Pre-Amtrak first class travel

[Jersey_Mike]

Or fly airline first class without having to use frequent flyer status to upgrade.

Few people do that any more because Airline first class has been watered down significantly because its mostly used by people upgrading with their rewards points.

[n2cbo]

Many trains on what we now call the NEC had parlor cars which had individual rotating seats, much more luxurious than today's business class. They may have also had at your seat beverage service, that I am not sure of as I was in college at the time and such travel was out of my reach.

You can actually experience this though if you ride on the Essex CT steam train as they run the former NH heavyweight parlor "Great Republic" which allows one to get a taste of what first class was like back then.

Jon

Actually, the Original Budd Metroliners had seats like that.

[george matthews]

slam door stock commuter stock lasted till the 90's in England . i think the main issue with them was that they tended to seperate from the chasis in a simulated crash , and ride up over the carriage in front .
Structual strenght due to the doors may also have been an issue , but the seperation issue was what saw them off , and i think caused preservation outfits to have to do major work to use them on excursions .

All new trains now have motor activated doors.

[peconicstation]

In the years leading up to Amtrak there were still some railroads offering a refined service like the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, the Southern, B & O.,and Rio Grande
Depending on the time of the year the Santa Fe was running a combined Super Chief/El Captain and during peak periods those trains ran on their own.
You could still avail yourself to all the Super Chief featured, including it's famed diner.
The original California Zepher came off in 1970, but the truncated Rio Grande Zepher offered private day seating in the former sections and bedrooms of it's
observation car. The Southern Crescent continued to offer it's high end sleeping car with it's master suite (one of the only pre-Superliner/Viewliner sleepers to offer a shower).

The issue then being that service varied depending on what part of the country you were riding through. Just as though there were the railroads noted for maintaining passenger services, there were also those known for making their service less than desirable.

One of the key points in selling the formation of Amtrak was that it would lead to predictable and consistent service levels around the nation.
In many cases, at least initially, Amtrak's formation did lead to service improvements, but where you had a true first class service (like the Super Chief),
Amtrak's service was a step down (and the reason they had to stop using the Super Chief name).

Ken

[jonnhrr]

slam door stock commuter stock lasted till the 90's in England . i think the main issue with them was that they tended to seperate from the chasis in a simulated crash , and ride up over the carriage in front .
Structual strenght due to the doors may also have been an issue , but the seperation issue was what saw them off , and i think caused preservation outfits to have to do major work to use them on excursions .

All new trains now have motor activated doors.

I saw slam door stock at Clapham Jct. in 2003 - I think it was the last year of operation for these units.

I also remember closed compartment stock on the London Liverpool St. - Southend Victoria service as late as 1981, it was definitely an anachronism. They were phased out due to security issues, people especially women being attacked late at night and no way to get away when not at a station.

Jon

[Noel Weaver]

As I have stated several different times on here and elsewhere, Amtrak was a downgrading of the best and an improvement over the worst. Nowhere is this more the case than in the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston. True the very comfortable parlor cars and dining cars with good meals are gone but a majority of today's travelers do not want parlor cars and dining cars anymore. They are more conditioned to convience, comfort, reliability and frequent departures and arrivals and in this sense the service offered by Amtrak today is generally far superior to what was offered at least post war. The parlor cars were operated by Pullman Company until sometime in the 50's when for the most part they bacame an operation by the individual railroad companies. Pullman maintained a high standard of service in both their parlor cars and their sleeping cars which remained under Pullman operation until around 1968 or so. Some railroads took over their sleeping car operations before others did, the New York Central was fairly early in that regard. While interline coupon tickets were sold from point to point which included all of the railroad companies involved in the trip the fares varied among different railroads and was calculated with a base far for coach travel, first class fare for parlor and sleeping car (Pullman or otherwise) travel and in the case of parlor or sleeping cars you paid a space charge on top of the first class fare. In the days of Pullman the space charge went directly to the Pullman Company and the space tickets were printed by Pullman although sold by the individual railroad in behalf of Pullman. Most sleeping car trains had a Pullman Conductor who handled all of the transportation in Pullmans and when you checked in at your starting point you often checked in with both the railroad conductor and the Pullman Conductor. If you boarded the train on a sleeper the Pullman Conductor collected your transportation and then handled it with the railroad conductor. Another thing, railroad employees traveling on a pass whether it was an annual card pass or a trip pass (local or foreign) who wanted to travel by sleeper had only to pay for the space charge, passes in those days were considered first class for transportation purposes on each railroad. In my New Haven and Penn Central days I could travel in the sleeper on an overnight train by simply paying for the space charge. I would go to a ticket window and show my pass and buy a ticket for the space. In some cases and on some railroads passes were restricted from sleeping car use and on most of them passes were restricted from parlor car use. Of course we all remember that there were different standards regarding passenger trains on different railroads and some maintained a very high standard right up until day one of Amtrak while others just plain let the passenger trains go to hell.
In September, 2011 I posted a nationwide comparison of service between January, 1970 and Amtrak of recent times. I suggest you re-read this stuff as not much is any different today. The link follows:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 46&t=86191

