It appears that the demise of the Heritage cars has been greatly overstated. The may MPR Chief Mechanical officers report table A4.7 is interesting.
https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/467/804/Amtrak-Monthly-Performance-Report-May-2017.pdf
Heritage baggage cars 1735 & 1738 have come out of overhaul at BEE and 4 additional are work in progress. Heritage diner 8505 & 8510 have been worked on but if a full overhauled it is not stated; 1 completed earlier this year ( 8530 ) and 1 more scheduled for work . Interesting that one is being worked at New Orleans.
Can we suspect that Mr. Moorman saw the handwriting about CAF and is trying to mitigate the diner situation. Also is he doing the Baggage cars due to very lateness of CAF's bag - Dorms ?
I'll bet is wasn't Moorman, but his CMO and chief operating guy working together and talking with Finance. At least we can hope they don't need to go to Moorman for this kind of decision. They just need to keep him informed.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I'm not keeping count, mind you, but it seems to me that between the Heritage diners being rebuilt and returned to service, all the new Viewliner diners I keep reading about due to come online any year now, and who knows what else, Amtrak must have about 237 diners for their threatened long distance trains.
But we're not eating in any of them. How long will the diner-lounges continue to drive away the dining public?
Some of these Heritage baggage cars (maybe all) are apparently being used as axle count cars. In fact, back in March or April, I saw a baggage car at the St. Louis station that was actually lettered "Wheel Car", not "Baggage".
Pete
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Amtrak in the past had Wheel Cars and used them to move materials to and from Beech Grove Shops and they carried axles as well.
What are the years of manufacture of these "Heritage" cars?
I'm not sure about the others but the Pacific Parlour Cars were built in 1956. They originally served as lounge cars (Top Of The Cap) on the hi-level "El Capitan".
It seems several of the baggage cars have migrated to the NEC as tool cars. Expect to see MOW trains with five or six of them in the future.
Blue Alert! We're at Blue Alert! Aw crap, it's a nondescript GEVO... Cancel Blue Alert!
BNSFandSP It seems several of the baggage cars have migrated to the NEC as tool cars. Expect to see MOW trains with five or six of them in the future.
Now that is good use. Run at slow speeds ( limits wheel wear ), protect from weather ( most of time ) can be secured ( most of time ) only needs COTS once in a while .
blue streak 1 BNSFandSP It seems several of the baggage cars have migrated to the NEC as tool cars. Expect to see MOW trains with five or six of them in the future. Now that is good use. Run at slow speeds ( limits wheel wear ), protect from weather ( most of time ) can be secured ( most of time ) only needs COTS once in a while .
Ahhh, now that's a classic railroad move. Run the wheels off it in revenue service until you can't anymore, and then transfer it to work service and use it for another 30 years.
A number of old wooden cars (both passenger and freight, not on Amtrak of course) followed this path in years past, and some retained their high stemwinder handbrakes and 'K' airbrakes until finally being retired around 1990.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Most of the Heritage equipment that ended up owned by Amtrak was built in the years 1948-1956. This includes all types of equipment, including diners and baggage cars.
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NKP guy I'm not keeping count, mind you, but it seems to me that between the Heritage diners being rebuilt and returned to service, all the new Viewliner diners I keep reading about due to come online any year now, and who knows what else, Amtrak must have about 237 diners for their threatened long distance trains. But we're not eating in any of them. How long will the diner-lounges continue to drive away the dining public? Amtrak has about 80 diners in service. The PRR alone had 150 during the Golden Age
Amtrak has about 80 diners in service. The PRR alone had 150 during the Golden Age
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