Observation Cars

Classic Trains General Discussion
1

I see this was an old “post” that was put up again for discussion.

Back in the late '70’s -maybe early '80, Amtrak sent a few “Obs” east to Albany to fill out consists due to increasing ridership between Albany and New York. One had a diaphram (hope I spelled that right!) and the other a “straight” (that is, rounded end on rear) “Obs”.

If I remember correctly (I worked trains with these cars in the consist as Conductor), the one with the “diaphram” had the car in the front of the consist with observation end next to the engine. The one with the regular end, was placed on the end of the consist “properly pointed” (in railroad parlance!).

These cars stayed mostly in ALB-NYG-ALB service, but they did “stray”, once or twice to Montreal and a few times to Detroit(!) and Buffalo.

I remember one instance (with the “properly pointed” obs), I was the “Helper Conductor” (Amtrak changed it to “Assistant Conductor” when they assumed T & E in the '80’s) on #63 NYG-ALB (it was still running all the way to Detroit then), with a good friend “P.J.” as the Cdr on 12/22/78. It was a few days into the “Christmas Rush”, we had 14(!!!) cars, well over 600 passengers, and just P.J. and I working the train to ALB! We gave up trying to pick up “transportation(tickets)” and concentrated on getting people off/on at thier stations up the line…this was in days before radios, all signalling was done “hand” and signal cord to the engineer upfront…P.J. and I never saw each other after Croton (eng change from electric to diesel) until Albany! Over the years P.J. always had as good laugh about this and the old observation car on the rear!

The obs were sent west to Chicago a few monts later and I think that was the end of them…but can you imagine…a 14 car passenger train with a “properly pointed” observation car

2

Thank you for that wonderful reminiscence! It must have been quite a sight (and quite a ride!).

Any other stories form those days?

3

Oh yeah I have a few…maybe I’ll write them up for the Penn Central Post magazine.

But I drive my wife crazy every time we are stopped at a RR xing, and a freight train goes by and I say “should be a caboose on the rear of that train”. I can’t stand watching a frt go by and see “Billy the Blinkin’ Brakeman” hanging on for dear life on the rear knuckle! That “FRED” device cost us too many good jobs…but like they say “time and tide stops for no man”, same on the RR.

4

But, fortunately, Billy and Fred have saved thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths of hind end crewmembers. Slack action on a mile long train will displace one from the train side end of the caboose to behind the hind coupler, physical condition aside. Seriously, it has been a blessing in cutting injuries along with a lots of buying and maintaining cabooses.

5

Amtrak’s oddball cars were a fascinating mix. The killer for most of them was the need to convert to electric heat which ended up being practical only for large groups of similar cars.

From 1971 until the Daylight/Starlight (as it was then) went daily north of Oakland we had the “Short Train” between Oakland and LA four days a week. The train usually had a pair of SP SDP45s leading, a mostly ex-ATSF consist of baggage, several coaches and a diner, and an ex-Seaboard round end obs on the rear. The “Long Train” from Seattle had an ex-ACL flat-end obs cut in mid train.

6

Over the years I rode in many an observation car but two trips stand out as being particularly memorable. The first was in the winter of 1946 when I was 14 and travelling alone from Chicago to Florida on the South Wind. Early on the second morning out I headed from my coach seat to the observation car as the train left Valdosta. My only other companion at that early hour was a very young Flagman who looked ill at ease in his brand new uniform. I remember rolling through the fog shrouded turpentine pine forests of south Georgia watching the semaphores lift to vertical as we sped past each one. After about an hour and a half of this bliss, as the train neared Waycross, I headed to the diner for breakfast.

The other was in 1962 or '63 on board the Phoebe Snow when my wife and our two young children took a round trip from Summit, NJ to Chicago in a double bedroom. I had opted to take the Phoebe since Summit was a short taxi ride from our home in neighboring Madison which was more convenient than going into Newark to catch the faster Broadway or into NYC to take the 20th Century. We were the only ones boarding the Phoebe that snowy morning in Summit and for a long time were the only passengers in the train’s single sleeper. The sleeper gradually filled up over the day and evening and was fully occupied arriving in Chicago the next morning. Bill White had returned the Phoebe’s beautiful square ended observation car to service restoring the train to its earlier grandeur. We rode the car most of the morning while passing through the scenic Poconos and again in the afternoon after lunch. This was the kids first train trip and they had a great time sipping on Cokes while my wife and I partook of stronger libations as we viewed the wintery New York snow scape from the observation car’s rear windows.

