It is morning in Cassandra, Pennsylvania, as Amtrak’s eastbound Pennsylvanian rushes through on the Pittsburgh Line of host railroad Norfolk Southern.
The sunlight is nicely illuminating the fall foliage on the surrounding hillsides but has yet to fine the rails. This image was made on Oct. 17, 2007.
Amtrak ran an extra section of its Wolverine Service over three days during the Thanksgiving 2017 travel period.
It was able to use equipment that would otherwise be laying over in Chicago before its next assignment to hit the road and add capacity during a busy holiday travel period.
But these extra sections of Midwest Corridor trains won’t be running this year due to shortages of equipment and operating personnel. As it is suspensions on three Midwest Corridors will result in less capacity than normal and there are few if any additional cars that Amtrak can add to trains that are running as scheduled.
The train shown above, operating as No. 356, is shown crossing the Huron River in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in Barton Park. P42DC No. 33 is trailing in this image. The train will turn back to Chicago in Ann Arbor thus there is a locomotive on each end.
There was plenty of color in Cumberland, Maryland, on Oct. 23 when Amtrak’s Capitol Limited arrived en route to Washington.
No. 30 arrived on time with Phase I heritage locomotive No. 161 on the point. Behind it is colorful fall foliage on a nearby hillside.
The tracks here are owned by CSX but were once part of the Baltimore & Ohio mainline that hosted the original Capitol Limited between Chicago and Washington.
Photograph by Edward Ribinskas
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.
Amtrak’s new ALC-42 Charger locomotives are operating on three long-distance routes, but not all trains on those routes are yet pulled by the Siemens-built locomotives.
A report on the website of Railfan and Railroad magazine said Chargers have seen service in recent weeks pulling the Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle/Portland), the City of New Orleans (Chicago-New Orleans) and the California Zephyr (Chicago-Emeryville, California).
Four ALC-42 locomotives were in the motive power of a recent eastbound California Zephyr, although just two of them were online with the other two new deliveries being towed.
Those new deliveries were later towed by the Chicago to Washington Capitol Limited.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the magazine that it will be some time before all runs on the three aforementioned routes will be covered by ALC-42 units.
Magliari said 11 Chargers are in service in long-distance train service but not all 11 are necessarily operating at the same time.
At least 25 locomotives are needed to cover all runs of the three routes.
The ALC-42 Chargers debuted last spring on the Empire Builder. It was a troubled inauguration with technical issues hindering the positive train control system of the locomotives.
Those issues largely have since been worked out.
The Railfan and Railroad report said that often an ALC-42 is paired with a P42DC. The report said typically the Charger trails the P42 on westbound trips of the Empire Builder.
However, Chargers have worked as solo units on the City of New Orleans in recent weeks. Between Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois, on the City route, Amtrak crews are already familiar with similar locomotives, the SC-44 Chargers.
On the Empire Builder route, an ALC-42 often leads Train 7 from Spokane, Washington, to Seattle as a solo unit while a P42 pulls the Portland section.
Amtrak has agreed to purchase 125 ALC-42 units and all of them are expected to be in revenue service as replacements for P42 and P40 units by 2029.
Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal is on the money as it approaches Linden, Indiana, on June 30, 2022. No. 51 is operating as P051 on the CSX Monon Subdivision. The sun has been up for less than an hour and creates a warm glow on the side of the train. The engineer of P42DC No. 17 is giving me a little wave as his train rushed past.
Amtrak P42DC No. 108, the Phase VI 50th anniversary unit, was assigned this past week to pull the Lake Shore Limited. It is shown leading eastbound No. 48 at Painesville, Ohio, on Tuesday. The train is passing a former New York Central passenger station that is today a museum.
Photograph by Edward Ribinskas
Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal cruises on the CSX Monon Subdivision north of Crawfordsville, Indiana, on May 28 under cloudy skies. The road on the left formerly was U.S. Route 231 until it was relocated as part of a bridge project. Train 51 has its standard consist of a P42DC locomotive, two Amfleet coaches, an Amfleet food service car, Viewliner sleeper and Viewliner baggage-dorm car.
This article has been corrected to show the correct highway route number.
A pair of Amtrak P42DC locomotives are nose to nose in the motive power consist of the westbound Lake Shore Limited in Cleveland on Nov. 15, 1997. Both units were trailing in the three-locomotive consist. They’ve picked up some ice during their journey through upstate New York and along the Lake Erie shoreline between Buffalo and Cleveland.
The westbound Lake Shore Limited rolls into Waterloo, Indiana, at almost 9:30 a.m. on March 20. The side of the train reflects the rising sunshine. The consist was three Viewliner sleepers, five Amfleet II coaches, an Amfleet food service car, Viewliner dining car for sleeping car passengers, and a Viewliner baggage car.
Amtrak in the Heartland 