HEP Cars

Do the talgo trains in washington have diesel generators in the "transistion" cars in case the train needs to be hooked up to a freight loco?

In one called the service car, yes it has a HEP diesel.

Normal Cascade trainset makeup....
one baggage car
two business-class coaches
one lounge/dining car
one Bistro car)
six standard coaches
one service car.

Plus, there's usually one F59PHI locomotive and one (ex F40 locomotive) Cabbage car on either end.

maybe, but i'm specifically looking for the 50' Amtrak HEP cars, the roof details elude me.

BNSF "Stampede Pass" is a sleeper/power car (http://archive.trainpix.com/BN/PASSCAR/BUSINESS/A23.HTM) that we used on a Houston-Tulsa special train for Phillips Chemical Co. back in 1992. In addition to the engine generator sets it had three bedrooms with queen beds and a shower. I had to caution one of our tall general managers who was so happy to have a queen bed and a shower that the bad news was there was only 500 gallons of water on his car and there was no way to refill the tanks all the way to Tulsa.

Also: Back in steam heat days, did the Gs have electric or diesel fired boilers? The Milwaukee used diesel fuel in the Rockies.

tnbirke wrote:BNSF "Stampede Pass" is a sleeper/power car (http://archive.trainpix.com/BN/PASSCAR/BUSINESS/A23.HTM) that we used on a Houston-Tulsa special train for Phillips Chemical Co. back in 1992. In addition to the engine generator sets it had three bedrooms with queen beds and a shower. I had to caution one of our tall general managers who was so happy to have a queen bed and a shower that the bad news was there was only 500 gallons of water on his car and there was no way to refill the tanks all the way to Tulsa.

Also: Back in steam heat days, did the Gs have electric or diesel fired boilers? The Milwaukee used diesel fuel in the Rockies.

I'm pretty sure they were electrically heated.

The Amtrak HEP cars converted from the "shorty" baggage cars retained their regular roofs. The vents were on the scar sides. Somewhere I have a bunch of photos of one that was at Wilmington Shops through the mid 80's. If I find it I will post. I loved those cars. I remember adding a dummy b-unit to the back of my HO passenger trains when I was little and pretended it was one of those cars! I know a company makes the shorty baggage cars in kits for HO....that would be a cool kitbash to do!

early80sNECguy wrote:The Amtrak HEP cars converted from the "shorty" baggage cars retained their regular roofs. The vents were on the scar sides. Somewhere I have a bunch of photos of one that was at Wilmington Shops through the mid 80's. If I find it I will post. I loved those cars. I remember adding a dummy b-unit to the back of my HO passenger trains when I was little and pretended it was one of those cars! I know a company makes the shorty baggage cars in kits for HO....that would be a cool kitbash to do!

I JUST found one of those cars, they are made by Train Station Products, and they don't make them anymore, mostly because they require all sorts of additional "angle" pieces and such to complete, and many of the parts look like someone just cut out a rectangle in a sheet of styrene and then pre-drilled grab iron holes and baggage door holes.

Its not a bad kit, but i think they asked to much for the kit and so no one bought it, hence its discontinuance.

tnbirke wrote:BNSF "Stampede Pass" is a sleeper/power car (http://archive.trainpix.com/BN/PASSCAR/BUSINESS/A23.HTM) that we used on a Houston-Tulsa special train for Phillips Chemical Co. back in 1992. In addition to the engine generator sets it had three bedrooms with queen beds and a shower. I had to caution one of our tall general managers who was so happy to have a queen bed and a shower that the bad news was there was only 500 gallons of water on his car and there was no way to refill the tanks all the way to Tulsa.

Also: Back in steam heat days, did the Gs have electric or diesel fired boilers? The Milwaukee used diesel fuel in the Rockies.

The GG1 used fuel oil to fire the steam heat boiler. There was a fuel and water filler on either side of the car body near the center. It was neat to see them fly by trailing steam from the roof in the winter!

Sometime around 1972-1973, AMTRAK acquired several ex-US ARMY baggage and hospital cars (I believe from the Judge Roy Hofheinz collection). The hospital cars were mostly converted to bistro lounge cars, and operated out of New York (mostly) on the Florida trains, as well as the Broadway Limited and the Montrealer. (Many were purchased for parts inventory.) The baggage cars were operated as such for a short while; then, most were converted to HEP power cars for use with the "new" AMFLEET equipment on the NEC, with GG-1s providing the pulling power south/west of New Haven, and E-8s north/east of New Haven. The car pictured (previously) is one of those US ARMY baggage cars.

John Laubenheimer wrote:Sometime around 1972-1973, AMTRAK acquired several ex-US ARMY baggage and hospital cars (I believe from the Judge Roy Hofheinz collection). The hospital cars were mostly converted to bistro lounge cars, and operated out of New York (mostly) on the Florida trains, as well as the Broadway Limited and the Montrealer. (Many were purchased for parts inventory.) The baggage cars were operated as such for a short while; then, most were converted to HEP power cars for use with the "new" AMFLEET equipment on the NEC, with GG-1s providing the pulling power south/west of New Haven, and E-8s north/east of New Haven. The car pictured (previously) is one of those US ARMY baggage cars.

This is not entirely accurate.

Amtrak acquired former Army troop ambulance/hospital cars and kitchen cars. I believe the source was the US General Service Administration, who had taken title to the equipment from Army/DOD, around the time of the 1974 energy crisis.

The kitchen cars (the short ones) were converted to HEP cars and baggage cars. The troop ambulance/hospital cars were converted to cafe-lounge cars and baggage dormitory cars. At a later time, some of these cafe-lounge cars were rebuilt into full baggage cars. Some of the x-Army cars were placed in company non-revenue service, such as work trains or material storage, with minimal modifications.

Amtrak 614, material storage car, rebuilt from US Army kitchen car. I recall this car was kept at ALB, between the station and the shop.
http://www.nyysa.com/archive/images/1/9/9167-0.jpg

Amtrak 688, HEP car, rebuilt from US Army kitchen car.
http://rr-fallenflags.org/amtk/amtk-p688ags.jpg

Amtrak 1376, baggage car, rebuilt from US Army kitchen car.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=1422911

Amtrak 1402, baggage dormitory car, rebuilt from US Army troop ambulance/hospital car.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=739277

Amtrak 1188, baggage car rebuilt from former cafe-lounge, previously rebuilt from Army troop ambulance/hospital car.
http://www.vistadome.com/trains/amtrak/ ... ge1188.jpg

Amtrak 3404, cafe lounge car, rebuilt from US Army troop ambulance/hospital car.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=1003511

Amtrak 10001, technical training car, rebuilt from US Army troop ambulance/hospital car.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=736901

Amtrak 10400, wheelset transport car, rebuilt from US Army troop ambulance/hospital car.
http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?j ... mtrak2.jpg

So they let these things run through North River Tunnels, PSNY, and East River Tunnels? Aren't diesels (other than P32's that have their engines shut down) not allowed in any of those places today?

GP40 6694 wrote:So they let these things run through North River Tunnels, PSNY, and East River Tunnels? Aren't diesels (other than P32's that have their engines shut down) not allowed in any of those places today?

YES, the diesel generator systems in the HEP cars ran as the trains traveled thru the North (Hudson) River tunnels, Pennsylvania Station and the East River tunnels, keeping the lights, HVAC, cafe ovens/refrigeration and other electric loads working in the Amfleet cars in the consist.