NEC Mail Trains

Hello forum. Im looking for information on Amtraks mail trains on the Northeast Corridor. Particuraly between Washington DC and Philadelphia. Could someone post the times that it runs and the train symbols? The reason is im looking is that im looking to make some prototypical activities for the NEC in MSTS and would like to have accurate times. Thanks.

I was under the impression that the pair of dedicated mail trains on the NEC had been discontinued sometime in early 2003.

Hopefully someone in the know can comment further. I am not able at present to say for certain when they got the axe.

Franklin Gowen wrote:I was under the impression that the pair of dedicated mail trains on the NEC had been discontinued sometime in early 2003.

Hopefully someone in the know can comment further. I am not able at present to say for certain when they got the axe.

I had read the same thing, that they were discontinued in February last year (IIRC) when the 1400 and 1500 MHCs were embargoed and withdrawn from service.

Alright well im going to scrap that idea for an activity...plus i tried to do it and it was not working. But thanks for telling me it was discontinued.

Last time I saw one pass Metuchen: May 27th 2003....

I concur with earlier posters - Amtrak's mail trains between WAS and SPG were discontinued about a year ago. If you look in back issues of Railpace magazine, you will find some photos of these mail trains. It seems the usual consist was an AEM-7 motor with 6 or 8 MHCs (1400 and 1500 series) and a rider (Conductor and non-revenue deadheading employees) coach.

I had the pleasure of riding one of the mail trains (mail 10 or mail 12?) from PHL to NYP on a Sunday night in late OCT 2002, as part of a move of three private cars from PHL to NYP. A smooth ride with some 110 MPH running, especially on those long sections of straight track in New Jersey. We left PHL a little before 10 PM and were in Pennsylvania Station by 11 PM!

Did the mails trains ever run with a single Amfleet revenue coach?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that savvy NEC passengers who were aware of the unadvertised train's existence (and departure time) could actually travel on #12 between Philly and New York.

train 12 was advertised in the public timetabl. It was 13 that was not. back the train first started running the public could ride. I hired out in 1993 and when I did it was employees only. The coach was used for the conductor to ride in. The last years were real bad. Management decide to use a heritage coach and it had no heat or working bathroom.Later on they took about all the seats out of the car and the deadhead employees had to sit on the floor. (I laid in the baggage rack.)

Yes, I did notice an Amfleet at the end....

East Cleveland,

The northbound mail train (Amtrak # 12 ?) that was listed in the public timetables carried at least one Amfleet I coach for revenue passengers. I don't have my old timetables handy, but I think it was about a 3:00 AM northbound departure from WAS.

Train 12 was turned into Train 190, the early Morning NEC train with 2-4 MHC's that were cut off in New Haven to go to Springfield. I rode that once that it was a very interesting consist as the inland train was a shuttle. The shuttle would back onto the MHC's left by 190 and then proceed as 490 with a Metroliner Cab, Amfleet, P40, MHC, MHC, MHC.

Here's a photo

A somewhat disconcerting picture (I guess it wouldn't be quite so disconcerting if the cab car was in the foreground), but nice! Thanks for the post, Jersey Mike!

If i'm not mistaken, I see this train (or one like it) heading westbound (track 3) each day right before my train (NJT 3706) cuts over to track 1 @ Jersey Avenue.

Why did Amtrak get out of the mail business? I know in Philly, USPS moved their hub from 30th Street to Eastwick. That seems like a huge disadvantage for the postal service in that all mail now has to go by truck.

While we gave up mail and roadrailer service sometime ago we still run two expresstrak trains from phl-was with a consist of one p-42 and two expresstrak cars.