posted
Three routes have been canceled or “suspended” in the last 10 years on the Amtrak system. Since then, Amtrak seems to be in pretty bad need for cars if everything does not go as planned. Why, after 3 routes being eliminated, does Amtrak not have at least enough cars to have a stable situation, not to mention additional cars on crowded trains, or adding special trains when needed? What I am trying to ask, is what has happened to all the Superliners from 1997, it seems like they have disappeared.
Posts: 1082 | From: Los Angeles, CA. USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I've often wondered the same thing. I think its been due largely to wrecks that have taken a number of Superliners out of service permanently. The rest, thanks to George Warrington, sat at Beach Grove awaiting repairs for years. I don't know how many of those are back in service, but Gunn got a fair number back into shape.
Posts: 2649 | From: California's Monterey Peninsula | Registered: Dec 2000
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posted
It is my understanding that, owing to timekeeping realities, an additional set of equipment has been added for trains 1-2 (offset by "suspension" NOL-ORL) 11-12, 421-422. On the other hand, at other boards, such as Railroad Net, oriented to the Northeast, it is reported that there are 70 some Amfleet I's in storage.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Keep in mind since '96 they have retired around five dozen heritage sleepers, four heritage diners (three wrecked), all the slumbercoaches, all the domes, around a dozen heritage lounges, a dozen baggage dorms, 140 material handling cars, and around 50 baggage cars (sitting around waiting for parts or structural issues). So, in early '94 they were hurting for equipment (after the LSL derailed in Batavia they didn't have enough spare equipment so they ran Superliners for two days). Start off there, then notice the vast majority of the heritage fleet going away, their emphasis shifting to mail and express for nearly a decade, and a nationwide shortage of crucial replacement parts like couplers and trucks. Yes, Viewliners have replaced the heritage 10&6 sleepers only. There is a void created with the discontinuance of the slumbercoach. The 50 Viewliners are enough to cover daily duties with three slots available for maintenance (and the Cardinal using them and 448 and the ex-Federal not) so with two cars down for maintenance there is one spare, maybe. This is why the in-room roomette commodes are being removed. They broke way too often and took too much time to fix. A Gunn-ism involved taking one sleeper (Metropolitan View) out of mothballs because it was being picked to pieces for parts. I was riding the Lakeshore when it took itself out of service. A loud pop, a puff of smoke, and all the electronics died. I suppose that's better than having the thing catch on fire. The heritage diners are still doing the most they can, but keep in mind they're over 50 years old. If all of them were in service (01, 02, 04, 05, 07, 09, 10, 11, 12, 14, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 58) and they're not, that gives you enough for each eastern trainset with five spares. Some remain in phase 3 (11, 14, 21, 54) and three of those haven't been seen in a while, so I assume they're getting stickered. So that makes two spares for cars that are the pickiest of the bunch. I haven't seen 01, 10, 20, and 24 in a long time, so those are questionable. 21 bounces around like a pogo stick and has since it was taken out of mothballs in summer '02. It's tough to pick parts off of surplus or scrap cars that don't exist anymore, and most parts on the heritage fleet aside from wheelsets and brake shoes have to be machined, repaired, or fashioned by hand. Every time I see a heritage diner I'm happy to see it. Amfleet II equipment (the second-youngest single-level equipment) is 23 years old, and as the miles pile up, the retention toilets aren't getting any more reliable and the thermostats are not getting un-stuck. In particular are the lounges, of which they only had 25 to start, minus five wrecked or out of service. Conversion into smoking lounges didn't help since they can't use that area anymore. As soon as they created space like that the standards changed and they can't use it. Now if the diner-lite thing goes forward they'll be the place to go. FDA regulations also change so quickly half the time they can't serve food in them so the cars sit, replaced by a horizon dinette. That leaves the crew dorms; out of 25 of those, three are wrecked, one (Beatrice) burnt itself up, and the rest are like the diners and baggage cars and ex-coach baggage cars, waiting for couplers and trucks and brake cylinders and the like. So, twelve years later, the eastern situation is similar; the Broadway has been discontinued and the Palmetto has no sleepers (did it ever?) and the Colonial/Night Owl/Twilight Shoreliner/Federal/Train67 uses Amfleet equipment. Heritage equipment formerly used on the Adirondack is gone, and the Leaves use Amfleet II coaches now (finally!) Back in February, there was a management/labor/whatever else meltdown at Sunnyside, and surprise surprise, the LSL ran with Superliners again. Amfleet I cars in storage are there because they have been driven hard and put away wet one too many times. This was an attempt to thin out