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.
New ticket kiosks are being rolled out by Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor that will eventually be installed throughout its system.
In a news release, Amtrak said the kiosks contain “an updated user interface consistent with other Amtrak digital channels that allows for a minimum-touch experience for the most common in-station transactions.”
Passengers will be able to activate the kiosks by touch, card swipe, barcode scan, or inserting a headset.
The kiosks are 48 inches tall, ADA compliant and eventually will be set up for contactless payment and the sending of tickets to a passenger’s email address.
In time Amtrak said it will install more than 200 of the kiosks at more than 150 stations. They will replace Quick-Trak machines that have been in service for almost two decades.
The southbound Saluki arrives in Effingham, Illinois, on Sept. 12, 2021.
The southbound Saluki arrives in Effingham, Illinois, behind an SC-44 Charger locomotive.
Back in July Amtrak sent me an email warning that my Amtrak Guest Rewards account had been inactive for 24 months and my points would expire in mid September.
The email listed ways to keep my account active including buying an Amtrak ticket or redeeming points for travel or Amtrak-branded merchandise.
I filed all of this in my “to do” mental folder. As September dawned I needed to do something.
My account had 21,000 points, which isn’t enough for a spectacular trip, but I didn’t want to lose those points either.
I thought about using points for a day trip to Chicago on the Cardinal. I also considered making a short trip from Effingham to Mattoon, Illinois, on the Saluki, an Illinois Department of Transportation funded train between Chicago and Carbondale.
The distance between those two towns is 27 miles and the trip takes just 24 minutes. That wouldn’t be much of a train ride.
Instead I decided on something I hadn’t done since 1983.
The equipment for the southbound Saluki lays over in Carbondale for 2 hours, 20 minutes before returning to Chicago as the Illini.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s I had on occasion ridden Train 391 from Mattoon to Carbondale and returned that evening on Train 392. In those days they were named the Shawnee.
Since I was last in Carbondale, the Illinois Central passenger station has been renovated and received an IC equipment display of a GP11 and caboose. I could photograph that.
Amtrak opened a new Carbondale station three blocks south in October 1981. I have hundreds of photographs of Amtrak trains on the former Main Line of Mid-America but none in Carbondale.
However, instead of leaving from Mattoon, I would depart from Effingham.
I planned to use points for the trip but that changed when I discovered a one-way non-refundable fare of $8. Even if for some reason I couldn’t make the trip I would only be out $16.
I booked it for Sunday, Sept. 12, a mere three days before my points were to expire.
Booking travel on Amtrak is more involved than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
You must click a box agreeing to wear a mask in stations and aboard the train.
Amtrak also tried to get me to buy trip insurance. Did they really think I was going to do that for a $16 ticket?
The afternoon before my trip Amtrak sent me an email directing me to fill out a short form online. Aside from the standard COVID symptoms questions that I’ve become used to answering every time I visit a doctor I also had to agree – again – to wear a mask.
On the day of the trip I arrived at the Effingham station three hours before train time to get in some railfanning before No. 391 arrived.
Effingham back in the day had a station used by the IC and Pennsylvania Railroad. Flanking the passenger station were express depots for both railroads.
Today the passenger station is a cosmetology school and the ex-PRR express depot is used by a catering company as a kitchen.
Amtrak uses half of the ex-IC express depot with the other half used by a tattoo parlor.
I arrived to find work underway to rebuild the Amtrak boarding platform, which complicated my photography due to high construction zone fences and orange fabric barriers.
CSX sent one train through town, an eastbound grain train, while Canadian National sent two northbounds and a southbound past the station.
A CN train working the yard came north of the diamonds for headroom and to clear the block before going back into the yard.
Three of the four CN trains had IC SD70 locomotives wearing the pre-merger IC black “death star” livery.
One of the southbounds had a motive power consist of two IC “death stars” and a Grand Trunk Western geep in its original livery. Talk about a heritage consist.
I also observed the coming and going of the northbound Saluki.
