In a previous Trains Magazine, they did a story on Amtrak’s three backshops. The way the author wrote it, it was if to say that these shops were the back bone of the system and were the primarily responsible for the daily operations of our company. Well, I’m a machinist who works in the shops in Washington, DC and
I’ll be the first to tell you that the Washington Terminal shops & yard are “THE
BEST” in the entire Amtrak system…“HANDS DOWN”!! Sure, these back shops do their amount of heavy repair work. Well, so do we! When those other shops were back logged, the locomotives and cars that needed preventative main-
tenance (badly), were sent Washington! We have two 24hr wheel truing ma-
chines (1 on the coventional side & 1 on the high speed rail side), along with a 24hr service & inspection shops, as well as a 24hr repair shops. We handle a host of various equipment: electric & diesel locomotives, as well as amfleet, superliner, heritage and high speed train-sets. So you see, we do alot that these other shops don’t get to do. We here in Washington Terminal handle the bulk of the Northeast Corridor’s train schedule and a few of the long distance runs. So, I challange anyone on any railroad to show me that their terminal’s shops or yards are better than Washington Terminal or the best in their railroad’s system!!
Glenn
A Real Railroader!!