Train A/C

[travelingengineer]

I have always been uncomfortable in any sealed enclosure, such as airplanes and even the Amtrak sleeping cars.  I fundamentally am an "outdoor guy."  My Amtrak experience to date has shown me, on one Southwest Chief trip in December, the failure of a sleeping car heating system, requiring my request of an additional blanket and my wearing a sweater, but what else can you do?

Now comes word of a German train air-conditioning failure, which is much more dangerous:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100711/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_overheated_train

[tree68]

It doesn't take long for the situation to go south in hot weather either.  We didn't get the air started in our 50's vintage coach early enough for one train last week and it never caught up.  The windows don't open on that one, either.

This type of situation is why they had to make rules for the airlines.  I've been on a diverted plane for which there was no gate at the alternate airport, so we couldn't get off (it was August).  It wasn't bad until they had to shut down the engines to refuel.  It didn't take long for the cabin to heat up...

[Deggesty]

Our troubles with faulty air conditioning have been that they went north in the spring. Last year, we boarded the Starlight in Sacramento (midnight), in late March--and almost froze before morning. We were both in the lower berth, so we had use of all the blankets. The attendant told us that he could not shut the blower off at our end even though the other end of the car (roomettes and accessible bedroom) was comfortable). Sometime late in the morning, he was able to turn the Yukon breeze off. This years, we had a similar, though not as severe, problem in three or four of the Superliner sleepers we occupied (traveling early May to mid-June).

[oltmannd]

Wonder if the electric reheat was broken/turned off? The climate system of passengers cars first chills the air, then reheats it a bit to keep the air from feeling clammy. This also keeps condensation off the inside window on rainy days.