Two were transferred to Caltrans and work the "San Joaquins". The remainder are in service as heavy switchers and/or protection power. I believe that a few are assigned to the "Coast Starlight".
Yes, the "Pepsi-Can" paint scheme's gone, but the P32-8's soldier on!
If what I've read is true every one of the 20 that Amtrak purchased is still in service. Pretty good.
We have some P32's assigned to yard and protection power service at 18th Street. The "Pepsi can" paint job vanished some years ago, unfortunately.
Neat video Yard Limit, thanks for posting it!
I've seen some of Amtraks Heritage units coming through Richmond, and it's always a kick to spot one.
What's really a kick is to spot one of the old "Pepsi Can" units come through. It's been a while, but every so often you do get to see one.
Found a bit of amateur video, be patient, the P32-8 action starts at :58.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrkk4oYmBig
In my opinion, cutting away from the approach shot at 2:55, especially keeping the audio running out of sync with the drone clip, was a major editing mistake. (As frustrating as hearing a train on the other side of a wall but not being able to see it.) And this after a great deal of approach anticipation listening to an introduction repeated in the description and watching a long telephoto of empty track.
The following stop at Lamy started out as one of the best clips I've seen (the use of sound, and the interpolation of radio traffic, adding to the experience). But then it dragged on -- and on -- and on with people nattering and trailing their luggage, and train crew waiting on the platform, and then just as the engines spool up for departure you start nattering about how the paint schemes were developed! The perfect time for that was during all that platform inaction, wasn't it?
I particularly liked the intercutting of 'coming' and 'going' shots in the transit of long trains, and the repetition of long parts of the 'going' sequence after the approach in a couple of the clips. Some of these rank with the best action sequences I've seen (although admittedly part of this is that I just installed a good subwoofer setup which contributes to the experience of GE rumble!)
Might I request that you filter out some of the wind noise (and the high screech around 12:05) in deference to those of us who turn the volume up on these things? The rest of it is such a temptation to do so... (But don't filter past the point where the locomotive sound begins to be audible!)
Thanks for providing this!
Amtrak has five locomotives that commemorate the 40th anniversary of Amtrak service and these are painted to resemble past phases of Amtrak paint schemes.
Amtrak 156 Phase I P42DC
Amtrak 130 Phase II P42DC
Amtrak 145 Phase III P42DC
Amtrak 184 Phase IV P42DC
Amtrak 822 Phase III P40DC
Amtrak currently has 396 locomotives, so seeing one of these Heritage units is interesting, especially if it’s leading the train. When one of these locomotives gets assigned to a route like the Southwest Chief, it often comes and goes several times before it gets assigned to another route. That gives train photographs several chances to catch it in different locations.
In previous videos, we’ve caught Amtrak 156 and Amtrak 822 on the route through New Mexico. Now it’s Amtrak 184’s turn pay us a visit.
Well over a year in advance of Amtrak’s 40th Anniversary, a core team of employees was formed to develop plans for celebrating 40 years of being America’s Railroad. One of the ideas was to paint current locomotives into each of the previous paint schemes Amtrak has used over the years. Blair Slaughter of Industrial Design and Matt Donnelly of the Marketing and Product Development Department collaborated to adapt the paint schemes to the current P42 locomotive car body.
There are four previous paint schemes, known as phases, and only one had ever been applied to the P42 car body previously. The goal was to keep the schemes as true to their original form, while fitting the physical design of the current locomotives so that they looked right—a task that resulted in as many as seven unique options per scheme! The favorite 2D concept for each scheme was chosen, and Matt painted scale models of the Phase I and II schemes to test the plans. More fine tuning was done after seeing the scale models before a finalized plan was made for each scheme.
Blair drew paint diagrams of the finalized plans to scale using CAD, specifying every last detail so that the employees at the Beech Grove Maintenance Facility could make the plans a reality. The paint and decal team at Beech Grove did a beautiful job of applying these schemes to locomotives already scheduled to receive paint jobs.
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