When Amtrak first started in the 70’s,did they use former railroad passenger cars (B&O,Southern,NYC,etc)or was their fleet already painted AMTRAK and ready to go?
Used what locos and cars they got from the routes they took over. I think they worked on getting the locos repainted first, as I have seen a number of photos and videos with repainted locos followed by a mish-mash of cars following them. The idea may have been that many of the cars were in need of replacement more than the locos, not sure. They had some pretty decrepit locos at first too. The railroads of the time kept the better locos for their own use.
Have fun,
Richard
Yes, of course the railroads kept the best locomotives for themselves, but then it is also true that they never were using their best locomotives in passenger service through those last few years.
Also remember, that not any locomotive can pull a passenger train even today.
The ones in passenger service when AMTK came into being all had steam generators to provide heat and a/c to the passenger cars (although cars had generators and batteries for lighting.)
Today’s passenger locomotives have special generators to provide HEP or Head End Power, that is electricity for lighting, heating, and cooling.
Some commuter railroads, did steal freight locomotives. but attached generator cars to provide HEP.
The LIRR put a GP-38 at one end of the train, which did the grunt work, and a rebuilt PF unit on the back, which had motor and generator for Head End Power, and it had controls to run the train in the return direction, but without its train to move it, it could only sit there and make noise.
So the issue for the nascent AMTK was all of the passenger cars were old, almost all were steam heated, and railroad probably had not purchased any new passenger locomotives in a while. AMTK’s new cars were to all be powered by electricity (470 volts if I am not mistaken) so new cars had to go with new locomotives, while “heritage” cars went with “heritage” locomotives.
LION does not know the time lines for when changes came into effect. And of course you all know that AMTK runs high level cars in the West and in the South, but never east of Chicago or north of Washington. Tunnels, clearances, and overhead wires were the issue. Only single level cars can wend their way into New York City, and so they basically have to keep two separate fleets.
ROAR
Amtrak used whatever equipment they could get. You also have to remember that Amtrak started with negotiations of routes and purchasing equipment in 1970, but didn’t take control of the trains until May 1, 1971.
The transition from from April 30 to May 1 of 1971 was seamless from the operations point of view. For example, if you were on the Santa Fe Super Chief on April 30 and your destination happened to be the next day, you were automatically on the Amtrak Super Chief from what I have read.
There was a print ad in the 1970s that Amtrak said they rejected 2 out of 3 passenger cars because they weren’t safe to carry passengers. All of this old equipment is called Amtrak’s Heritage Fleet.
You really ought to read the book “Amtrak An American Story.” It is worth reading and has some unique photos.
No, in the first few days and months of Amtrak one could not tell the difference in the Amtrak trains and their predicessor rails, especially out west. Then the cars started getting all mixed up and we call it the rainbow era where a train could be made up with equipment from all different railroads coast to coast. The first Amtrak proper unit I saw was a black E8 on the point of the former SuperChief in Garden City Kansas. Of course it was an eastbound and at midnight so the photo I tried to take of it did not come out. sigh.
When Amtrak first started in the 70’s,did they use former railroad passenger cars (B&O,Southern,NYC,etc)or was their fleet already painted AMTRAK and ready to go?
Amtrak was quite a colorful railroad in the beginning. Railroads had to buy in and contribute equipment. As most of these railroads suffered huge losses on their passenger service you can imagine how this equipment was maintained.
A good place to check some photos for Amtrak would be Railpictures.net. Type in Amtrak and select pictures from 1970-1979.
Another good source of information is the Summer 2011 Classic Trains Magazine which devotes a large portion to Amtrak. Incidentally, the Southern did not originally join Amtrak.
John R
A lot of Amtrak’s rolling stock, at least in the Northeast, came from the Penn Central fiasco, some of which had not even been repainted from it’s Pennsy / NYC / New Haven days.
Check your local library for many books about Amtrak and Amtrak’s startup including one all about its rolling stock. Also check back issues of all railfan publications: TRAINS, RAILFAN, PASSENGER TRAIN JOURNAl, RAILPACE, CTC BOARD, etc. Much can be found on the internet, too…use GOOGLE or BING.
Amtrak’s initial passenger equipment purchase of about 1100 cars included the entire Santa Fe fleet which was still available (some had already been sold to Auto Train) and large blocks from UP, SP and BN. No Penn Central cars were included in the initial purchase but many PC cars were leased to cover Corridor services.
Some of Amtrak’s alloting cars to particular trains were interesting. such as what was apparently a desire to give passengers on certain routes the experience of riding in cars that had been designed for certain other routes. One that I remember particularly was apparently from the desire to give passengers from Chicago to Seattle the experience of riding in cars built for the ACL and SAL; these cars were not built for service on the high plains (not as much insulation and larger windows than those built for the GN and NP)–and passengers were really cold in the dephs of winter. The SAL and ACL cars did serve north of Washington–but the ride to/from New York City was not quite as long as that between St. Paul and Spokane.