I just arrived on the Hiawatha from Milwaukee and on the next track were parked 7-8 beautiful stainless cars, so I just gaped as I walked along The cars were beautiful -polished within an inch of their lives. I saw a diner with little lamps on the tables, at least one sleeper, what might have been a lounge car with a rear platform. The cars were all labeled BNSF and several had names like Mountain View and Lake Superior. I asked an Amtrak attendant at the door into the station and she said it had been there all week. State senators I think she said. She told me she would have liked to see the interior, but had not been allowed to do so. For me, it was a treat just to walk along the platform & admire them.
Also saw what I think is a new sign at the Milwaukee Airport station (MKA) forbidding recording devices on the premises I never noticed that before.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Those are BNSF business cars; maybe Mr. Buffett was treating his board of directors and big stockholders to a train ride. Lake Superior is an ex-Northern Pacific diner, Budd-built in 1958; Mountain View is an ex-Great Northern club/lounge.
Wonder how much BNSF stock I would have to buy in order to score a ride in them.
Posted by Judy McFarland (Member # 4435) on :
Thanks for the insight Henry. I think it would take more $$$ than I have to score a ride! And another thing, I noticed: some of those beautiful long wooden benches are back in Great Hall, the waiting room that isn't. I haven't seen those in years, and I suspect they might have been hauled out for National Train Day. I doubt that the NATO bigwigs were waiting for trains last week.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Those cars Ms. McFarland observed were handled on #4(20), which as noted by Mr. Kisor, are part of the BNSF Executrain fleet.
I was not able to get the best of views as I was walking to town with a neighbor and "we were chattin'". She knows I was once in the industry and her husband was once with CSX.
Posted by Train Granny (Member # 30118) on :
Wow! Sounds like a treat just to look at the outsides of these cars! I wonder how they compare to the restored cars I got to peek into while in LA on the 14th?