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.
The wayback machine has taken us to the first decade of Amtrak operations in the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak GG-1 Nos. 910 and 905 are leading an Amtrak train through Morrisville, Pennsylvania on Aug. 23, 1978.
Amtrak’s Chicago-bound Capitol Limited is only a couple of minutes or so behind schedule as it rushes through Chesterton, Indiana, on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.
The P42DC is crossing the bridge over Coffee Creek and passing a stand of fall foliage.
No. 29 on this day had six cars rather than the customary five with the additional car being a transition sleeper. The train was reported on the Amtrak website to have arrived at Chicago Union Station on time at 8:45 a.m.
As a southbound Canadian National manifest freight waits in the siding, Amtrak’s northbound Saluki approaches the station in Rantoul, Illinois. Train 390 has is usual consist of an SC44 locomotive and seven Superliner cars. The conductor can be seen in the window of a vestibule looking at the platform for boarding passengers.
Amtrak’s Chicago-bound Cardinal is running two hours off schedule as it departs the station in Crawfordsville, Indiana, during the July 4th weekend. I don’t know why the train was running late.
The track here is the Monon Subdivision of CSX and the Amtrak boarding site it located by the former Monon passenger station, which is now privately owned and used by a catering company.
As the skyline of downtown Dallas looms behind it, Amtrak’s westbound Texas Eagle crosses the Trinity River. The image was made in October 1985 during an era when the Eagle had a varied consist.
Upfront are two F40PH locomotives pulling a mixture of Superliner and Heritage Fleet cars. Among the latter are former Santa Fe Hi-Level cars and a single-level sleeping car. Also tucked into the consist is an Amfleet food service car and heritage fleet baggage car.
Today Train 21 has P42DC motive power and an all-Superliner consist.
Amtrak’s southbound Shawnee is arriving in the station at Rantoul, Illinois, in May 1972. Waiting on the platform appears to be a group of school children who probably are going for a train ride to Champaign, the next stop down the line. It won’t be a long ride as the distance from Rantoul to Champaign is just 14 miles.
No. 391 is being pulled by two former Illinois Central E units, which was not a rare occurrence during Amtrak’s first couple of years. But soon the IC units will give way to locomotives brought in from other railroads. Amtrak leased a few IC units and repainted many of them into its own colors even as it retained the IC roster numbers.
Note that none of the passenger cars are in IC passenger colors. Had this image been made in May 1971 all of the equipment would have been IC varnish. But starting in summer 1971 cars from other carriers came to the Chicago-Carbondale-New Orleans trains.
Also note the train order semaphore signal and the train order stand. Much has changed since this image was made. The train order signal and stand are long gone. The IC passenger station is now privately owned. Amtrak has a shelter and boarding platform on the north end of the station property.
The Shawnee name has been retired with the Chicago-Carbondale trains operating as the Saluki and Illini.
I wonder if school groups still ride from Rantoul to Champaign so children can get a train ride. The IC used to promote that, but I’m not sure that Amtrak does or even ever did.
Amtrak’s northbound Saluki charges through Arcola, Illinois, as it race toward Chicago. Perhaps few, if any, passengers noticed passing this former service station located next to the tracks.
Although it has the herald of Marathon Oil Company, information I found online indicated that it actually used to be a Sinclair station. It was cosmetically restored in the early 2000s and has been a town landmark ever since.
It is not difficult to imagine some customers from bygone days sitting in their cars as the attendant fills there tank and taking note of a passing Illinois Central Railroad passenger train. What a sight that must have been.
In October 1996 the St. Louis chapter of the National Railway Historical Society ran excursions on Saturday and Sunday between St. Louis and West Quincy, Missouri, over a former Burlington Route line. Most passengers disembarked in Hannibal, Missouri, and spent several hours in Mark Twain’s hometown.
I elected to stay aboard to West Quincy and return because my primary interest was in getting some rare mileage, which interested me at the time.
I didn’t make too many photographs and most of those were made before boarding in St. Louis and in Hannibal where I was able to disembark for a short time.
The consist was Superliner coaches and a Sightseer lounge. It was pulled by P42DC Nos. 61 and 6.
At West Quincy, the train turned on a wye. You may remember West Quincy as being the western terminus for several years of Amtrak’s Illinois Zephyr.
The top and middle images above were made in Hannibal. The bottom image was made in St. Louis. At the time, the St. Louis station was the “temporary” modular structure that some dubbed “St. Louis Union Trailers.”
The RoadRailer at right are a throwback to the days when Amtrak sought mail and express business as a way to garner more revenue. Note the sign on the pole giving instructions to the westbound Texas Eagle where to stop.
Amtrak in the Heartland 