RAILforum: Southwest Chief Consist

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Posted by rustach (Member # 1222) on :

What's the usual consist of the Southwest Chief from LA during both low volume and high volume periods? (i.e. locomotives, passenger cars, express cars, RoadRailers, etc.)

Posted by Eric (Member # 674) on :

The usual consist during off-peak season is:
4 Genesis locomotives
1 Baggage car
1 Transition Sleeper
2 Sleepers
1 Sightseer Lounge
1 Dining car
2 Coaches
Anywhere from 1-4 ExpressTrak, 10-15 RoadRailer, 5-10 Material Handling (60' & High Cube).
During summer months, the Chief usually has 3 or 4 coaches, and 3 sleepers. Once in a while they add on a fifth Genesis to help the train over Raton and Glorieta Passes.

[This message has been edited by Eric (edited 03-01-2002).]

Posted by cajon (Member # 40) on :

4 locos
1 baggage
1 transition sleeper (dorm)
2-3 sleepers
1 diner
1 lounge
3-4 coaches
20 +or- boxes,reefers & roadrailers
No. of sleepers & coaches depends on seasonal demands. There are times when placement of sleepers & coachs are reversed. There has even been a sleeper on the rear of #4 that was being cut off 2/b added directly to an EB train.

Posted by Southwest Chief (Member # 1227) on :

Has the Chief gone back to putting the sleepers up front again? I have always hated trips when the sleepers were up front. Sure you don't feel the pulling and tugging of the express and road railers as much, but the loco noise is considerably more noticable. And (I wonder if any one else has noticed this) but you can really smell a lot of diesel exhaust the closer you get to the locomotives. The last trip I took on the Chief was back in November. East bound the sleepers were on the rear. West bound they were up front, and I guessed this was because there wasn't enough time in Chicago to wye the consist. On one trip (I boarded at Fullerton) the west bound Chief was so late into LA that there wasn't enough time to clean and prep it for its east bound journey. So Amtrak used the Sunset Limited consist, which has been done many times before. When I went to check my bags the station agent informed me that the sleepers would be up front as opposed to the normal rearward position, because the Limited has its sleepers up front. So is the Chief now using an up front sleeper consist?

Posted by Eric (Member # 674) on :

"Has the Chief gone back to putting the sleepers up front again?"
The latest trip I took on the Chief (Feb. 9 & 10), the coaches were on the end (ahead of the mail & express), and the sleepers were at the front. I'll keep an eye out and see if this is consistent...

Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :

Both times (All four times if you count each direction) that I took the Southwest Chief there were sleepers on the front, and one sleeper at the back. I asked employees why they were seperated and nobody seemed to know. I thought that maybe the last sleeper would be dropped off somewhere in route, but it was there all the way to Chicago from the time I boarded in Flagstaff.

I actually like to hear the engines. I like to be able to hear the horns blowing.

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Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale)
www.geocities.com/evrr

Posted by Southwest Chief (Member # 1227) on :

I'll have to agree with Konstantin that Amtrak's horns are great to listen to. Kind of soothing. Since my first trip on the Southwest Chief in 1984 to my most recent, November 2001, my experience has been that up to 1998, all of my trips had the sleepers at the rear. After 1998, it seems that Amtrak switched the positions now and then. But untill recently, the Chief would normally have the sleepers at the rear. I just saw the Chief (running late) a few days ago near Fullerton and the sleepers were up front. I guess this is now the normal setup. Another interesting note, the Desert Wind had its sleeping car up front on all of my trips on that train.

SRC="http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~colemanc/Bin/Sounds/Diesel/amt_290a.wav"autostart=true loop=1 hidden=true>

Posted by rms492 (Member # 78) on :

the other day I was in fullerton and happened to see the westbound chief, it was "ugly" looking. All those mhc's and express cars at the back just looks damn ugly, sorry. Whatever happened to the days when the chief had 3 or 4 mhc's at the front?
and no "freight" cars at the rear?
but I guess if it's needed to keep the chief alive, fine, but put them in front, may look nicer.

Posted by Eric (Member # 674) on :

I don't believe that RoadRailers could be put at the front of the train due to their trucks, but express and MHC's could. However, if cars needed to be taken off and/or put on at various station stops, this might create a hassle.

Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :

On my Christmas-New Years trip, the consist was as stated: 4 locomotives, baggage (this time a true baggage, not a converted Budd coach), transition, 2 sleepers, diner, lounge, 3 coaches, and a bunch of express boxcars, express reefers, and road-railers.

The sleepers were forward in the consist both WB and EB.

If a mixed train is switched by the line haul locomotives, it makes more sense to place the freight forward.

This is not the case with Amtrak. Both the CZ and the Grand Canyon (BNSF really does need to yank that Chief trademark name away once and for all, imho) have switch crews at the various stations where they work the freight.

Remember, mail and express is freight that has a super-premium (read first class) tariff.

John

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The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations

Posted by JAChooChoo (Member # 723) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Konstantin:
Both times (All four times if you count each direction) that I took the Southwest Chief there were sleepers on the front, and one sleeper at the back. I asked employees why they were seperated and nobody seemed to know.

The "rear" sleeper is the Transition Crew Sleeper (or sometimes a regular Sleeper substituting)

Posted by sfcajon (Member # 1451) on :

The "rear" sleeper in that case was just that. It was cut off in CHI & added to a train going east of CHI. The transition sleeper (crew dorm) car is always right behind the baggage car so the conductors can do baggage at stations where required. It has an end door on same level as baggage car to allow this.

Posted by yummykaz (Member # 475) on :

The Sunset I was on last week, was set up weird. The usual way to the diner/ lounge sent me into the staff car. Whew! It smelled so bad in there, I felt sorry for the employees!

Posted by jst3751 (Member # 1454) on :

A big reason why the express and MHC are not up front is the need for head end power.

Why would you want to worry about wiring up and connecting x amount of Express and MHC cars for head end power when you can just take them on the rear end?

Posted by Steve4031 (Member # 1517) on :

I'll be riding the Chief In April. Will provide update if there is a change in the lcoation of the sleepers. The best location is on the rear, so that you can see the train go around the curves in the mountains. Even better, if there were no roadrailers, I could stand in watch the tracks.

Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :

I had forgotten that many (not all, though) of Amtrak's express cars only had an air line, not a power train line...

John

quote:
Originally posted by jst3751:
A big reason why the express and MHC are not up front is the need for head end power.
Why would you want to worry about wiring up and connecting x amount of Express and MHC cars for head end power when you can just take them on the rear end?

Posted by PullmanCo (Member # 1138) on :

Have fun riding the Grand Canyon... It ain't the Super, it ain't the Chief, heck, it aint' the California Limited!!!

John

quote:
Originally posted by Steve4031:
I'll be riding the Chief In April. Will provide update if there is a change in the lcoation of the sleepers. The best location is on the rear, so that you can see the train go around the curves in the mountains. Even better, if there were no roadrailers, I could stand in watch the tracks.

------------------
The City of Saint Louis (UP, 1967) is still my standard for passenger operations

Posted by Steve4031 (Member # 1517) on :

Hey,
Will do. I grew up with Amtrak. My favorite train would be VIA's Canadian. That's the closest to 1950's greatness that I'll ever get.
Steve