Amtrak engines working on steam excursions?

i dont know alot about amtrak, i am usualy on the Long Island railraod forum and thought to give it a shot here

I have been looking at alot of pictures on Railpictures.net. the ones i see of steam trains all seem to have a amtrak engine behind the steam engine. could someone explain this to me. is it there for if the train brakes down? or for some kind of amtrak rule?
thanks for the help
Nick

Most likely it is to provide Hep (head end power ) to the passenger cars . This is to run the lights etc .

It's also for protect power in case the steam engine has to dump the fire or experiences other problems.

Many railroads require diesels to be part of the consist of steam excursions... (not just Amtrak engines). It used to be that the host railroad would have diesels on standby while the steam excursion was running in case the steam engine developed some sort of failure en route. the last thing the host railroad needs is to have a foamer excursion blocking their railroad from moving freight.

The most famous (infamous?) incident was the 1988 NRHS National Convention "Garden State in '88" series of steam excursions. Coming off the wildly popular/famous 1987 convention in Roanoke that featured many excursions and activities, the Tri-State Chapter tried to outdo them. One of the many many excursions involved the Pennsy K-4 over Horseshoe Curve. For whatever reason, the engine failed during the excursion, blocking the mainline for several hours until relief engines could be dispatched to move the train over the hill. Conrail was not pleased with the tour operators, and this pretty much sealed off Conrail from future steam excursions... and made other wary to hosting future excursions.

-otto-

thanks for the help!

The Tri-State Chapter alienated many NRHS members by cancelling a number of trips and delaying refunds for months. Perhaps some people are still waiting for their refunds.

I was lucky. I booked passage on NKP 765 from Bound Brook to Temple, PA, via the former Reading line, SEPTA West Trenton line, Conrail through North Philly, and the Reading line through Valley Forge and along the Schuylkill River to Temple.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/290 ... bjGqJpQUai

While the 765 was being serviced, the Blue Mountain & Reading (now Reading & Northern) hauled our train to South Hamburg with Reading T1 2102.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/290 ... ZzqEtnJPQQ

The return trip to Bound Brook went via Bethlehem and Phillipsburg. It was a marvelous trip!

The other trip that I booked was 765 to Port Jervis. Another great trip.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/290 ... HqpdujWiWf

So, with all the complaining about the Tri-State fiasco, I experienced two excellent trips. I was lucky!