How did you get a picture of a "Smoking Lounge" that was so clean? It must have been awaiting departure from CUS, fresh from the Chicago Service Facility. I wonder if O'B would deign to smoke there. I'm sure he did on "Georgia 300".
Hays
As a smoker, I frequented the bowels of the Cattle Car for the "Smoker's Lounge". It was a horrible place (Fourth-class", at the best, but "any-port-in-a-storm!". They were odoriferous, filthy, and uncomfortable. No beverages were allowed, but that was the "rule", not the practice. Drunks and dopers were ubiquitous, but I'd welcome them back. If one was lucky, one of the trainmen would be a smoker and visit, on occasion. If not, the on-board personnel were tyrants! No one ever "policed" the area, on most of my trips. I would empty the silly little aluminum foil ashtrays, pick up bottles and cans, and try to give the place a sembalance of order, which was, usually, a lost cause. I traveled with David Gunn, a bit, but he always smoked in the lead locomotive!
According to the latest Trains issue, the ex-ATSF "Pacific Parlour" cars are getting a bit long-in-the-tooth. Upon entry, "BEWARE!". The thresholds are of different height, a definite "tripping hazzard". It is not so bad on exit, even with a few of the wines they serve. Most are good wines, but the cheese....
My last two trips on the "Empire Builder" actually had a staffed upper-level bar! That was last summer. Will wonders ever cease? There is hope....
These "lounges" were downstirs in a Superliner coach, lavishly furnished with leftover Am-bus station chairs. Note that the difficult-to-use but color-coordinated trash can has been supplanted with the ubiquitous Big Brown Bag.
Indeed, the Pacific Parlours are a treat. But they have been refurbished and maintained at a considerable expense, and even though Amtrak may have more hi-level cars it's not just a matter of sticking them on a train. Staffing is one issue. I remember the days when the upstairs bar in the lounge cars was staffed...
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." Daniel Burnham
Here is what the "cattle class" needs: a return of the smoking lounge:
I heard they were going to allow the "hoi palloi" (cattle car class) into the Pacific Parlor cars. Too bad!
Sorry 'bout that. Amtrak does spell it "parlour". A bit pretentious, methinks, but it is their train.
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