Amtrak Heritage Diners Thread

[D.Carleton]

Last Tuesday's 92 was laid up on the Nahunta Subdivision due to damage incurred from a passing freight. It's reported the diner's roof was opened like a sardine can. Does anyone know which number car this was?

[Dick H]

From another site Diner #8551

[Noel Weaver]

Last Tuesday's 92 was laid up on the Nahunta Subdivision due to damage incurred from a passing freight. It's reported the diner's roof was opened like a sardine can. Does anyone know which number car this was?

I did see the car number posted someplace but I don't recall just where. The car was taken to Savannah where it was placed
on the rear of train 97 last week Thursday early AM and moved to Hialeah for evulation. It looked damaged but not as bad as I expected although I only saw the west side of the car when the train stopped here in Fort Lauderdale. If I stumble
across the number of this particular car, I will post it here.
Noel Weaver

[SwingMan]

I saw some shots on railroad picture archives.net recently, not as bad as it was made out to be.

[Matt Johnson]

Do you have a link to any photos? I did a search on rrpicturearchives.net and couldn't find any recent photos of 8551.

[DutchRailnut]

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1911990

[Matt Johnson]

Thanks, not as bad as I thought, but bad enough! Wonder if that diner will see service again...

[Ken W2KB]

Thanks, not as bad as I thought, but bad enough! Wonder if that diner will see service again...

The photo in the link kindly posted by Dutch looks like repairs were underway. With proper sealing and attachment of the sheet metal, if so, the car may not have to go to a full shop ahead of its normal interval to return to service?

I will be taking the Star roundtrip from Newark for a business meeting in Tampa next month and will be on the lookout.

[Matt Johnson]

That looks to me like just a crude temporary repair to keep water out before it gets to the shops.

[KV1guy]

Actually...it was worse than that pic shows.....since I was a engineer on that train...and saw it before we set it out. There was insulation as well as sheet metal torn up all along the edges....as well as broken pipeage sticking out too. In that pic those pipes had to have already been cut off to put those patches back on. We were passing a freight train when a plug door fell off a car. The door literally bounced between the 2 trains and damaged the 2nd loco (140) , took the restroom vents off of several Amfleets...before finally hitting the diner. No damage to lead loco, bag, or sleepers. Several cars also had slight window damage...especially the deadhead Amfleet up front.

[Matt Johnson]

I'm glad nobody was hurt! Needless to say, it could've been worse. But what are your thoughts on the diner? Likely to be repaired, or will Amtrak be down a Heritage diner now? (That would be unfortunate, with the operational Heritage diner fleet having just expanded enough for the Lake Shore to get its diner back.) Hopefully that Viewliner diner will be ready before too long...

[jp1822]

I think they should be able to get a repair out of this. Most of the time, it is the inside infrastructure and side damage that is more of a problem for Amtrak to fix. Let's hope this car gets repaired fairly quickly and gets more life. This particular Heritage Diner looks like it had just been in for a rehab at Beech Grove or somewhere!

[Alcochaser]

Looks to be mostly fluting damage, they can pull good fluting off a deadline car.

[Printman2000]

Can you explain what a "plug door" is? Thanks

[DutchRailnut]

A plug dooor is a door that pops out of opening on a Box car then slides away, almost like a simplified square airliner door.