Warbonnets in Joliet

In the early years of Amtrak trains hosted by the Santa Fe ran, for the most part, with locomotives and passengers cars of Santa Fe heritage.

The Santa Fe has maintained its passenger fleet well and there was little need to mix in cars that Amtrak acquired from other railroads.

Shown is Santa Fe F7A No. 303 leading a train into Joliet on April 14, 1973.

Although the photographer did not indicate which train this was, we’ll take a look at a consist from December 1972 for Amtrak’s westbound Super Chief/El Capitan.

The train was assigned six Santa Fe F units and had a steam car.

All of the passenger equipment had been built for the Santa Fe. The El Capitan section had a baggage car, baggage-dormitory transition car, five Hi-Level coaches, a Hi-Level lounge car and a Hi-Level dining car.

The Super Chief section featured all single-level equipment that included two 11-bedroom sleepers, one 10-6 sleeper, a 4-4-2 sleeper, a pleasure dome lounge car, and a dining car.

The 11-bedroom sleepers were the Indian Squaw and Indian Maid. The four compartments, four bedrooms and two drawing room sleeper was Regal Vale, and the 10 roomettes and six bedrooms sleeper was Pine Lodge.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Amtrak Says Congress Can Mandate Daily Service

Amtrak has signaled that if Congress wants long-distance trains to operate daily rather than tri-weekly it can make that happen by mandating it and providing funding.

Since last October all of Amtrak’s long-distance routes have operated on tri-weekly or quad-weekly schedules.

At the time those reduced schedules were implemented Amtrak cited steep ridership declines that followed in the wake of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has since said that daily operation of those trains will be restored once they meet certain public health, ridership and future demand criteria.

However, in a statement Amtrak said Congress could override those standards.

“If Congress provides the direction and the needed funding, we would restore long-distance services to daily,” Amtrak said.

Earlier in the week, Amtrak had asked Congress for $1.5 million in emergency pandemic aid, saying that money is needed to recall workers furloughed last year and avoid future furloughs during the balance of the federal fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30.

Amtrak’s subsequent statement was an elaboration of how the passenger carrier would use the money it has requested.

Aside from reducing the frequency of operation of long-distance trains, Amtrak has suspended operations of some state-funded corridor trains as the states funding those trains have reduced how much they are spending on Amtrak service.

In its statement, Amtrak said employees who worked aboard those suspended trains would still be recalled if Amtrak gets the money it requested.

These recalls will be made even if individual states opt not to increase their funding of Amtrak corridor services and thus the trains they once worked aboard remain suspended.

Those recalled workers “could go wherever their seniority allows them; it might not be on an extra board, but they would be recalled and employed,” Amtrak said in the statement.

State of the Amtrak Motive Power Art 1972

For a short period of time in the early 1970s Amtrak operated the Abraham Lincoln and Prairie State between St. Louis and Milwaukee, running through Chicago Union Station.

The trains were pulled by locomotives of The Milwaukee Road and the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, as can be seen in this image made in Joliet, Illinois, on Oct. 13, 1972.

On the point is Milwaukee Road E9A No. 35C. A GM&O unit trails. The photographer believes this train might have been the Abraham Lincoln.

In this era the Milwaukee-St. Louis trains were shown in timetables with multiple numbers, so the northbound Abraham Lincoln would have been Nos. 326-303.

An equipment listing for that train recorded on Dec. 28, 1972, shows it to have had five cars, including coaches of Northern Pacific and Seaboard Coast Line heritage, a former Great Northern dome coach, a Union Pacific dining car and parlor-observation car Port of Seattle. The latter had been built for the Great Northern.

On that day the train had locomotives of GM&O vintage and Union Pacific heritage plus a UP B unit.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Downeaster Detour to Miss Woburn

Track work being performed by the performed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will result in Amtrak Downeaster trains bypasing Woburn, Massachusetts, on Saturdays and Sundays between Jan. 30 and  March 28.

Affected are Trains 690, 692, 694, 698, 691, 693, 695 and 699/1689, which will detour between Boston North Station and Haverhill, Massachusetts.

In a service advisory Amtrak said alternate transportation will not be provided to or from Woburn on the affected dates.

Amtrak Sends Wish List to Congress

Amtrak this week informed Congress of its wish list of legislative priorities.

Perhaps the top items is an additional $1.541 billion of COVID-19 pandemic emergency relief.

In a letter signed by Amtrak CEO William Flynn, the passenger carrier said the money is needed “to sustain and restore operations and recall employees” through Sept. 30 and into the next federal fiscal year.

The letter did not indicate how much money Amtrak believes it needs to restore daily operation to long-distance trains whose frequency of service was cut to tri-weekly last October.

In response to a query from a Trains magazine reporter, Amtrak said that restoration of service on long-distance routes hinges on certain public health, future demand, and current ridership performance metrics compared with pre-pandemic numbers for those trains.

In the letter Flynn said specific requests for funding in federal fiscal year 2022, which begins Oct. 1, will be sent to Congress later.

In the meantime, Amtrak’s legislative priorities are primarily a repeat of past requests that have yet to be approved by lawmakers.

