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Just arrived back on this thread - I had been ignoring the new activity thinking "I read that last summer....."
Two completely unrelated questions Mr. Norman -
1) On-Topic - I'm curious what the dining and lounge setup on the AT is these days. The diners converted to CCC service have replaced the sightseer lounges I believe BUT what are they using for meal service now? Additonal CCC's or the original diners with 4-seater tables?
2) Off-Topic - What is the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (one of the nation's best) programming Saturday evening? Could you pass along who is playing bass trombone there now as well?
An old college mate of mine was auditioning there (he auditions anytime one of the top symphonies has an opening) and you never know where he'll turn up next. Once he spent a number of years with the National Symphony of Chile. Another time I ran into him while I was playing in a US Army Band and he was playing in the orchestra with a travelling Andrew Lloyd Webber show....... but hey, a paying gig is a paying gig!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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While both were converted from 380XX Diners, the 3310X Lounges (exclusively assigned to AT) and the 370XX Diner Lounges (Cross Country Cafe), are different 'birds of a feather".
The floor plan of the 3310X AT Lounges are on Upper Level configured with tables and settees on both ends with a Snack Bar center. Lower Level has the Smoking Lounge (does a passable job of keeping the foul fog away from me at least), an abandoned phone booth (now a broom closet), and additional Lounge area that does not appear to be used for much of anything. I'm not sure if they still offer on-board movies, but I would think in this day and age of "bring your own", they are quite irrelevant, and a distraction from beverage sales.
everything (program, roster, ticket sales) at your fingertips.....
I was several years into my adult career before everyone had a computer at his/her desk and sometimes I forget to just go look for things myself!
I've performed the Sibelius (2nd trumpet) while playing for a couple of years with the Fayetteville (NC) Symphony Orchestra in the mid-1990's.
Preferring the more interesting (for a brass player) British brass band literature, I had never really sought symphony work. In this case a long-time member of the orchestra had been hospitalized and was under doctor's orders to not play any longer.
The orchestra's tuba player lived in the same apartment complex I did and knew me from an area brass band. He stopped me in the parking lot one afternoon and said "Wanna go to Fayetteville Symphony rehearsal at 7pm tonight? We need a trumpet player and it pays $10.00 a rehearsal."
I went to rehearsal, did a credible job sightreading the part, and was asked to stay. We were, clearly, far removed from the stratosphere occupied by orchestras the stature of Cleveland's!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I was surprised to learn that the Auto Train still allows smoking; I thought Amtrak had done away with that.
Is the foul, filthy, declasse habit** perhaps still allowed because the Auto Train doesn't stop on its trip and it's easier to go along with the weed than to try to fight it aboard?
**Don't take my words too seriously. I'm a reformed tobacco addict, and nobody is as sanctimonious about smoking as we are.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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The journey to or from the one service stop at Florence is deemed too long for a junkie to go without, and from what I understand (I'm getting my ZZZZ's at that time), AT no longer stops at the station platform.
Likely the best way out; as one of those folks needing a fix could well assault an employee or passenger if denied for sixteen hours.
Posts: 9977 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Shortly before moving to Asheville and leaving the NC Train Host Association in 1998, I pulled a roundtrip assignment on trains 80 and 79 Charlotte to Rocky Mount and back. I still remember the verbal assault I received between Selma and Raleigh from an elderly lady who had boarded in New Jersey and could not believe that anyone (and it weren't me, honest) would dare tell her she could not smoke on a train in North Carolina.
Put her on the AT without a smoking area and some crew member dies between Savannah and Jacksonville.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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