Viewliner II Delivery/Production

Also above, someone notes that the doors rattle. This drives me nuts. I usually jam a coathanger in the door track and it helps. This makes me thing a $0.25 bowed piece of metal acting like a leaf spring, mounted inside the door track, would keep the door pushed against the other side of the track and stop it from rattle. Or a couple pieces of sacrificial plastic, again less than $1, that are changed out 1x/year. If they weren't screwed in, perhaps work rules wouldn't prohibit a car attendant from swapping them out.

So back to the production of the new Diners specifically, how many more are yet to be delivered? I would think they'd have a couple more ready to go later this month given the typical pace?

I believe what, 12 or 13 have been delivered, that leaves 12 or 11 (plus Albany which was returned) left to go.

In about 2-3 months Amtrak will have MORE diners than it currently needs.

Mr. Moore, there are reports that #16-17, Madison and Montgomery, are en-route. There are four, namely 00,09,10,11, that were "run-around" during the numerical delivery process and for reasons not fully explained. Therefore in addition to the seven, #18-24 incl, numerically remaining, there are the four noted, or a total of eleven.

By the time "Mad and Monty" are accepted, resulting in fourteen (plus 8400) on the property and available, that should be sufficient to equip 48-49, Lake Shore Ltd, which Amtrak is as good as on record they will do.

The "big question" remaining will be if 50-51, Cardinal (two cars), and 91-92, Silver Star (four cars), will be re-equipped. If done, that would leave one car each for "protect" at Chicago, Sunnyside, New Orleans, and two for Hialeah and shops.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:The "big question" remaining will be if 50-51, Cardinal (two cars), and 91-92, Silver Star (four cars), will be re-equipped. If done, that would leave one car each for "protect" at Chicago, Sunnyside, New Orleans, and two for Hialeah and shops.

Honestly, I can't see them doing either. They are trying so hard to contain costs and the above options would potentially involve $10,000,000 or more in losses. Which then begs the question ... What would Amtrak do with six extra diners? I have to wonder if the answer might be on the Northeast Corridor. It would certainly be an interesting service improvement for some of the Northeast Regionals.

They will keep them for wreck spares with the way things are going.

ApproachMedium wrote:They will keep them for wreck spares with the way things are going.

I had the same thought - I certainly hope that Amtrak can successfully address what has become both a PR crisis and seemingly an actual safety crisis, but unless we start seriously investing in modernizing passenger rail infrastructure I don't see any reason to expect the future attrition rate to differ much from the historical rate, so Amtrak does need to budget equipment accordingly.

gokeefe wrote:What would Amtrak do with six extra diners? I have to wonder if the answer might be on the Northeast Corridor. It would certainly be an interesting service improvement for some of the Northeastern Regionals.

Mr. O'Keefe, hard to believe for someone I don't think was there for A-Day (anyone "who was there" is now at least 60), but full-service Dining on local NEC trains is a "been there done that". Pull out some timetables from "the beginning" and you'll see the references to such.

With the "over order" of Diners (those should have been pared down to fifteen resulting in ten additional Sleepers), Amtrak is in their oft "between the rock and the hard place". It is encouraging that removal of Diners and only offering Snack Bar fare for purchase has resulted in cost savings without a like reduction in revenue.

But the "Micascope" is still in storage on the Hill, and could well end up a stage prop in a charade titled "put back Dining Cars and start losing again" or "you ordered those cars so put 'em to use".

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Airlines are fast removing IFE gear from at least their domestic fleets, such as 739's and A32's. The rationale is that "everybody has an electronic device" so just offer IFE to connect with such.

Many are. Delta, for one, is not. They have declined to add AV to planes that are slated for retirement shortly. Point is, though, that it's not universal. Someone commented of on-board entertainment that these systems might get beat up quite a bit more on rough track than systems on planes do. Don't know.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:

gokeefe wrote:What would Amtrak do with six extra diners? I have to wonder if the answer might be on the Northeast Corridor. It would certainly be an interesting service improvement for some of the Northeastern Regionals.

Mr. O'Keefe, hard to believe for someone I don't think was there for A-Day (anyone "who was there" is now at least 60), but full-service Dining on local NEC trains is a "been there done that". Pull out some timetables from "the beginning" and you'll see the references to such.

With the "over order" of Diners (those should have been pared down to fifteen resulting in ten additional Sleepers), Amtrak is in their oft "between the rock and the hard place". It is encouraging that removal of Diners and only offering Snack Bar fare for purchase has resulted in cost savings without a like reduction in revenue.

But the "Micascope" is still in storage on the Hill, and could well end up a stage prop in a charade titled "put back Dining Cars and start losing again" or "you ordered those cars so put 'em to use".

Solution: offer cafe fare or a Diner Lite menu from a Diner, rather than the full menu. No big deal, as long as there’s a space to use as a walk up counter.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:

gokeefe wrote:What would Amtrak do with six extra diners? I have to wonder if the answer might be on the Northeast Corridor. It would certainly be an interesting service improvement for some of the Northeastern Regionals.

Mr. O'Keefe, hard to believe for someone I don't think was there for A-Day (anyone "who was there" is now at least 60), but full-service Dining on local NEC trains is a "been there done that". Pull out some timetables from "the beginning" and you'll see the references to such.

With the "over order" of Diners (those should have been pared down to fifteen resulting in ten additional Sleepers), Amtrak is in their oft "between the rock and the hard place". It is encouraging that removal of Diners and only offering Snack Bar fare for purchase has resulted in cost savings without a like reduction in revenue.

Mr. Norman,

You are correct indeed that I was "not of this Earth" on 5/1/71. Thankfully some things, like Penn Central (!), that were around at that time have long since departed. Sadly, as we always remember, the Milwaukee Road didn't make it.

On the other hand the level of ridership on Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor has grown substantially. For trains serving the peak morning and midday crowds I think there could be a real opportunity.

In my opinion side lining brand new rolling stock could draw unwanted attention as well.

It only draws unwanted attention if people know about it. Nobody had a clue that NJ Transit had all of those ALP45s sidelined after they were accepted until NJT got wrecked in sandy, and half of the stuff that was damaged was brand new 11 million dollar engines that had not turned a wheel in revenue service after being accepted for almost a year.

Mr. Approach, off topic but as a corollary to your immediate, during 1977-78, NJT had a multitude of Arrow cars sitting at Manhattan Transfer (or thereabouts) for anyone riding from Newark to Penn see and wonder "why are they just sitting there when we ride in this junk?".

They were for use on the re-electrified DL&W lines - a project that, guess what, was behind schedule.

To close back on Amtrak, how about the seventeen 370XX Diner Lounges rebuilt from 380XX Diners @ $1M ea, that "the Micascope" compelled upon Amtrak? Only six (21-22 Eagle and 58-59 City; total six cars) have regular assignments. The remaining eleven? "spares and protects".

Gilbert B Norman wrote:To close back on Amtrak, how about the seventeen 370XX Diner Lounges rebuilt from 380XX Diners @ $1M ea, that "the Micascope" compelled upon Amtrak? Only six (21-22 Eagle and 58-59 City; total six cars) have regular assignments. The remaining eleven? "spares and protects".

Sounds like replacements for the Pacific Parlour to me. (I know that isn’t happening, and that they aren’t Sightseers, but it’s be a worthy use.)

The Arrow cars that werent being used yet NJT leased off to MARC and other services, i think some went to philly. They were maintaining them down in Wilmington DE for a while. Not all of the cars went, but yes you had a pile of shiney new stuff for the people to look at from their crappy steam heated (if you were lucky) non air conditioned Jersey Builders or penn central leftovers.