Text 392, 59 rader
Skriven 2008-01-08 15:09:04 av Carol Shenkenberger (6370.cooks)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson (6360.cooks)
Ärende: TRAIN TRIPS  80107
==========================
    
 >  CS> About the same although it seemed the second class sleepers did have a
 >  CS> toilet in some of them and a sink, just no shower.
 > 
 > From what I remember the last time I travelled in a second class
 > sleeper, there was a sink, but no toilet.  Showers and toilets were
 > provided at the ends of the carriages.

I think they had toilets at the ends of the cheaper cars (certainly they had
something but that was back in 1975 or so and my memory is vague on it all). 
I've never been in the better cars yet but looked them up on the web.

 >  CS> The only problem I noted was they sell by 1 or 2, but not units that
 >  CS> seem to accomodate a 3rd person in one room unless you upscale to a 4
 >  CS> person unit and then it gets very pricey.
 > 
 > True.  It is not surprising that your passenger carriages are similar
 > to ours, as our 40 year old ones were made in USA - by Budd, I think.

I'd like to take the 3 of us on a longer trip to Chicago or something, but so
far without a reason to go, that seems a silly waste just now.

 >  > On our long distance trains there are separate dining cars for the
 >  > first and second class passengers.  First class meals are included in
 >  > the fare, while the sit-up and sleeper second class buy theirs from the
 > 
 >  CS> I would not know for sure, but that part seems the same at least on
 >  CS> how the prices go. When my Mom and I treked to NY on one from South
 >  CS> Carolina, we were in cheapest seats and brought food with us. I do not
 >  CS> recall if they even had a dining car, but the line was fairly short
 >  CS> (12-16 hours if memory serves) and not designed for coast to coast
 > 
 > I would expect some sort of food service for a journey of that length.
 > More or less comparable with the Adelaide to Melbourne trip.  That used
 > to have a night train with sleepers, and a day train, but now the night
 > train has stopped.  Pity.

It was several shorter lenghts combined so not viewed as a 12-16 hour trek,
rather as several 2-3 hour ones.  There may have been food carts.  In fact,
yes I think I remember getting something off one.  Egg salad samwich or some
such. Mostly we brought stuff to eat, not being sure what they had.  This was
the low point of USA train travel.  Things are much nicer now.

 > Having travelled on long distance trains in Australia, NZ, Japan,
 > Western and Eastern Europe, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia,
 > and Mexico, it would be good to compare what other N American countries
 > have to offer.

True!  Ward Dossche (Belgium fellow, you probably don't know him) uses trains
often through Europe.  If you drift over to the Asian_Link echo, I can get
him over there from the fight-o-net echos to talk trains with ya.

 > India is another place where I would like to try the trains.

All I know of those is the news pictures of folks riding ontop due to lack of
enough seats <g>.
            xxcarol
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
 * Origin: Shenks Express (1:275/100)