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.
A recent Amtrak announcement that checked baggage service will be suspended on two routes raised a few eyebrows because of the reason given for it.
The announcement cited equipment shortages, yet Amtrak in recent years has received 70 new Viewliner baggage cars that were built by CAF USA as part of a 125-car order placed in 2014.
The checked baggage service suspension will begin Oct. 3 on the New York-Pittsburgh Pennsylvanian and the New York-Charlotte Carolinian.
The Amtrak announcement said the suspension will run through Nov. 17. Also affected on the Pennsylvanian will be checked bicycle service.
Trains magazine reported on its website that just five Viewliner baggage cars are known to be out of service.
The magazine’s report said the root cause of the service suspension is a lack of mechanical workers to perform maintenance on cars and locomotives.
That also has led to temporary suspensions of some Midwest Corridor trains from Chicago to Detroit (Pontiac), St. Louis, and Carbondale, Illinois.
In the wake of the service advisory announcing the suspension of checked baggage service on the Pennsylvanian and Carolinian, a printed service advisory posted in some stations erroneously said checked baggage service was being suspended on the Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited and Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief.
That posted advisory said Amtrak “may occasionally suspend checked baggage and bicycle service along the route, due to equipment shortages.”
Although the Capitol Limited has long had checked baggage service, until this summer that was provided in the baggage compartment of a Superliner coach.
Amtrak added a Viewliner baggage car to Nos. 29 and 30 to increase capacity for checked bicycle service. However, in recent days the Viewliner baggage car has been absent from the Capitol.
Amtrak is suspending checked baggage service on two medium-distance trains through mid-November.
In a service advisory, the carrier cited a lack of equipment for suspending checked baggage service on the New York-Pittsburgh Pennsylvanian and the New York-Charlotte Carolinian. The move also affects checked bicycle service.
The suspension of checked baggage service will begin on the Pennsylvanian on Oct. 3. No date was given for when checked baggage service will be suspended for the Carolinian.
Amtrak said it expects to resume checked baggage service and trainside checked bike services on or about Nov. 17.
“We will continue to re-assess equipment plans and update the plan for the winter,” the notice said.
The Rail Passengers Association said Amtrak’s notice doesn’t answer some questions, including whether it was prompted by the need for major maintenance of Viewliner baggage cars, a shortage of mechanical department workers, or having to re-assign equipment to other routes where the host railroad has imposed minimum axle counts.
On some corridor routes that have minimum axle counts requirements imposed by Canadian National, Viewliner baggage cars have been used to meet the axle count requirements.
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.
The massive grain elevator complex in Arcola, Illinois, has been a favorite backdrop that I’ve used over the years when photographing Amtrak trains on the Chicago-Carbondale-New Orleans corridor.
The way the schedule works out, the complex best works as a backdrop for the northbound Saluki.
The southbound City of New Orleans would have to be really, really late to catch in daylight and the window for getting its northbound counterpart is very small.
The Illini in both directions passes through Arcola in daylight but by then the sun is behind the grain complex.
So that leaves the Saluki, which I’ve photographed here a few times.
My motivation for getting No. 390 this year has been to recreate an image I did years ago but with different motive power.
The P42DC units that were mainstays on the Chicago-Carbondale trains have given was to Siemens SC-44 Chargers.
Last Sunday No. 390 was about 10 to 15 minutes off its published schedule as it blasted through Arcola.
There is a restored Illinois Central depot here, but Arcola has never been a scheduled Amtrak stop.
This is the second time I’ve photographed No. 390 in Arcola this summer. Back in mid June the Saluki carried a Heritage baggage car.
That has since been replaced by a Viewliner baggage car. In both cases, the baggage car was in the consist to enable the train to meet a minimum axle count required by host railroad Canadian National.
With it’s station work at Waterloo, Indiana, compete, Amtrak’s westbound Lake Shore Limited is now headed for Chicago.
But first there will be intermediate stops in Elkhart and South Bend, Indiana,to make.
Train No. 49 is running about an hour late so there is no time to waste. It is also following traffic, including the Capitol Limited so opportunities to pick up time might be limited.
As usual, a Viewliner baggage car is bringing up the markers on No. 49.
Milepost 367, measured from Buffalo, New York, is located just beyond the western edge of the Amtrak station platform.
Amtrak took delivery last week of more new Viewliner equipment and operated a test train of Viewliner equipment on the route of the Southwest Chief in a move that may signal the carrier’s intent to assign the equipment to Western long-distance routes.
The test train had two new Charger locomotives, two Viewliner II diners, a Viewliner II baggage-dorm and three Viewliner II baggage cars and went west on the route of the Chicago-Los Angeles Chief.
The test train might return to Chicago over the route of the California Zephyr.
Amtrak management in the past has hinted that it might assign new Viewliner equipment to a Western train as a way of upgrading it with all-new equipment.
In the meantime, Amtrak took possession of two new Viewliner baggage-dormitory cars built at the CAF USA plant in Elmira Heights, New York, and sent them to Amtrak’s Hialeah, Florida, maintenance facility for final acceptance inspections.
Amtrak has ordered 10 baggage-dorm cars from CAF but has not said when they will enter revenue service.
Generally, Amtrak wants to accept and test one complete train before pressing the new cars into revenue service.
An Amtrak Viewliner baggage car brings up the rear of the westbound Lake Shore Limited as it cruises through Olmsted Fall, Ohio, en route to Chicago.
The next stop for Train 49 will be Elyria, Ohio.
The typical operation of Nos. 48 and 49 has the Boston section at the front of the train. Only the New York section still has a baggage car and it is always on the rear.
And that’s for good reason, too. You would not want passengers walking through a baggage going to and from the Boston and New York sections.
Ahead of the baggage cars are a pair of Viewliner sleepers and Viewliner dining car Dover.
Amtrak’s Silver Meteor rushes past the Newark Liberty Airport station without even slowing down.
No. 97 is bound for Miami and assuming it doesn’t lose any significant time en route will be halting at its destination in more than 24 hours.
When the weather in the upper Midwest turns wintry, Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited often runs late.
Earlier this month Nos. 48 and 49 were running as much as six hours or more behind schedule due to the effects of winter conditions. Delays in turning the equipment in Chicago were given some of the blame, but winter operating conditions can also lead to frozen switches, broken rails and freight train emergencies that are not Amtrak’s fault.
If No. 48 leaves Chicago late, it likely will be even later as it rolls eastward toward New York and Boston.
On a sunny but frigid day last week when the early morning temperatures were in the low teens and the wind chill was sub zero, I braved the elements to photograph No. 48 at Geneva, Ohio, which was more than two hours off its schedule.
It was running a few minutes behind an eastbound CSX stack train. I can only speculate that the dispatcher put the intermodal train out ahead of Amtrak because it would not be stopping in Erie, Pennsylvania, but Amtrak would be.
Amtrak in the Heartland 