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Dave-- The transition cars come in two types. The originals that were contemporary with Superliner I equipment were rebuilt ex-Santa Fe hi-level chair cars that Amtrak converted to coach dorms by walling off the upstairs ahead of the center stairway to the lower level and vestibule, putting in a door, and adding dorm rooms and a shower in this area. The original end stairway is in the dorm area and steps down. These cars had about 40 coach seats after conversion. The Santa Fe had a large fleet of permanent step down hi-level chair cars and also had some convertible models that were built with an end stairwell with a removable upper floor and provision to move the door to the lower level without disturbing the coach seats. Amtrak converted these also. Amtrak did not convert the original two "experimental" hi-levels, both of which were step down cars, because they did not have flat floors--the seats were on a raised floor with a sunken aisle, similar to the big domes. These two cars are readily identifiable because they have the side walls sloped in starting at about floor level, and they were sold off at that time. The entire fleet of hi-level coaches (step down or otherwise) had no revenue pax space on the lower level, only restrooms, with a few cars having a conductor office and stewardess-nurse dorm room. The remainder of the car's lower level was taken up by diesel house power plants (replaced with transformers when HEP conversions were done by Amtrak) and HVAC equipment. Not all hi-levels were step down or convertible cars. The flat floor chair cars were not modified (except the diaphragms--see below) and were used as 72-seat chair cars. Of course, all of these cars got HEP. Incidentally, the floors in the hi-levels and superliners did not line up, with the Superliner floor being 4 inches higher than the hi-level floor. When the Superliner cars were designed, Amtrak intended to replace all western trains with a very small fleet of these cars. To add insult to injury, the original Superliner conception involved only coaches, coach baggage and a coach snack car (never built) to provide a level of service commiserate with that offered by Greyhound and Trailways. They never intended to build any diners, sleepers or lounges, and were forced to by several Board members, led by then UTU chief Charlie Luna of Dallas, who was one of the original incorporators of Railpax/Amtrak. When the Arabs (who historically have found themselves catapulted into the position of being unwitting saviors of American passenger rail on multiple occasions) turned off the taps and passenger demand skyrocketed, Luna & Co. forced the conversion of the hi-levels and Heritage Fleet (the original Amtrak plan was to replace all the eastern long distance trains with Amfleet I coaches and cafe cars, and scrap the existing fleet, providing no sleepers, diners, or lounge cars in the east, either). To accommodate the difference in height between the floors of the Superliners and hi-levels, Amtrak extended the hi-levels' diaphragm striker plates to mate with the taller Superliner cars, and added a 4" wedge to the floor over the buffers to provide a makeshift, de facto "ramp" up to Superliner floor level. The second type was a Superliner II transition dorm. This car has economy bedrooms on the upper level, with restrooms and a conference room/crew lounge on the lower level. In a fit of brilliance typical of the way they have historically done business, Amtrak marketing rarely authorized sale of the unoccupied revenue space in the transition cars (coach seats in the hi-levels, and about half or more of the economy bedrooms in the transition dorms), even if the train had standees, while they incessantly complained about lack of revenue and pax got turned away (most western trains sell out 6 weeks to 6 months in advance during the summer, and at other times as well). And there are numerous authenticated reports of surly OBS crew members on Amtrak trains routinely kicking revenue passengers out of the coach section of the hi-level transition dorms and letting the seats go empty. In one recorded instance on a sold-out edition of the Texas Eagle with a large number of standees, the OBS crew member sprawled over a couple of coach seats threw the passengers out of the car and told them they couldn't come back in "because this car is where we go to unwind". So the car ran empty and the poor passengers had to stand, albeit with a (hopefully) "unwound" OBS crew. Because some trains, like 1-2 and 35-36, for example, did not use a transition dorm car (the OBS crew displaced revenue sleeper space while revenue pax were turned away--also an act of true financial genius; no wonder Arizona Sen. John McCain has little or no use for Amtrak!), Amtrak began removing the diaphragms from baggage cars and equipping them with rubber tupe European-style diaphragms that can best be described as looking like a "baby buggy bumper" on steroids. This design eliminated damage to the Superliner and hi-level diaphragms resulting from the mismating of the high level and low level diaphragm striker plates. Clearly, in that instance there is no inside passage from the Superliners to the baggage cars. For some additional info, see the following: http://trainweb.com/slides/ss05/ss05b_09.htm http://trainweb.com/accommod/s2jtrans.htm
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