Noel Weaver

[tomfuller]

I have fond memories of going with my dad by car to pick up my great-aunt from the Phoebe Snow in Corning NY. This was about 54 years ago. My great aunt lived and worked in NYC. As I recall the train came by way of Scranton. http://trainmanjim.tripod.com/erie_lack ... ny?i=23&s=
I think this train stayed as high class service until the very end.

[jhdeasy]

Although they are usually thought of as a commuter carrier, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) offered reserved seat extra fare parlor car service on their longest distance trains between New York City and the east end of Long Island, until the end of the twentieth century. New York to The Hamptons and Montauk on the Montauk Branch; New York to Greenport on the main line. The focus of the service was summertime, usually Thursdays through Mondays, to provide a first class trip from New York City to the rural east end of Long island, and return.

In the years through 1968, this was done using a fleet of former Pullman heavyweight parlor cars, known as The Blue Ribbon Fleet. In the mid 1960s era, The Cannonball operated with 14 heavyweight parlor cars trailed by a heavyweight open platform observation car.

In the 1969-1975 era, the service was provided using a colorful assortment of lightweight sleepers, bedroom lounge cars, and tavern lounge cars acquired from B&O, DL&W, FEC, KCS, PRR, NH and UP.

In the final years, 1976-2000, the service was provided using a fleet of parlor cars with 2 & 1 seating and bars, referred to as The Sunrise Fleet, which was rebuilt by LIRR from their former MU electric coaches.

More info, roster and photos are available at http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/jhd/lirr

[hi55us]

Just for the record, the LIRR still operates The Cannonball between NY and The Hamptons during the summer, it has parlor car service with a bar.

[Backshophoss]

The "Hampton Reserve" service (Cannonball) uses slighly modifided C-3 cars for the current service,their not true "parlor" cars.
True parlor car service ended when the C-3 cars went in service years back.

[ExCon90]

As info, do the Hampton Reserve cars have 2-1 seating, or 2-2? If 2-2, I'd say the last vestige of 1st-class accommodation is gone. You can't beat 1-1 swivel armchairs, and they're never coming back.

[lirr42]

As info, do the Hampton Reserve cars have 2-1 seating, or 2-2? If 2-2, I'd say the last vestige of 1st-class accommodation is gone. You can't beat 1-1 swivel armchairs, and they're never coming back.

The Hampton Reserve cars have 2-2 seating. They are just regular commuter C3 cars with cup-holders, a bar at the end, and some extra space for luggage--but that's it. Those cars rotate in with the rest of the C3 fleet during the year. A diagram of the C3 bar cars is available on the LIRR website.

[ExCon90]

I was afraid of that. That means Backshophoss's assessment is correct.

[george matthews]

As info, do the Hampton Reserve cars have 2-1 seating, or 2-2? If 2-2, I'd say the last vestige of 1st-class accommodation is gone. You can't beat 1-1 swivel armchairs, and they're never coming back.

Modern safety legislation would forbid them.

[ExCon90]

As info, do the Hampton Reserve cars have 2-1 seating, or 2-2? If 2-2, I'd say the last vestige of 1st-class accommodation is gone. You can't beat 1-1 swivel armchairs, and they're never coming back.

Modern safety legislation would forbid them.

Sadly true, probably. Shocking to think of generations of passengers risking their lives in parlor cars all those years.