Hi all --
Walthers has Proto 2000 Hi-Level cars in Amtrak Phase I and II on mega-sale and I am having trouble resisting.
I have some Phase I E-units for the rainbow train I'm building, which includes a couple of Phase 1 (heritage fleet) sleepers. Would the Hi-Levels ever have wound up behind E-units mixed with low-level sleepers? My plan was to assemble a Phase I train as I find good deals on cars and, well, here we are.
Thanks in advance --
Aaron
The E units have S/G for train heat. A few may have been converted to HEP for powering Amfleet and Superliner cars. The F40PH locomotives were delivered with HEP and were the standard power used to pull HEP equipped passenger cars.
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
All of the photos I've seen of the ex-ATSF high-levels in Amtrak Phase I paint have either leased ATSF F-units or Amtrak SDP40Fs pulling them. That's not saying that they were never pulled by E units (only that I've not seen proof), but my take is that it would not have been common.
With the SDP40Fs coming out from Athearn soon, I've been tempted to put together a train of the Phase I high-levels for them to pull, since the prices are so low on the cars, now. I'll probably resist that temptation as I have too many other things that I really should finish.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
jrbernier The E units have S/G for train heat.
I think the old Hi-Levels used steam heat -- and apparently had onboard diesel generators!
fmilhaupt've been tempted to put together a train of the Phase I high-levels for them to pull
Well, they're on sale, so now is the time! Unfortunately the Athearn SDP40Fs will probably be out of my budget for a while. I did see some photos of leased SF power pulling Amtrak-painted Hi-Levels -- Yellowbonnet Fs (a fellow club member has a set) and a warbonnet FP45.
Amtrak E8s were not assigned to the Super Chief. They preferred Santa Fe F7 locomotives as their main motive power until the new SDP40F arrived.
Since Amtrak liked the Warbonnet paint Santa Fe decided to paint a few in yellow which didn't work.
Santa Fe discontinued the FP45 in passenger service on April 30, 1970. Afterwards assigned to freight and passenger service until Amtrak.
Here's a short consist for 1971.
6 F7,(A,B,A,B,B,A)/ 1 Baggage Car, 1 Baggage Dormitory, 1 Step Down Coach, 1 Coach, 1 Lounge, 1 Diner, 1 Step Down Coach (ATSF Hi-Level) 1 Diner, 1 Lounge, 2 10-6 Sleeper, 1 11 Double Bedroom Sleeper, 1 10-6 Sleeper. (Heritage cars)
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
IF by "High-levels" you meant the old ATSF cars from El Capitan, then I think fmilhaupt is correct - possible, but not common if it did happen. If you meant Superliners, that would be extremely unlikely. F40PH units began arriving in 1977, and Superliners were first delivered in 1979. I think they tended to go together in re-equipping trains. That being said, I think Amtrak had some E-units on the roster into the 1980s, but I don't know that any were on long-distance trains that would warrant Superliners.
Since I didn't know the year I thought of giving you two more.
1973 (according to Dr. Stoeckl) Southwest Limited
1 Baggage, 1 Baggage Dormitory, 3 Coach, 1 Diner, 2 Coach, (Hi Level) 2 Sleeper, 1 Diner, 4 Sleeper (heritage)
1973-1984 (according to videos and documents) Southwest Limited
1 Baggage, 1 Baggage Dormitory, 1 Step Down Coach, 2 Coach, 1 Lounge, 1 Diner, 1 Step Down Coach, (Hi-Level) 1 10-6 Sleeper, it gets confused after this (probably) 2 sleepers, 2 dome coaches (one of them are a rebuilt SP dome car).
I hope this helps you more.
Thx again! The cars came down even further in price and I now have a "representative" Southwest Limited. A club member saw the cars and opined that it's time to dig out his SF Warbonnet FP45s and loan 'em to me. So now we have power!
What is really a bummer is Walthers never offered the hi level cars in Amtrak phase III which is how they ran on the Amtrak California Zephyr for many years. Walthers really dropped the ball big time.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761 What is really a bummer is Walthers never offered the hi level cars in Amtrak phase III which is how they ran on the Amtrak California Zephyr for many years. Walthers really dropped the ball big time.
They also missed out on painting them in the late Phase I with the huge red/blue stripes and Amtrak logo. Placing them in 1973/4-1978 (when appropriate).
Yes. Sometimes I wonder who is making the decisions at Walthers.
I mean the Amtrak California Zephyr was a very popular train and the Ex-El Capitan bi-level step-up coach/dorm was on every train from the early 1980' through the mid 1990's and I never saw a photo of those cars without Amtrak Phase III paint. It's like Walthers is BLIND to a major element to a popular train. It's like the Rio Grande Zephyr without the P-S combine - which to this day you can only get in brass. *SMH*
Hopefully now that Walthers has the C&O P-S sleeper that appears to match the D&RGW Prospector sleeper, they will tool up the combine and diner and we can have a Prospector train too - nice pike sized train. As a bonus for interst, for several years starting in 1963 D&RGW put up to 4 85' TOFC flat cars on the back end of the Prospector so it was a sort of latter day mixed passenger train. Very cool!