Early Morning Lake Shore Limited

I’m standing on the bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 5 over the CSX Erie West Subdivision tracks west of Lake City, Pennsylvania, on April 27, 2008

Amtrak’s eastbound Lake Shore Limited is making good time as it heads toward its next station stop of Erie, Pennsylvania.

It is early morning and the rising sun is creating strong back lighting that mutes the colors, but provides a nice glint on the side of the passenger cars.

It is the type of image that when I made it I didn’t like how it turned out. Years later I decided to scan the slide to see what I could do with it.

Upon further review I decided that I liked the glint because it nicely draw out the profiles of the different generations of passenger cars on Train 48.

There are two Heritage fleet members, a baggage car and dining car, three Viewliner sleepers and a string of Amfleet coaches and a food service car.

The differences in how those cars were designed and constructed show up well here even if the image is not all that colorful. It almost appears to be a hybrid with elements of black and white and color photography.

Lake Shore Limited and Fall Foliage

It’s fall foliage season in the Midwest and I venture up to Goshen, Indiana, to catch the westbound Lake Shore Limited passing a colorful stand next to Oakridge Cemetery. No. 49 was running a little behind schedule as it came charging westward on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.

Amtrak’s Venture Fleet is Coming Back

The last I knew, the new Venture passengers cars built by Siemens for corridor services in the Midwest and on the West Coast had been sidelined due to various mechanical issues.

The cars had begun revenue service in February in the Chicago-St. Louis corridor, but that assignment proved to be brief.

It didn’t take long to discover that some tray table magnets were too strong, that trap-door handles were falling off, that bathroom doors were malfunctioning, and that sliding step extenders were getting jammed with snow.

But last Sunday in Porter, Indiana, I saw evidence that these issues apparently have been resolved and the Venture coaches are back in service.

Shown is above is a three-car Chicago-bound Pere Marquette, which originated in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The consist includes two Venture coaches and an Amfleet food service car. Eventually Venture cafe cars with a business class section are expected to join the fleet.

The train shown above is entering the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern from the CSX Grands Rapids Subdivision. On the point is an SC-44 Charger locomotive, also built by Siemens.

The Chargers are now the standard motive power for Midwest corridor trains. Note how the Venture coaches have a higher profile than Amfleet equipment.

One More Day to Go

It is Feb. 8, 2003, in Alliance, Ohio. The eastbound Pennsylvanian has arrived early and I have time to get off and make several photographs. Later tonight Train 44 will depart Chicago for Philadelphia for the last time. The next day, a Monday, the Pennsylvanian, will revert to operating between New York and Pittsburgh.

I had boarded No. 44 in Cleveland for a trip to Pittsburgh where I’ll be boarding the last No. 43 to operate west of Pittsburgh.

Amtrak continues to stop in Alliance, but it is during the middle of the night. The station is served by the Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited.

Just Another Day on the Corridor

Amtrak operates numerous corridor trains but more than likely at Amtrak headquarter there is just one “the corridor” and that would be the Northeast Corridor. It has the highest level of Amtrak service in the country and, some would argue, gets a disproportionate amount of attention from the passenger carrier’s brass. The image above shows a typical NEC train from the 1980s with its AEM-7 locomotive pulling a string of Amfleet cars. It was made on Aug. 9, 1983, in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Night Train in Cleveland

Dawn will be breaking soon in Cleveland as the eastbound Lake Shore Limited makes its station stop not far from the Lake Erie shore. Four Amtrak trains daily serve Cleveland and all of them are scheduled to arrive between 1:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., meaning that boarding and disembarking passengers see only darkness here until their train is delayed. The scheduling is a product of Cleveland being located on the midway point of the routes of the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited.

Now Arriving in Joliet, the Ann Rutledge

It is train time in Joliet, Illinois, on Oct. 3, 1981. Now arriving is the southbound Ann Rutledge bound for Kansas City, Missouri, from Chicago. At the time, this train was the first of the day from Chicago to St. Louis with its St. Louis-Kansas City leg being funded by the State of Missouri.

The consist is typical for an early 1980s Midwest corridor train with its four-car Amfleet consist pulled by an F40PH. One of the cars provided food service.

At the time, Amtrak service between Chicago and St. Louis was three roundtrips, two of which extended beyond St. Louis. Aside from the Ann Rutledge to Kansas City the Eagle operated to San Antonio, Texas, although only three days a week.

The third roundtrip between Chicago and St. Louis train was the State House, which the State of Illinois funded.

