Riding on the Metro - well, no. Amtrack.

This is from the text of an email to a friend recently, who will be coming to visit the Wigster via Amtrak.  Mrs. Wiggy and I have the experience of one whole overnight round trip to rely upon - from Albuquerque to Chicago and back.  So, here is the Wigster's advice...

First - there are several types of cars.  You're going to be on double-decker cars, not like the high-speed Accela rail system they have out east.  The cars are coach/business, sleeper, dinner, and observation car/snack bar, plus mail and cargo cars.  Access from car to car is via the top level - not the bottom.  So, if you're on the top level, you have people walking past you as they go from car to car.  If you're on the bottom level, not so much.  At least one of the coach cars is often the 'smoking car' as well - that's downstairs and often combined with larger bathrooms/showers.

The sleepers come in several varieties.  The only one we have experience with is the Superliner Standard Bedroom:

http://www.amtrak.com/plan/accommodations/sleeper-superliner.html

This is available on the top and bottom levels of the standard trains.  As you can see from the drawing on this page, it is pretty basic.  The top bunk you see flips up and against the wall above.  The bottom bunk splits in half and becomes two club chairs facing each other.  There is room for precisely two people to sit facing each other, you can stretch out your feet if you both take a different side to extend them.  You have armrests on either side of you - the side nearest the center of the rail car has maybe six to eight inches of space to put things on, like small luggage.  I could be under-estimating, it might be more like a foot of room.  There is a flip-down table you can put things on, like a tray table on an airliner.  We found that we could put my laptop on this table and we could both watch a DVD movie if we kinda twisted ourselves around in our chairs so we were facing the outside windows.  There was a plug in our room for electricity - we were told that it was not appropriate for laptops - but we did it anyway...hehehe.  Worked fine.  We used a 'y-splitter' for headphones from Radio Shack so we could both hear the movie without disturbing others.  I suspect you may find that you don't have room to set up both laptops unless you want to keep them on your laps, where they can sure get hot.  We watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."  It was a riot!  Laptops are cool.  When they can play DVD's, they're even more fun.

On one side, there will be second ledge - which can be used for storage, or can be used as a step up to get into the upper bert.  The upper berth is narrow - there is cargo webbing you clip from the bed to the ceiling to keep you from rolling out - the car does rock-n-roll through the night!  I had no trouble sleeping at all - but Mrs. Wiggy did - your milage may vary!  Whiskey works, too.  I found that the upper bunk was fine for me - and I could even stow a small bag at my feet.  However, I'm 5-10.  You may find that you're too tall to fully extend your legs.  I believe the mattress is 6 feet long with a tad bit of wiggle room past that, maybe an inch or two, tops.

The sleeper cars are split in half for the basic sleeper.  There are sleepers on either side and a walkway down the middle.  When you are in your sleeper (and there is no place else to go except for the observation deck, the snack bar, or the smoking lounge), you can have a sliding door open or closed, and there are drapes you can have open or closed (on the train side and the center-aisle side).  We often kept the sliding door open during the day, with the aisle curtains closed.  However, as people walk by and the train lurches, they can get tossed into your room, so beware!

We found that when the sliding door was closed, it was pretty much dead quiet.  There are environmental controls, lights, and even a PA system and music (sort of) in your room.

We also saw bigger sleepers - the Deluxe Bedrooms:

http://www.amtrak.com/plan/accommodations/sleeper-deluxe.html

As you can see, they're a little more posh.

In the standard sleeper, there is no bathroom.  They are all down the hall on both levels.  We found that they were pretty generally like an airline bathroom, just a bit bigger and a bit cleaner.  They get cleaned by the Porter as the trip progresses.  However, it appeared to us that some people just Do Bad Things to bathrooms - some would get 'closed' by the Porter for one reason or another.  Hmmm.  Don't wanna know.

We were told that there were some 'showers' we could take advantage of.  I didn't - I believe Mrs. Wiggy did.  I don't recall what her opinion was; I'll let her chime in here.  Our trip was only 24 hours - I can stand my own stink that long.  I don't know if others can stand my stink.

There is a dinner car.  It's actually very nice.  White tablecloths, uniformed waiters, the whole thing.  I kid you not - you'll like it.  You feel like you're really 'going to dinner' on the 'train' as things might have been a long time ago.  Very nice.  The food, we found, was pretty good too.  You get a choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The tables each hold 4 people and they are filled - always.  So, traveling by two, you get to share your meals with someone else.  It's really not too bad - a fun way to meet people.  You can withdraw to your sleeper and hide out completely, but at dinner, you're face-to-face with the Great Unwashed, like it or not.  We liked it!

You will be asked for your choice of times for three meals - each sleeper car has a Porter assigned who will cater to you.  He or she will make up your bed for sleep or break it down in the morning, bring you coffee and sodas, etc, and work with you to set your schedule.  We did not know the protocol, but we tipped our waiter and our Porter at the end of the trip - $20 each.  Don't know if that was correct or not, but they took the money, so I guess it's 'done'.

There is an Observation Deck - very nice for relaxing, chatting, looking out at the passing landscape, or just sleeping - many coach car folks sack out in the observation car.  In the evenings, they put on movies that play on TV's on each end of the observation car - usually some kid thing like "Saving Nemo."  Unless you like being rubbed with boogers and having drinks spilled on you, I'd recommend avoiding that.  If you happen to walk through a coach car at night, you'll find out why you want a sleeper.  It smells like every nasty sock in the world is having a convention in a cheese factory where the plumbing has gone bad.

There is a Snack Car downstairs from the Observation Deck, and you can get a drink (beer, hard stuff) or a Snickers bar and a Coke, perhaps a burger or a hotdog (the automat variety, not fried fresh).  It's not cheap, but it's not more expensive than your average movie theater fare; probably a bit less.  Fine for what it is - a snack.

Some folks in coach bring their meals - that mixes with the general odor wafting through coach at night that I mentioned earlier.  Some run to nearby bodegas in little whistle-stops along the way - we saw a woman running after the train in Dodge City, KS with a bag of foil-wrapped burritos.  Believe it or not, the train stopped for her (Yay!), but don't count on that.  However, in a sleeper car, you're considered a 'first class' passenger, so your meals in the dinner car are free.  Good thing too, because those prices are a bit steep.

There are several ways to get your luggage on board.  One way is to check it - however, be aware that you will have no access to it until you get to your destination and it gets unloaded - just like a plane.  There are also places to put your bags in several 4-foot by 4-foot cubes just as you get on the train.  However, that space is first come, first served.  If it is filled up, you're SOL.  And it is out in the open - there is no one guarding it, nor is it locked.  You can also put your gear in your room.  But be aware that there is not a lot of space.  We had one checked rollaboard each, and we brought my laptop backpack, a large camera bag, a small camera bag, and Mrs. Wiggy's knitting bag with us into our room - it was a tight squeeze, really.  You won't get a standard rollaboard into your room, I don't believe.  However, if you have a little lock, you can lock that puppy and put it in the storage cube on your car (each car has two of them) if you don't get paranoid about that.  Just remember - it's right next to the exit.  The train stops all the time in the middle of the night for a couple of minutes to let people on and off at tiny whistle-stop stations.  We did NOT hear of any problems, but someone could be gone in a second if they wanted to, with your bag in hand.  Even an honest mistake would suck mightily.

That's about all I can think of at the moment - but we'll add more as we think of it.  Mrs. Wiggy had the suggestion that if you get the chance, you might want to try an overnight sleeper car trip (like say to Chicago or LA) before you try the 'big one' going cross-country. 

Smooches,

Wigwam