For nearly a year Amtrak has assigned Superliner equipment to its Chicago-Carbondale trains. The Saluki and Illini are pulled by SC-44 Charger locomotives owned by IDOT and leased by Amtrak.
My foray to Carbondale would be my first trip behind a Charger locomotive. Interestingly, my first trip aboard a Superliner coach was a day trip to Carbondale in June 1979 when the then-new cars were in break-service on Midwest corridor trains before being assigned to the Empire Builder that October.
No. 391 was about 15 minutes late. I stood alone on the platform, mask firmly in place, the only passenger to board on this day.
I wasn’t surprised. When I had bought my ticket Train 391 was shown as at 13 percent of capacity.
I presented my ticket to the conductor but he said he had already checked me off. About 10 passengers disembarked.
I was one of just two passengers in my coach. The conductor came to my seat and asked if I had ridden with Amtrak before.
Yes, I have – many times actually – but not since before the pandemic. The conductor noted there was a café car up ahead. I didn’t plan to patronize it but thanked the conductor for that information anyway.
I settled back in my seat and enjoyed watching the countryside pass by. It had been more than three decades since I had seen Southern Illinois in daylight from the vantage point of an Amtrak coach window.
As we slowed for the Centralia station, a northbound BNSF coal train passed on an adjacent track. It had a distributed power unit on the rear.
Centralia was once the home of a large IC car shop. As best I could determine, most of that complex is gone.
It used to be that southbound passenger trains went around the Centralia yard complex on the west side. That wasn’t the case today although I could see that track still goes over that way.
We passed the yard on the east side.
The yard had a moderate number of freight cars and some motive power, including the two “death stars” and GTW geep I had seen earlier. A massive coaling tower still stands in the yard.
Our next stop was Du Quoin where Amtrak shares a small modern depot with the local chamber of commerce. It opened in August 1989.
Carbondale used to have a large yard, too, but most of it is gone. The former St. Louis division offices were razed years ago.
All that’s left are a few tracks and the twin coaling towers that stand near where the roundhouse used to be.
Due to schedule padding we arrived at the Carbondale station 15 minutes early and slightly less than two hours after leaving Effingham
It turns out most of the Carbondale passengers had been in other coaches.
Shortly after No. 391 arrived, the crew backed the equipment north to the yard and turned it on a wye track.
I made photographs of the ferry move in both directions passing the former IC station.
It was a warm day and I walked to a Circle K to get a large bottle of Gatorade. I walked around a bit, photographing the old IC station, which houses a small railroad museum that wasn’t open on this day, as well as offices of the chamber of commerce and a non-profit organization that promotes downtown Carbondale.
A statue of an IC conductor pays tribute to the railroad’s long history in Carbondale, which used to be where St. Louis cars were added or removed from trains bound to and from New Orleans and Florida.
A northbound CN tank car train came through during my layover.
I was dismayed to find the Carbondale Amtrak station is only open during the day on Wednesdays. But it’s open seven days a week at night to accommodate passengers for the City of New Orleans, which arrives in both directions in the dead of night.
There were around 50 of us waiting outside the station.
There would be just one conductor on tonight’s Train 392. He opened two doors of the train and stood on the platform.
I was expecting him to come up to the crowd and announce that boarding was ready to begin.
Instead he raised an arm and waved it a bit, which I interpreted as a signal to come out and get on board.
I started walking toward the train and the crowd followed me. Everyone was put in the same car.
We left on time and made the same stops as we had earlier. In Centralia I spotted a young man running from the parking lot toward the train, which was about done boarding.
If the conductor saw him, he ignored him because the train began moving. I expected the conductor to see the guy and order the engineer to stop. But we kept going.
CN and Amtrak have been at loggerheads for years over a number of operating issues including CN’s edict that Amtrak operate with a minimum number of axles to ensure that grade crossing signals are activated.
That is in part why I was riding a train with seven Superliner cars with far fewer passengers than the train’s capacity.
Amtrak and CN also have sparred over dispatching with Amtrak accusing CN of needlessly delaying Amtrak’s trains.