These include establishing an intercity passenger rail trust fund, legislation designed to overcome resistance by host railroads to service expansion and increased frequency of service, legislation that would give Amtrak a right to sue a host railroad that subjects passenger trains to excessive delays due to freight train interference, and funding for new corridor services

The trust fund proposal is not new. The late W. Graham Claytor Jr. sought such a fund back in the 1980s when he was Amtrak’s president, suggesting the intercity passenger carrier be given funding from the Highway Trust Fund.

In his letter, Flynn said Amtrak needs a predictable source of federal funding for the Northeast Corridor and national network so it can pursue large, multi-year projects and service expansions rather than relying on annual appropriations.

Flynn did not specify what tools Amtrak wants to compel host railroads to approve service expansions, but indicated it needs changes in federal law.

The corridor service Amtrak is seeking would require amending Section 209 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act so that Amtrak could pay the initial startup costs and operating expenses of those corridors.

Under existing, law, state and local governments are required to underwrite corridor services.

Although Amtrak has told several states that it wants to front the costs to develop corridors between urban centers, it also has made clear that in time the states served by those trains will be expected to pay for them.

STB Filings Show Areas of Dispute Over CUS

In documents filed with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Amtrak and Chicago commuter railroad Metra have listed areas of disagreement in a dispute over Chicago Union Station.

Amtrak owns the station and has been at loggerheads with Metra over various issues.

The intercity passenger carriers wants the STB to help settle the unresolved 16 issues.

Metra has countered that all of the issues can still be resolved through negotiation.

Among the unresolved issues are dwell time for Metra equipment, for boarding disembarking, and turnaround service.

Amtrak wants those to be limited to 10 minutes during peak period, one hour during weekday off-peak periods, and five hours on weekends and holidays.

Metra has described this as an attempt by Amtrak to “impose arbitrary and unnecessary time restrictions on Metra equipment layovers untethered to a demonstrable Amtrak need.”

The commuter railroad would rather that Metra equipment remain at the station as long as circumstances warrant so long as it does not interfere with Amtrak operations.

In its filing, Amtrak said 10 of the 16 remaining issues should be addressed by the Board.

Metra countered that it is willing to accept Amtrak’s most recent proposed terms in two areas with five areas being addressed by the board.

Both parties want the STB to settle procedures governing Metra schedule changes and increases in service.

Amtrak has said it is willing to cooperate with Metra, “but ultimately, a single party must have final scheduling” authority.

Metra is seeking what it termed “protection from arbitrary changes” and opposes Amtrak serving as the sole arbiter of whether a refusal to accommodate additional Metra trains is reasonable.

Amtrak 50th Anniversary Engine Low Key Affair

When Amtrak celebrated its 40^th anniversary it repainted several locomotives in previous liveries.

Perhaps reflective of it financial issues as a result of plunging ridership and revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is taking a lower key approach to marking its 50^th anniversary.

It has applied marking to P42DC No. 46 commemorating the occasion, but they are nothing more than the slogan “connecting America for 50 years.”

The numeral 50 is oversized on the flanks of the locomotive to the left of the Amtrak herald. Otherwise the locomotive retains its blue and silver Phase VI livery.

No. 46 recently passed through Northeast Ohio leading the Capitol Limited. Reportedly, the unit would have led the train that president-elect Joseph Biden had planned to ride to Washington for his Jan. 20 inauguration.

However, those plans were canceled for security reason. Instead No. 46 left the nation’s capital leading Train 29.

Amtrak does plan to introduce a new locomotive livery that will be applied to its new Siemens ALC-42 locomotives that will be assigned to pull national network trains.

Those locomotives are being built in California and are expected to be delivered in phases through 2024.

Stopping in Waycross

It is early July 1977 and the conductor of Amtrak’s southbound Floridian is preparing to get down as the train makes its station stop in Waycross, Georgia.

A few passengers are waiting on the platform and perhaps a few other will disembark here. Waycross has been off the Amtrak map since the Floridian was discontinued in early October 1979.

I wonder if that is the original station off to the right.

Amtrak Testing New Midwest Cars

New passenger equipment that will be assigned to Amtrak Midwest corridor services began road testing on Monday.

A test train of four Siemens Venture left Chicago with a Charger locomotive on each end and accompanied by former heritage sleeper Pacific Bend.

The test train was to operate to Pontiac, Michigan, over the route of Amtrak’s Wolverine Service on the schedule of Train 350, which has been suspended since last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The test train was going to monitor interaction with crossing starts and the ITCS and I-ETMS positive train control systems at track speeds.

The Amtrak-owned track has a top speed of 110 mph between Porter, Indiana, and Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The test train was expected to return to Chicago on Tuesday morning behind Wolverine Service train 351 to Battle Creek and then follow Blue Water train 365 into Chicago.

BNSF Derailment Delays SW Chief

Amtrak’s Southwest Chief encountered delays on Sunday in Arizona due the derailment of a BNSF intermodal train.

Amtrak said the westbound Chief had halted in Albuquerque due to the derailment near Joseph City, Arizona, 23 miles east of Winslow.

No injuries were reported in the BNSF derailment that sent several double stack well cars off the tracks.

The Amtrak train that was delayed had departed Chicago on Saturday afternoon.

Around noon on Monday Amtrak said on Twitter that Train No. 3 was continuing to hold in Albuquerque until the track ahead could be repaired and reopened.