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Cab Car Suprise

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  • Member since
    May 2007
  • 73 posts
Cab Car Suprise
Posted by P42 108 on Friday, June 1, 2007 8:26 PM

I live near Amtrak's Springfield Line which runs from New Haven, CT north to Springfield, MA. Amtrak operates frequent shuttle trains between the two cities daily. The shuttle trains usually consist of a Genesis Locomotive, an amfleet coach and an ex-metroliner cab car with the yellow and black stripes. I love those cab cars and keep track of the numbers so I can remember which ones I have seen and which ones I have not. So, in early March I saw a video called The Surfline. At the time the tape was made, Amtrak was using the same cab cars on the San Diegans in California as they use on the shuttle trains in Connecticut today. So as I watched the tape I did my best to keep track of the numbers on the cab cars. The only cab car whose number I was able to identify was the 9632. I had never seen this cab car myself, but I kept an eye out for it. In April I was out in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with my best friend. After the two of us visited the Strasburg Rail Road, the Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum the National Toy Train Museum and slept overnight in the Red Caboose Motel, it was time to go home. We took Amtrak out to Lancaster, so we had to take Amtrak back home to Connecticut. While waiting for our train at the Amtrak station in Lancaster, another train came into the station heading in the other direction. Sure enough, it had a cab car on the front and it happened to be the 9632! I was exited to see it. I couldnt help but think that I knew where this cab car had been and once worked on the California coastline. So I finally had found the 9632 and saw it myself (not to mention the photo I took of it). In mid May I was back on the Springfield Line waiting for a shuttle train to fly through Windsor, CT. I was expecting to see the 9644 or the 9646, as those had been employed on the Springfield Line for some time. Imagine my suprise when it turned out to be the 9632.   

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