Amtrak Sets Deal to Buy New Trainsets

Amtrak will spend billions to buy new trainsets from Siemens Mobility that will replace Amfleet I equipment in the Northeast Corridor and state-supported corridor trains.

How much the deal is worth depends on whose news release you read. Siemens said the deal is worth $3.4 billion while Amtrak put it at $7.3 billion.

The Amtrak news release indicated that the contract also covers parts and service, facilities upgrades and other related expenses. The deal has an option for up to 140 additional trainsets and related maintenance agreements.

Siemens characterized the contract as its largest North American order in its history.

Back in April Amtrak had announced it had chosen Siemens to build replacement equipment for its corridor trains.

Corridor trains expected to get the new equipment include the Adirondack, Carolinian, Amtrak Cascades, Downeaster, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Maple Leaf, Hartford Line and Valley Flyer, Pennsylvanian, Vermonter and Virginia services.

The long-distance Palmetto between New York and Savannah, Georgia, also will receive the new trainsets.

Amtrak said the Siemens order will include dual-power and battery hybrid trains, therefore ending locomotive changes in Washington and New Haven, Connecticut.

Also displaced by the new equipment will be dual-mode locomotives now used on Empire Corridor trains.

The announcement did not say how the order is to be divided between dual-mode and hybrid equipment.

Trains will have individual power outlets and USB ports, onboard WiFi, a digital seat reservation system, and trip information and digital navigation displays.

Cars will have ADA accessible restrooms, vestibules, and food service cars, wheelchair lifts, and inductive hearing loops.

Few other details about the makeup of the trainsets were provided other than saying they will have predictive maintenance technology and real-time digital monitoring

Siemens plans to build the trainsets in Sacramento, California, with the first deliveries being made in 2024. Deliveries will be completed in 2030.

Two Section Cardinal

Amtrak’s Cardinal typically operates with one P42DC locomotive, three Amfleet II coaches, an Amfleet food service car, a Viewliner sleeper and Viewliner baggage-dorm.

But at least once a week it is used to ferry equipment from the Beech Grove shops to Chicago. The equipment being ferried is placed on the head end of No. 51 at Indianapolis Union Station and provides the appearance of two trains having been combined into one.

That was the case on Memorial Day this week when No. 51 passed through Brownsburg, an Indianapolis suburb, with one section consisting of two P42DC locomotives, two Viewliner baggage cars and a Superliner coach. The second section had the consist that No. 51 operated with from Washington to Indianapolis.

The train on this day was operating one hour, 50 minutes late out of Indianapolis.

Equipment bound for Beech Grove is ferried to Indianapolis in combination with Train 50 in the same manner.

2 for Amtrak’s 50th Anniversary

I wanted to get out and photograph Amtrak on its 50th anniversary day last Saturday. I began my quest by setting next to the CSX Monon Subdivision south of Linden, Indiana, to capture the westbound Cardinal.

No. 51 was right on the money about 10 minutes past 5, having made a station stop, in Crawfordsville about 12 minutes earlier. It was about a half-hour after sunrise.

Next I motored over to east central Illinois to get the northbound Saluki, a corridor train funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation that originates in Carbondale and travels to Chicago.

No. 390 is shown above taking a signal at Humboldt, Illinois. It, too, was running on time.

None of the equipment seen in these photographs existed in 1971 and most of it had not been created yet as a concept.

The Amfleet coaches and food service car of the Cardinal come closest because Amfleet equipment was based on the design of the Budd Metroliners of the 1960s. Superliner equipment was inspired by the Hi-Level cars of the Santa Fe.

In 1971 EMD E and F units with a handful of passenger equipped geeps, U boats and SDs were the common motive power. It all wore the markings and liveries of its owners.

The Saluki does not normally operate with Superliner equipment, but has since Amtrak reduced the frequency of most long-distance trains last year to tri-weekly.

Starting May 24 Amtrak plans to begin to restore daily service to most long-distance trains — the Cardinal and Sunset Limited are exceptions — so the Superliners now on the Saluki probably will be replaced with Horizon and Amfleet equipment.

But not for long as Amtrak has begun taking delivery of and testing the new Siemens Venture cars and they are expected to begin revenue service later this year.

The long distance trains are also slated to begin receiving Charger locomotives similar to the SC-44 seen above pullking the Saluki albeit with a difference livery.

With Amtrak things are always changing even if it doesn’t always appear that way at first glance.