Amtrak Train
The following pictures show my sleeping accommodations and a few other aspects of the train. I intended to take more pictures of the train interior, but I forgot.
One hilarious picture I wanted to take was of one type of toilet on the train. All toilets on the train have a pushbutton nearby with the label "Flush". However, one toilet model had three or four indicator lights, like: (1) "Toilet Ready"; (2) "Flush in Progress"; (3) "Toilet Malfunction : Do Not Use". Somehow the abstract idea of "Toilet Malfunction", and imagining a command center filled with anxious people watching video screens amid flashing red lights and buzzer sounds, wondering if it's time to call the President, is hilarious to me. I imagine the person using the toilet, pressing the "Flush" button, and after a moment of intense spraying and vacuum sounds the whole bathroom is flooded with deep red emergency lights and urgent buzzers and a no-nonsense female computer voice that says, "Toilet Malfunction... Initiating Destruct Sequence."
I got the "Standard" sleeping accommodations, which amounts to my own room with two chairs that both recline and merge in to a totally horizontal bed surface, and a bunk bed that drops down from the ceiling.
Here are some brief tips for train travel: (1) If your trip is 24 hours in duration or more, get sleeping accommodations (if you can afford them); (2) Wear earplugs while sleeping, and maybe even take a sleeping tablet, if you know you're a light sleeper. I nearly went insane on the train trips between Chicago and New York City due to my inability to sleep in a chair in "Coach". Also, even with sleeping accommodations, trains passing at high speed in the middle of the night can make sudden, loud bursts of noise that can disturb sleep.
