It seems on every coach Amtrak has a large restroom or two. I wonder if they could yank the restroom on at least one of the cars on a LD train and put something else in it's space such as.....
1. 2 chair barbershop.
2. 4-5 stool bar lounge.
Other ideas to enhance revenue?
Video game room?
Common sense and negative PR concerns aside, are there any regulatory issues with doing this?
Doing so would also reduce fleet flexibilty, in locomotive terms such cars would effectively become B-units.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Don't ADA requirements specificy the dimensions for accessibility.....and health codes specify the number of toilets required by capacity?
I can just imagine a barber shop doing enough of a business to justify the cost and instead of bar stools....standard seating would provide more capacity.
The barbershop seems like nostalgia for the old Broadway or 20th Century 70 years ago.
Bar? That should be in the snack/buffet car.
Billiard room? Oh wait, no.
A bar in the basement of a coach? CLub car already exists.
I like the large accessible bathroom on the coaches. In the tiny litte toilet closets otherwise, I have to open the door to bend over and grip my trousers to pull them up. The large room offers the possibility or a relatively comfortable ...personal moment.
Perhaps the OP was being facetious?
charlie hebdoPerhaps the OP was being facetious?
No I was throwing some ideas out there. Another idea which I spotted on a Milwaukee Road Super Dome #53. Not all passenger cars need to have vestibule doors, that might also free up space for other uses possibly?
CMStPnP charlie hebdo Perhaps the OP was being facetious? No I was throwing some ideas out there. Another idea which I spotted on a Milwaukee Road Super Dome #53. Not all passenger cars need to have vestibule doors, that might also free up space for other uses possibly?
charlie hebdo Perhaps the OP was being facetious?
So in a single car operation - how does one board and leave a car without vestibule space for ingress and egress?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
On that stretch of the Buckingham Branch Railroad that the Cardinal uses, with that bad track, getting a haircut would be a painful, bloody experience.
Still in training.
BaltACDSo in a single car operation - how does one board and leave a car without vestibule space for ingress and egress?
You still have the transit door through the diaphram, it's just a larger step down to the ground.
CMStPnP BaltACD So in a single car operation - how does one board and leave a car without vestibule space for ingress and egress? You still have the transit door through the diaphram, it's just a larger step down to the ground.
BaltACD So in a single car operation - how does one board and leave a car without vestibule space for ingress and egress?
Where does the 'S' word fit?
The whole intent of this exercise was to think of added services on a Passenger Train that could be provided without cutting back on coach seats. The idea of putting a bar in a coach car would be to save the expense of a seperate lounge car while still providing mixed drinks or beverages on demand.
As for the barbershop, you would only make more revenue with added seats if the train car ran at capacity. Since that is a rare occurance on most Amtrak trains, adding seats that would stay empty is probably not better at revenue than a barbershop would be. Also the added convience of hitting two birds with one stone might attract more riders. Approx 1 person per 20 min sitting for maybe $12-15 for a guys haircut, plus tip. Eliminating the non-rev space of the restroom, I still think that the barbershop is a win.....though serving liquor and light salty snacks at your seat would probably be a bigger win.
I've cut my own hair with a electric clippers and for most of the haircut I can jump up and down while still cutting the hair without fear of cutting myself. Thats why most clipper sets provide the plastic guides. Yes there are very short times of precision and close cut where rough track would be an issue but in the cases of really rough track like that would you want the passengers on their feet and moving around the train to begin with? Probably not.
BaltACDWhere does the 'S' word fit?
I will confess it got me thinking whether some sort of folding trap could be rigged off the blind end, that would give access out of a door right at the end of the car to a platform and stairs to at least the typical 'trap level' and perhaps to the ground. As this would almost certainly be 'emergency-only' this need not be particularly robust; only a couple of minutes with an Eli Gilderfluke sharp #2 pencil would show how to make it wheelchair-lift accessible.
