posted
Hi I'm taking my first train ride ! The Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland next month.
Can someone tell me if the roomettes lock ? from the outside ? I've heard they lock from in when you are in the room, but does Amtrak give you a card key like a hotel ?
confused
Posts: 2 | From: NE Ohio | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Hi, The rooms cannot be locked from the outside, only from the inside while you are in the room. This is rather inconvenient but I suppose it would be difficult for Amtrak to distribute keys.
But this is also difficult, I once witnessed a father banging the glass of the room because his sleeping toddler had locked himself inside. After hitting the glass for along time the lock finally unlatched.
I would not worry though if I were you about your belongings. I have brought, laptops, PDA's, GPS, and other high tech electronics and have never seen them moved an inch.
Enjoy your trip on the EB!
Posts: 1082 | From: Los Angeles, CA. USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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CS99 is right. You can't lock your door from the outside. While we have never had anything stolen in all the years of travel We close the curtain,leave the lights on and then close the door. Also I never leave anything valuable in plain sight when we leave the room. I just shove things under the pillows or the seat.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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I'll second Train Lady's advice. If the curtain is closed when you leave the room, nobody knows if the room is occupied or not, so someone is unlikely to open it to find out.
It is a good idea to keep valuables out of sight, though. There is ample room beneath the seats to store a good deal of stuff.
Theft aboard trains is quite rare, so don't sweat it too much. Just take a few simple precautions and you'll be fine.
Posts: 2649 | From: California's Monterey Peninsula | Registered: Dec 2000
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Please remember, however, that if you have luggage, it is stored in an open rack on the first level....out of direct eyesight of all but those assigned to the lower rooms. I how no trouble on my trip on the Empire Builder last June.
Posts: 34 | From: Carroll County, MD | Registered: Oct 2005
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we don't use the lower level rack. It is usually full and very inconvient to open a suit case. We check our big bags through and keep a smaller one for each of us in our room. Even in the roomette it's possible with a bit of juggling. If you do use the lower rack just keep your bag locked and there should be no problem.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Thanks for the great ideas about security !
Speaking of luggage, I'm checking one big suitcase; riding train from cleveland to chicago then switching to the Empire Builder to Portland. do I claim my bags in Chicago or is it like an airline and they forward the bags to the next train for me ?
Posts: 2 | From: NE Ohio | Registered: Jan 2006
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It's like an airline: they check your luggage through to your final destination. (In fact, even if for some reason you wanted to claim your bags in Chicago and then recheck them to Portland, it wouldn't be a good idea to try to do so, because if your train from Cleveland to Chicago were delayed and arrived in Chicago later than, say, 1:15 Central Time, you might not be able to claim your bag and then recheck it by the baggage checking deadline for that day's Empire Builder--the deadline being, I assume, 1:45.)
Posts: 86 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Yes, we always check our big bags through. Never had a problem.If there is more than one train going to your destination your bags will go on the first one out and be waiting for you there. Never plan to re check in Chicago unless it's absolutely necessary. One time the CZ was very late and they gave us the wrong arrival time in Denver/ (not an unusual happening there). We barely made the train much less checking the baggage so we had to take it all on the train with us. Had it not been for a great woman in the lounge and an equally great red cap in Chicago we would not have been able to check it through to DC. Chicago is a real zoo.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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While traveling alone on the Southwest Chief a few years ago, I left my Superliner roomette at 6AM to brush my teeth. As I departed, I pulled the curtain across to shield my belongings from "curious eyes" and slid the door shut for extra security.
But when I tried to re-enter my roomette a few minutes later? The door was tightly locked. A faulty latch was to blame. And I was stuck standing in the corridor.
Various members of the train crew spent the next hour muttering "this isn't supposed to happen" as they tried to get the door open. They also made dire predictions that I might have to wait until the train reached Albuquerque -- over eight hours away -- where an Amtrak repair crew would literally remove the car's exterior window and climb in.
In the end, they gave it one last shot and resorted to a sledgehammer and crowbar. Which fortunately did the trick (although it resulted in minor damage to the door).
Since then, I never close my door all the way when I leave the room. I always leave it open just a crack. Although I've encountered only one faulty latch so far, my guess is that there are probably others out there, just waiting to fail.
Posts: 793 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Dilly - I think I was in that same room on the Coast Starlight in 1998 -- I forgot which sleeper it was, but see my 1998 travelogue in another section of Train Web. In my case, the good ol' crowbar was pulled out and used to open the door!
--Rich K
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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For laptops, they make inexpensive combo cable locks that fasten to a tiny notch in the computer. These can be looped around the coat hanger rod in the thin Superliner roomette closet where the PC can also be stored. I was able to use mine without even unlocking it.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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