Heritage Equipment

andre wrote:there is one still parked outside penn station, grabbed a shot of it yesterday during the PM rush hour

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5 ... 0479840876

Yes, that appears in the NY Penn/Sunnyside area from time to time as a MOW car. Occasionally I'll spot either the same car, or another, near the Amtrak New Brunswick MOW Yard. So there are still a couple of these coaches around for Amtrak MOW use only. At one time you could still see the "Adirondack logo" or the "Ethan Allen Express logo" on the cars. Remember that there were two sets operating with these cars on the Adirondack, and some operating on the Ethan Allen Express. So there were a "few" around when in operation and overhauled for these particular services in the late 1990s. I loved these cars on the Adirondack and Ethan Allen Express route, largely due to the large windows (for viewing scenery and getting natural light in) as well as comfortability (the had Superliner II coach chairs installed in them as I recall).

Very nice pic, thats a nice spot you have.

Jers2709 wrote:Very nice pic, thats a nice spot you have.

Thanks, the spot is on 9th ave and 33rd street, during the pm rushhour you see a little bit of everything from LIRR MU's and DM30/C3 sets, NJT MU's and multilevels or comets, Amtrak empire trains, acela, regionals and keystones,


also the coach did still have its "adirondack" logo on it, hard to see in the picture, also wasnt a clocker coach converted to a catenary car with a pantograph installed on the roof

There's an Amfleet coach - "Corridor Clipper" - that is used for inspections that has a pantograph installed on the roof. Not sure if this was a former Metroliner (EMU) coach or not. May just be a regular Amfleet coach car.

jp1822 wrote:There's an Amfleet coach - "Corridor Clipper" - that is used for inspections that has a pantograph installed on the roof. Not sure if this was a former Metroliner (EMU) coach or not. May just be a regular Amfleet coach car.

that particular coach corridor clipper is a converted Amfleet I just like beech grove 10001 is

but the one im speaking of is a heritage car with a pan on top and is usually seen with wiretrain eqiupment on the corridor in nj

Thanks for the history on the "Congo" cars. When I first moved to the Philadelphia area in 1987, my wife commuted on "Clocker" trains from Trenton to NYP. The only bad thing about the cars was that, of course, they didn't have trainlined doors. Otherwise, an excellent ride.

In the aftermath of Weenie Warrington's departure from Amtrak (praise the day!), the Amfleet continued to dwindle. When I started commuting PHL to WAS in 2006, there were times when my usual morning train (111) had only five cars! On one epic February morning, two of the five were without heat! Meanwhile, when we passed Wilmington shop we could see dozens of Amfleets stored on the "back tracks". Thank God the Warrington era is over. "Glide path to self-sufficiency", indeed! Glide path to bankruptcy was more like it.

Corridor consists are now usual eight or even nine cars, and there is actually space for everyone to sit (other than on the floor).

There are 10 Clocker coaches listed in rosters as having been ex-ATSF.

What trains did the Santa Fe run them on?

It looks like Amtrak will have an additional Heritage unit for the fleet. SW1000R 794 was spotted outside Delaware Car Co. on 6/12 in Washington Terminal blue paint and lettering. Sorry, no picture.

Without a picture it didn't happen!

Hopefully a lot cleaner then when that pic was taken!

I suspect that Amtrak is so dead-set on promoting its own heritage and identity that it would never do this, and freight railroads might not want to license their intellectual property to Amtrak, but:

Wouldn't it be neat if Amtrak had heritage locomotives like freight railroads do, painted in liveries of Amtrak's predecessors?

For example, the Lake Shore Limited could be led by a locomotive in NY Central paint, the Crescent could be led by a locomotive in Southern Railway paint; and an Acela Express could be in Penn Central livery?

I don't think it would ever happen, but it would be neat if it did.

Well...you've got the Heritage-paint Gennie roaming out there for a few years now, so that already is happening. Keep in mind we're only 4 years away from AMTK's 50th anniversary, so the opportunity to throw a real paint-party extravaganza is coming pretty soon.

Is it a new addition to the fleet? Amtrak has owned 10 SW1000R switchers since 1994.

SW1000R #790-799
Type: EMD SW1000R Diesel
Built: EMD 1950 (790 to 794, 796 to 799 as SW9, 795 as SW1200)
Rebuilt: National Railway Equipment 1994 as SW1000R
Engine: 1,000 hp Diesel
Transmission: Electric
Acquired by Amtrak 1994 from MKT, INS, SOO, PLE and B+O. Briefly numbered as 700 to 709 then renumbered to 790 to 799.

790 G SU CHI Chicago IL, stored
791 G SU CHI Chicago IL, stored
792 G SW WAS Washington DC
793 G SW WAS Washington DC
794 G SU OAK Oakland CA, stored
795 G SU LAX Los Angeles CA, stored
796 G SW WAS Washington DC
797 G SW WAS Washington DC
798 G SW WAS Washington DC
799 G SW WAS Washington DC

It does appear that 794 is no longer stored in Oakland and has been recently refurbished and returned to the active fleet. But I wouldn't call that a "new" addition to the fleet.