Hello everyone. I recently purchased a complete Kato Amtrak Superliner which includes two P-42s, two material handling cars, a baggage car, a coach baggage, two coaches, a diner, a dome lounge and two sleepers all in phase III. I call it the Texas Eagle because I have a photo of the Eagle which was actually taken in Texas and which looks very much like it except that it has two old F-40 units pulling it. The reason I went with phase III is so that I could model the early 1990s when the P-42s first went into service but more so because I prefer to model the past rather than the present.
If I was, I would model their beginning. love the amtrak rainbow trains, even saw some stuff on the internet about how intermixing eastern and western cars was a bad idea.
I’m a fan of riding AMTRAK, not modeling it as it is wrong for my era of 1953. I have rode the Empire Builder several times once to Seattle and several times to Chicago. I’ve also ridden the Lake Shore Limited to Buffalo N.Y. and return. It’s a great way to travel!
Always liked Amtrak. Casually rode the Keystone Service many times. Rode behind GG1’s on the corridor. Rode on an E60 from Penn Station in NYC to Trenton in 1986. Railfanned at Princeton Jct quite a few times. Got a fond interest in AEM7’s. While working for Conrail I went to GE Erie for Dash 8 training and got to see Amtrak P42’s being built. These days I often see the California Zephyr going through Fernley NV (the town I work in) at about 70 mph and wish I were on it.
Lots of photos and memories.
I don’t need to go on. I’ll get too depressed.
I want my next car to be a Pullman.
(Oh…and by the way. I have in HO an SDP40F (Athearn FP45), 2-Walthers F40PH’s, an Athearn P42, 6-Amfleet cars, and a 3 car set of Amtrak push-pull bi levels.)
A lot of folks who model 1971 or later have one or two Amtrak trains that run through their freight-train-oriented layout, but I wonder if there’s anyone out there who primarily models Amtrak - has a layout centered around Amtrak coach yards, engine facilities, stations etc. and not on a freight railroad??
I’m an amtrak modeler. Currently collecting equipment for an eventual Northeaster Corridor based/inspired layout. Glad to see Atlas is rerunning the AEM-7 again.
Even though my layout is aimed at mid to late 1950’s NYC and PRR with a sprinkling of B&O, Erie and Bessemer in there, I will occasionally dust off my Walther’s first run Superliners. I have three of the Athearn P-42 growlers, two Kato F-40s and a beautiful Atlas AEM-7 for the head end. On the rear I throw a few MHCs and three of the Bowser Road-Railers. The finishing touch is a Ring Engineering flashing EOT! Pretty neat.
I looked at the latest Kato P-42s and couldn’t justify the cost when I look closely at the level of detail (or lack thereof) but I might just spring for one of the anniversary editions. I’m inches away from shelling out for the PRR Metroliner set… the baby’s shoes can wait!
I think Walthers is missing the boat by not offering more late '60s and early Amtrak “rainbow” equipment. I enjoy watching several of the Emery Goulash, Green Frog videos of the Chicago area and late Penn-Central stuff and, lets face it, lots of those trains weren’t very pretty… but that’s REALITY.
Kato did a set of Penn-Central merger cars in N with some Tuscan Red relettered for PC and some of those ugly Pea Soup P-C green cars in a set. That’s what I’m talking about.
I rode the early days of the Broadway and the on-again-off-again Lakeshore Limited. Rode the Broadway when it still ran on the Pennsy west of Pittsburgh, then rode it again when it ran on the old B&O through Akron! Fond memories. Amtrak had a mix of 32V, 64V and 110V electrical systems on cars so they couldn’t be “trainlined” if a generator went bad. Amtrak went through some nasty growing pains back then!
Yes, I model Amtrak. It’s what I “grew-up” with. I’d love to see more Amtrak offerings from manufacturers!
wjstix,
A primary Amtrak modeler? Sure. First one I think of is David Harrison in Chicago who has his traveling Acela layout he brings to the big train shows (like Trainfest, Springfield, the NMRA National, etc.). I know there’s also a second guy on the Atlas Rescue Forum that has an Amtrak-based layout as well (I just can’t recall his name at the moment). I’m sure there are others…
A fellow club member and friend of mine is known on the Atlas Rescue Forum as “Mr. Amtrak”. He was on the NARP Board of Directors in the 1970’s. Not only does he extensively model Amtrak (among the many others he models), “AMTRAK” is his license plate (which he got in 1971). And to top it all off, the man has an Amtrak tattoo on his arm. No, I’m not kidding. It’s one of the more artistic F40PH logos from the 1980’s. And did I mention the guy has an 8 foot long “pointless arrow” logo painted on one of the walls inside his house?
I rode Amtrak 6 Christmases from Van Nuys Calif. (1st stop out of LA) to Portland Oregon and love it. Its 29 hours and at Christmas more like 31 hours or more because the train takes on many people at each stop and sometimes snow problems in the Cascades. Even though a railfan you are glad when you arrive and I will probably fly from now on because I don’t like to leave my dogs alone for so long, and more time with my family.
Dear Tracklayer I am a Amtrak modeler and I’ll give you the correct straight answer to your Texas Eagle consist. I have two consists from 1992 and 1993. The P40 came out in mid August-September 1993 and the P42 came out in 1996-97 around 1996-1998 Phase III Superliners were getting repainted into Phase IV.
Amtrak Texas Eagle 10-24-1992
1 F40
1 Baggage
1 Coach-Dormitory
2 Coaches
1 Sleeper
Amtrak Texas Eagle Early 1996
1 F40
1 Baggage
1 Coach-Dormitory
1 Diner
2 Coaches
1 Sleeper
These are all in Phase III paint. You mix up the diner with the lounge-cafe car and replace a coach with a coach-baggage. Amtrak F40s without ditch lights (By the late 1993 and 1994 Amtrak started adding ditch lights to their locomotives.) Make sure to get the Baggage car, Coach-Dormitory 2 car add on set. On rare occasions Amtrak did run MHC cars on the Texas Eagle or so I been told.
Granted, with my operations, the length of the train varies when I’m running either the Broadway or Pennsyl**vanian. I also have some Amfleet I cars that are used on the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati corridor trains with the Amfleet II cars being used as needed and available.
Chatanuga: Very impressive! One suggestion, from firsthand experience: the Amfleet II lounge would be best used right behind the diner (i.e., not at the kitchen end). For a train that long, it would be pretty hard to serve enough meals in that one diner. The lounge would be needed for people waiting for tables in the diner, if nothing else.
I love AMTRAK!!! I also have Phase three. Though I’m starting to like Phase IVB more. I have the P42s in Phase III and Phase IV. I often run my Amfleet consist in the Lincoln Service or Saluki. I used to have the Superliners a while ago but sold them which I now regret but at the time they couldn’t handle my curves on my layout.