Sleeper Slumbercoach - Open Discussion

Definitely not suited for PV use, but only as an add-on sleeper option. Could be an interesting AirBnB too!

The name "Slumbercoach" was actually a Pullman trademark, and Pullman operated all of the Budd-built 24-8s except for New York Central's. (NYC left Pullman in 1958, except for interline services). Pullman also operated a pair of 21 roomette cars (PRR-owned, UP painted) on the MILW-UP "City of Denver" for at least one season with "Slumbercoach" painted on the side in red, allowing the CofD to compete for economy traffic with the "Denver Zephyr".

Before NP bought up the used 24-8s The North Coast Limited and the DZ shared a pool of them, with one inbound DZ cars going out on the NCL, and vice versa, allowing NP to get by with only four cars for five train sets.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:03 am Definitely not suited for PV use, but only as an add-on sleeper option. Could be an interesting AirBnB too!

That's my thinking now is that this is more of a hotel or hostel option than a PV option.

Exactly. Budget travelers, et al. You just have to make the economics work. Operating Costs such as an attendant, box lunches, supplies, mileage vs. fares. If you can’t turn an operating profit you can’t cover fixed costs and overhead.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 11:12 am Exactly. Budget travelers, et al. You just have to make the economics work. Operating Costs such as an attendant, box lunches, supplies, mileage vs. fares. If you can’t turn an operating profit you can’t cover fixed costs and overhead.

If we forgo keeping the interiors as-is, you could rehab them to Japanese pod hotel/ferry "tourist bed" standards...

...but then, I can't see a slumbercoach on an Amtrak unless it's a separate, non-tourist service.

Would be a good time for Amtrak to reimagine what a LD train should look like when looking at next gen equipment. If Amtrak can improve the pax experience on the LDs for a small surcharge over coach, it will improve the popularity of LDs immensely.

frequentflyer wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 4:42 pm Would be a good time for Amtrak to reimagine what a LD train should look like when looking at next gen equipment. If Amtrak can improve the pax experience on the LDs for a small surcharge over coach, it will improve the popularity of LDs immensely.

They're doing that now. Thread on that is at:

amtrak-starts-the-process-for-new-overn ... 74990.html

IMO Amtrak does not need another type of sleeper until it has enough capacity with the same profile fulfilling the pent up demand. Any other profile just means several cars to be spares that instead could full fill presennt demads. It will probably takeat least 10 years to just meet all the demand for present profile seats.