the worst ones to work on the better ones. The Am I coach I rode back in September was pathetic, something like plastic wallpaper covered the ceiling and luggage racks, hastily fastened with wood screws. Horizon cars are still used in the midwest mostly, but some still don't meet newer ADA standards so they can't sub in a long distance train. And to top it all off, that fictitious (and laughable) "glidepath to operational self-sufficiency" involved the elimination of half to a third of their maintenance forces. Be happy that the lounges are stocked, the water is filled, the retention (and treatment) tanks are emptied, the air filters are changed, and those finnicky (especially when exposed to salt) power doors still work. They've been doing more with far, far less for a while now. This summer, the Acelas are back in service, they have enough crew dorms and sleepers to cover everything (barely), and I'm praying they don't have a major wreck. (I do anyway.) Above all, I admire the shop forces when they find a way to send out anything that is safe. The trip reports roll in wondering why your Amfleet coach still has its screaming-seventies technicolor interior (I love the vermillion-orange cafe car paneling!) and why your ever-so-expensive superliner sleeper is neon green and brown inside and the paint on everything painted or stickered prior to 2002 is peeling off ("Oachclass") remember that it runs. It's been a few years since they've had any lounge car wheelsets take an unplanned excursion off into the woods, and they want to keep it that way. Over the past two years, one of each type of Viewliner prototype has been stripped to the steel and worked on for an eventual order of Viewliner IIs, including diners (better than the prototype, don't worry), more sleepers (Cardinal/NEC sleepers, standby equipment), and a coach-dorm car. Mail and express is history, and individual baggage cars are complete and total overkill, as is a half-utilized crew dorm. However, nobody in their right minds have any kind of optomism about where money for that is going to come from. Another Gunn-ism that is sorely missed is an optomistic look on things, despite the underlying politics; I sense morale is back to either free-fall or rock bottom. Did I miss anything?
Posts: 391 | From: Schenectady | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
A great synopsis of Amtrak's equipment dilemma, Mr. 207.
However, for one to whom Sunday 7PM (ET) means its time for 60 Minutes, get me up to speed in a sentence or less, regarding Homer if the reference is applicable to a certain cartoon TV show airing on a network I have little reason to watch once the NFL season is over and done.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
It's from an episode where he gets Lisa the pony she's always wanted, then gets an overnight-shift job at the Kwik-E-Mart to attempt to pay for it. He walks into the family room (the kids don't know about the second job) and says slowly, "Going for... eight hour walk." He exits and you hear a car horn honking, cut to Marge trying to wake him up as he has fallen asleep with his head against the steering wheel in the car. He delivers the line, then pounds on the dashboard to get the airbag to fire and uses it as a pillow.
As for going much further off topic, I don't like football, and their airing of inept commentary disguised as baseball makes me turn the volume down and fire up the radio. TV news is way off my radar screen anyway. With their classic botching of train derailments, I have very little confidence that anything else they broadcast is correct either. I do watch TV; I'm not one of those shoot-your-TV people, but I refuse to waste time with it (despite my habits of the past) so outside of baseball it's boiled down to around an hour a month. As you may be able to tell from the length of my posts, (and the condition of my car and the multitude of models floating around) I'm doing other things with my spare time.
Meanwhile, about equipment, I'll see what I can figure out about Superliners when I ride them (first time in fourteen years) in three weeks. The air spring setup from Chi to St. Louis was downright terrifying at the time, since tempered by repeated rides from Sandusky to Toledo on the LSL. That will keep you up nights.
Posts: 391 | From: Schenectady | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Amtrak207: and the Palmetto has no sleepers (did it ever?)
There was a brief period when the planets were properly aligned.....maybe 1999 or so...... when this train carried a heritage diner and a viewliner sleeper. I did a quick trip one Thanksgiving weekend in either 1999 or 2000 overnight in the roomette from Fayetteville, NC to Winter Haven, FL, laying over 90 minutes, and taking the 'Silver Meteor' back to Fayetteville....roughly 30 hours in transit.
Of course the 'Palmetto' was called the 'Silver Palm' in those days. The 'Palmetto' name (which was first used on the original NYP-SAV day train that started in the 70's) replaced 'Silver Palm' when the diner and sleeper came off.
-------------------- 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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posted
Thanks, not! I remember that now. Maybe they should call it the Palm-ette for now?
Posts: 391 | From: Schenectady | Registered: Jan 2002
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