I know from years of experience in riding Amtrak between Mattoon and Chicago that delays due to freight train interference are not uncommon, particularly around Champaign.
But on this day we didn’t meet a single CN freight during on my trip.
I was the only passenger getting off at Effingham. Seven people were waiting on the platform to board.
A woman at the back of the line was not wearing a facial mask and the conductor refused to let her board.
I don’t know why she was maskless, but as I walked to my car I noticed the conductor had placed the step box aboard the train and stood in the doorway as the woman gestured while making her case – whatever that was – for not wearing a mask.
The conductor was having none of it and No. 392 left with the woman standing on the platform.
It had been an enjoyable outing and not all that much different from other trips I’ve made on Amtrak. The number of passengers aboard was less than I expected given that it was a Sunday, which normally is a heavy travel day on this route.
Sometime within the next year new Siemens Venture cars are expected to be assigned to Midwest corridor trains and maybe I’ll do another Carbondale roundtrip to experience them.
Two IC SD70s and a Grant Trunk geep pass the under construction new boarding platform in Effingham.The DPU on a northbound BNSF coal train in CentraliaDisembarking at the Carbondale Amtrak station.The equipment for the Illini backs past the former IC station in Carbondale.A northbound CN tank car train passes the Carbondale Amtrak station where the Illini awaits its 4:05 p.m. departure.
The waiting room of the Amtrak station in Carbondale, Illinois, has been closed temporarily for Trains 391 (southbound Saluki) and 392 (northbound Illini) until further notice.
Amtrak said in a service advisory that trains will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to platforms.
Passengers traveling on Trains 391 and 392 will not have access to the inside of the station or restrooms during this time.
The waiting room will be available for other trains, including the City of New Orleans in both directions and the northbound Saluki and southbound Illini.
A shuttle service has been established to the Amtrak station in Elko, Nevada.
Elko County’s public transportation system, Get My Ride, has partnered with Amtrak to provide the shuttle, which uses an ADA accessible mini bus to shuttle passengers who parked on the opposite side of the station for each arrival of the California Zephyr.
The Elko County Get My Ride team will monitor train status of Nos. 5 and 6.
In a service advisory, Amtrak urged passengers to allow extra time to board their train if they are parking on the opposite side of the station.
Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr comes around a curve on host railroad BNSF and is about to pass the station in Mendota, Illinois.
Mendota is not a stop for Trains 5 and 6 so it will just slip right by. Train 5 has a consist of three sleepers, dining car, Sightseer Lounge, two coaches and a Viewliner baggage car. On the point are the customary two P42DC locomotives.
It is Sept. 9. 1995, on the north side of Chicago Union Station. A Hiawatha Service train sits adjacent to the equipment to be used later today for the outbound Empire Builder.
At the time, Hiawatha Service trains were using former Metroliner cab cars. This equipment also was common at the time on the Chicago-Detroit route.
Note the mismatching liveries on the Superliner equipment on the Empire Builder. Amtrak was moving into a new look for its rolling stock and the old and new continued to mix for a while.
Temporary changes have affected operations at three Amtrak stations.
In Eugene, Oregon, the Amtrak Thruway stop for the University of Oregon has temporarily moved due to events taking place in the current location.
The temporary stop is on Alder and East 18th Street at the Clinical Services Building.
In McComb, Mississippi, the waiting room of the Amtrak station has temporarily closed due to fire damage.
Amtrak’s City of New Orleans will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to boarding platforms.
There will be no public access to the inside of the station or restrooms during this time. Trains will board on the north end of the platform by the parking lot.
At the station in Santa Ana, California, elevators will be out of service between June 28 and July 1 due to maintenance work.
Affected are pedestrian bridge elevators 1 and 2. The boarding platform will be accessible by stairs or along Santa Ana Boulevard.
Passengers requiring an elevator may also board at the local stations of Irvine or Anaheim.
Amtrak said in a service advisory that trains will continue to stop at the station and passengers will have access to platforms.
Amtrak in the Heartland 