Emergency egress from a vestibule door could easily be inflatable along the lines of an emergency slide; it would be a bit like a 'whale tail' curving to both sides with handles all the way down...
Overmod BaltACD Where does the 'S' word fit? If that word is 'sarcasm' it fits nicely. I will confess it got me thinking whether some sort of folding trap could be rigged off the blind end, that would give access out of a door right at the end of the car to a platform and stairs to at least the typical 'trap level' and perhaps to the ground. As this would almost certainly be 'emergency-only' this need not be particularly robust; only a couple of minutes with an Eli Gilderfluke sharp #2 pencil would show how to make it wheelchair-lift accessible. Emergency egress from a vestibule door could easily be inflatable along the lines of an emergency slide; it would be a bit like a 'whale tail' curving to both sides with handles all the way down...
BaltACD Where does the 'S' word fit?
If that word is 'sarcasm' it fits nicely.
Sarcasm doesn't fit in railroad world - SAFETY is the S word.
Safety and egress to ground through a vestibule door are not quite mutually exclusive but you'd have to work hard for them not to be so.
Shaving Cream?
https://youtu.be/G8ffkDf0ol4
rdamonShaving Cream?
I knew all those years listening to Dr. Demento would pay off!!
rdamonI knew all those years listening to Dr. Demento would pay off!!
Never have so many wasted hours been so well spent.
Would be interested in learning the degree of usage the 20th Century Barbershop experienced. It was still available the first time I rode the Century in 1958, but I did not use it.
Reemember that Classic-Era overnight Pullman travel gave the option of the porter shining one's sh shoes. Roomettes, bedrooms, compartments, and drawing rooms all had a special shoe locker, in the corridor wall, with a second door to the corridor for the porter to access. Passengers in section simply left their shoes on the floor just outside the curtains.
Tipping the porter was expected. As a child going to sumer camp, my parents gave me a quarter for that purpose, in the days when a New York subway, elevatd, streetcar, and bus ride each cost nickle. In the 50s and 60s, a Dollar was OK.
rdamon Shaving Cream? https://youtu.be/G8ffkDf0ol4
Burma shave !
here's two:
Speed up pa
Wing the dinger!
Grandma just gave
Those bikers
the finger.
Burma Shave.
Speed up Pa!
Give 'er the gas
here comes a trooper
to ticket
your ass.
Burma Shave
These may or may not be authentic.
Remember the Maine!/To hell with Spain/And don't forget/To pull the chain! Burma-Shave.
(I will not invoke poor Ms. Arnold-Murray's memory... although it is tempting...)
Don't go passing
on a slope
unless you have
a periscope
Here comes the train/Whistle pealing/Best avoid/That run-down feeling...
Returning to the topic, a single vestibule and exit per car has been the norm on ICE trains on DB for many years.
charlie hebdo... a single vestibule and exit per car has been the norm on ICE trains on DB for many years.
I wonder if part of this is careful 'staging' of passengers about to board so they don't interfere with detraining passengers.
What typifies German equipment that does not operate from high-level platforms?
OvermodAnd this works despite the very short station dwell of many of the German trains.
They have very long platforms at Osterholz-Sharmbeck, Bremen, Hannover, that I think help them out with the fast load and fast detrain. Those are not all ICE routes either. Plus all the doors open on the train and the conductor can close them all from one location by pressing a button in any one of the vestibules. A whistle sound of an alarm plays when the doors start to close, if your in the way of the door it will bounce back vs crush you. Once all the doors are closed I think a light on the side of the car or in the can illuminates.
They used to stage passengers on the platform by destination marked on the side of the coach, and I am not sure they do that a lot with ICE......can't remember.
Also, I think they are all high level platforms as I don't ever remember a step down to a platform or even a step box.
One thing that was pretty cool though on the non-ICE cars, in each vestibule there is a medicine sized cabinet that has the car electronics and fuzes / breakers along with a folder of all the maintence and checks written down for the car. You needed a special circular key to open which I had from my home alarm system back in the states (same type key and it fit....lol).
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