One Morning in Jackson, Michigan

It is a pleasant June 28, 1997, summer morning in Jackson, Michigan. I’ve drive here to spend a day catching Amtrak trains. From here I would drive to Battle Creek to catch the International in both directions on its Chicago-Toronto trek and end the day getting trains in Ann Arbor.

At the time, trains in the Chicago-Detroit (Pontiac) corridor were powered by P32-8 locomotives built by General Electric. The units were pointed east, which meant they pulled eastbounds and pushed westbounds.

Facing west was a cab car, either a former F40PH that had been rebuilt into a non-powered control unit, or a former Metroliner car serving as a cab car.

Amtrak owned 20 P32-8 units that it received in December 1991. They wore a stylized Phase III livery that was unique to these locomotives. It wasn’t long before railfans began calling them “Pepsi cans” because of the resemblance of the livery to a beverage can design of the time.

It also was a time when trains between Chicago and Detroit had individual names of Wolverine, Lake Cities and Twilight Limited.

In the top image No. 504 is pushing the Lake Cities out of Jackson toward Chicago. In the bottom image, No. 513 is pulling the Wolverine into the station.

Notice the mismatched style of the number boards above the front windshields.

Although P32s saw service on long-distance trains, they were most commonly used in corridor service. The “Pepsi can” look lasted a few years but eventually gave way to Phase IV.

The special Phase III livery used on the P32s was revived this year when a P42DC No. 160 was repainted in that livery.

Early Morning in Perry, Ohio

Amtrak Phase III heritage unit No. 145 has been operating on the Lake Shore Limited between Chicago and Boston in recent weeks.

On many of those trips it was the lead locomotive. Such was the case on May 31 when it led No. 49 and 449 eastward.

Edward Ribinskas got up early to photograph the train at Perry, Ohio, located east of Cleveland.

No. 49 was running on-time and had on the rear private rail car Promontory Point.

Meeting of the F40 Cabbage Society

I was in Sturtevent, Wisconsin, at the former Milwaukee Road station, which Amtrak still used back in 2006. By chance a pair of Hiawatha Service trains arrived at just about the same time.

That wasn’t planned. The schedule was for one of them to arrive slightly ahead of the other. That one of them was late was fine with me because it meant that I could photograph them having a meet.

As was the practice back in 2006, the southward facing “motive power” was a pair of F40 cabbage cars. The term comes from the fact that these units were built from former F40PH locomotives that had had their prime movers removed and replaced with a baggage compartment.

Sturtevent did not have an Amtrak agent so no checked baggage was handled there on this day.

In Amtrak lingo, these are non-powered control units or NPCUs. To me, they looked very much like the F40s they used to be.

For many trackside observers of Amtrak — myself included — the F40 was the face of Amtrak during our formative years. Sure, I remember E units and SDP40Fs, but the F40 pulled many of the Amtrak trains that I rode and photographed for more years than I rode behind or captured the motive power that preceded them.

There remain a number of these former F40s in service and some have been repainted into Amtrak’s current Phase V livery.

But I most often associate F40s with Phase III, which these units in Sturtevent are still proudly wearing.