects of train travel is visiting with the crews. By and large, I find Amtrak's front-line employees to be some of the most creative and hard-working individuals in the transportation industry.

I agree with you. I typically find the attendants to be most interesting and will always have a deep respect for them. When I was 13 riding the Colonial, the cafe car attendant arranged for a ride for me up front in the toaster. That in itself was awesome. The engineer one upped him when he let me sit at the controls and "run" the whole train.

Later in life, had probably one of the most interesting nights of my life with another passenger and the attenant in the sleeper between CHI and NYP.

OK, we're done here. Dinky, you're getting a time out. Matt, go stand in the corner. The rest of you... keep doing your assignments.

-otto-