Mark

7

My first encounter with an observation car was on The Panama Limited the morning after I graduated from high school. We were late out of Jackson going to New Orleans. Mr. Johnston did not like for “his train” to be late, so we were really moving through the swamps of Louisiana. We were sitting in the observation car (actually a refugee from the St.Louis-Chicago lines) after breakfast with our railroad-supplied newspaper when I noticed the car has settled into a REAL TIGHT vibration. I pulled out my 992B Hamilton (even then) and timed us through several mile posts. My friend from high school asked me what I was doing. I told him, “Mike: believe it or not, we’re moving at 101 mph in this antique.” PS: we arrived OT at NOUPT. PPS:This car is STILL running as one of Iowa Pacific’s charter cars on Amtrak’s City of New Orleans.

8

Wayne Johnston’s passion for “his train” was legendary. He’d watch its daily arrival from his office in Central Station and if it was more than a few minutes late from the advertised 8:45 am time he’d be on the phone to C.J. Fitzgerald, Operating VP, with the question, "Where’s the Panama, Fitz? Needless to say Fitzgerald had the answer at hand as he already had reports from his division superintendents giving details of any delays in the Panama’s progress both north and southbound.

Mark

9

Coming from Australia we sadly didn’t have the passenger rail network you guys have/had. We did however have two trains in Australia that featured rounded end observation cars. The first was the Spirit of Progress built in Victoria in 1937 to American design. This train ran from Melbourne, Victoria to Albury the border of New South Wales and included a beatiful round end observation car. Known as the Norman Car it has been preserved and I’ve had the pleasure of riding in it several times. The Commonwealth Railways operating the Trans australia Line from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie built two new streamliner sets in 1951 and commisioned three sleeper-observation cars of which one remains. These were beautiful cars built by Wegmann in Germany. I rode The Trans Australian several times and it was wonderful to ride across the Nullabor Plain in them. My experience with observation cars was renewed in 2012 when I travelled in the Park cars of The Canadian and The Ocean when in Canada. Again a superb experience.

10

Fortunately I was around when many of the great trains still carried streamlined Observations, among the trains I rode observations on were the GN Internationals, Western Star, and Empire Builder, NP North Coast Limited, CMSTP&P Olympian Hiawatha, CPR Canadian, Via Canadian, CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr, American Royal Zephyr, Kansas City Zephyr, California Zephyr, D&RGW Rio Grande Zephyr, NYC New England States, ACL Florida Special, and rode a heavyweight Cafe open Platform Observation on the Cascade that was substituting for its regular car.

Al - in - Stockton

11

MY list (some square end) includes the PRR Mountain View on numerous charters, NY-Ptts-NY, NY-Williamsburg-Newport-News-NY, NY-Montreal-NY, NY-Chi-NY, and on the genuine Broadway in all-Pullman days, Chi-Phila. Trail Blazer, NY-Chi. Aso, Silver Meteor, Jax-Southern Pines, Panama Ltd., Carbondale-Chi (3 times)., Rio Grande Zephyr (28 times), California Zephyr, Okland-Chi, Coast Daylight, LA-SF, 20th Century, NY-Chi, Senator, Boston-New Haven, Southener (first experience, age 10), NY-Charlottesville, four times.

By the time I rode the Merchants Ltd., Super Chief, City of LA, New England States, East Coast and West Coast Champions, and Silver Star, they had lost their round-end obs at the rear, sometimes equipped with diagphragm and running mid-train. Empire State Express? Resricted to parlor-car passengers and I was riding coach.

Open platform obs riding was on charters, Chief Illini (Maurie Kleibolt), LVT 353 (Richard Horstmann, about 15 times), PRR 120 (George Pinns on a Branford NY - Chi -NY charter).

12

Dave: As usual, I can’t begin to compete with you. My first experience in a boat-tail car was probably in 1967 on the Seaboard’s Silver Meteor from Hamlet to Miami and back to Raleigh. Next was in 1969 on the CZ from Chicago to Denver. Regrettably, I wasn’t able to go farther West on that trip. Then in 1972 I rode one of C&O’s square-end cars on an Amtrak George Washington/James Whitcomb Riley round trip from Chicago to Washington just before Hurricane Agnes, returning on the first day the train operated Westbound after the storm had passed. Do tourist lines count? Hocking Valley Scenic used to have an O.P. obs. which I rode some time in the 1980’s. And of course E.B.T.'s no. 20 "Orbisonia was my weekend refuge over the years, more times than I can count. Tom

13

And I forgot to mention the Nomad round-trip Durangp - Silverton and the William Jackson Palmer Durango - Farmington round trip (with Rudy Morgenfrue steak dinner cooked on car). (Narrow gauge open platform), summer 1962.