I will be taking the Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Los Angeles this weekend and need your input.
I will be staying in the lower level reserved coach compartment and was thinking of bringing a lightweight 6 outlet (non-surge protected) power strip along with me. My plan is to plug it into the only outlet available, thus giving other people an opportunity to share the juice.
I plan to use the outlet to power my electrical heating pad (for my aching back). So once I plug it, I plan to stay plugged in for a while.
Do you see a problem with this plan?
Thanks,
Chuck Reuben
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
Only thing I can think of is the power requirements for a heater might exceed the supply in those outlets. The ones in sleeper compartments are labelled "razor only" - I'm not sure about the coach ones.
Geoff M.
Posted by Room Service (Member # 2405) on :
I did exactly this, sans heating pad, and used an extention cord along the wall to my seat. The strip provided the person in the "socket seat" a way to use thier laptop and share the "juice" with me so I could watch some movies on MY laptop. I just asked kindly and it was no poblem. Most people are nice.
Posted by CoastStarlight99 (Member # 2734) on :
Well I am glad I learned that works, they say RAZOR ONLY in the sleepers, but I always plug i my camcorder or cell phone..with a spliiter/power strip i can do both now.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
They say "Razors Only" because when Superliners were new about the only electrical devices people traveled with were shavers, hair dryers and curling irons. For that reason I don't think they can handle the load of a heating appliance. You could blow a circuit breaker. Low power devices like battery chargers and laptops are not a problem, but for electronics a surge protector is highly recommended.
Posted by CoastStarlight99 (Member # 2734) on :
What do you mean by Laptops are ok, but electronics are not?
Posted by sojourner (Member # 3134) on :
The attendant told me it was OK to recharge my cellphone in the "razors only" socket of the Superliner cars, but I could not get my cellphone recharger plugged in because the black box that contains the cellphone plug (sorry I'm electronic jargon ignorant) was too big and kept bumping into other lightswitches or buttons or whatever else was too close to the socket on the back-of-seat panel where the socket is placed! But I have no problem recharging my cellphone in the Viewliner (eastern sleeping cars), where the socket is by the sink with plenty of room. In general, I have to say I like the Viewliners on the NYC sleeper trains much better than the Superliner compartments on the western trains. They are larger, have much better lighting for reading after dark, have cleaner windows for viewing out, have a shelf to store one's luggage, and best of all, have a private commode. Frankly, I think I like having my own toilet as much or more than having a bed!!!
What I like on the western trains, in spite of their Superliners, is of course the observation car.
Posted by Geoff M (Member # 153) on :
quote:Originally posted by CoastStarlight99: What do you mean by Laptops are ok, but electronics are not?
The sentence makes sense once you read it a couple of times, but maybe it would have been clearer like this (with all due respect to Mr. Toy): "Low power devices like battery chargers and laptops are not a problem in terms of power. In any case, for electronics a surge protector is highly recommended."
Chucky, what are the power requirements of this pad?
Geoff M.
Posted by hehcooh (Member # 3694) on :
During our recent travels on the SWC my wife used a hair dryer in the "razors only" outlet to dry her and our daughter's hair after showers. No fuses were blown. I also used it with a power strip to recharge 4 AA batteries, a laptop computer and a cell phone.
Posted by SouthernServesTheSouth (Member # 2284) on :
We just returned from Portland via EB in one of the refurbished Superliner I’s and there is a duplex receptacle by the mirror over the sink that didn’t have any appliance restriction. The receptacle over the sofa did have a “Shavers Only” warning.
My wife and I both used a hairdryer in the receptacle beside the mirror and we had no power trouble at all.
Posted by mary_228 (Member # 3826) on :
We're thinking of bringing a portable DVD player for the kids could enjoy in the sleeping compartments on the Zephyr and the Coast Starlight. Does anyone know if there be outlets appropriate for this type of use?
Posted by goldcupmom (Member # 3761) on :
We've used the sleeper outlets to run an Xbox and the screen, hairdryers, curling irons, computers, portable DVD, cell charger, nebulizer for asthma, last trip the lady across ran her oxygen/breathing apparatus, but we always take a power strip/surge protector, and we only run 1 thing at a time, with the exception of the xbox which runs the unit and screen off separate power.