Amtrak, in a recent poorly conceived decision, decided to retire the five Pacific Parlour Cars that were well known and appreciated on the Coast Starlight.
On February 17 and 18, 2018, these cars departed Los Angeles on the eastbound Southwest Chief where we were fortunate to catch them in Albuquerque and Lamy, New Mexico.
Evan Stair, of the Friends of the Southwest Chief, writes:
"Pacific Parlor Car Significance
The Pacific Parlor Cars were originally purchased by the Santa Fe Railway in the 1950s for the Chicago-Kansas City-Los Angeles El Capitan. The El Capitan was the first extra fare Hi-Level intercity coach passenger train.
Three types of cars were purchased. These included coaches, diners, and these lounge cars. Eventually, the Hi-Level equipment spread out over the entire Santa Fe passenger system. You would see Hi-Level coaches on trains such as the Texas Chief and the San Francisco Chief.
Amtrak took over Santa Fe passenger operations in 1971. The Hi-Level cars constituted a portion of the Santa Fe’s payment for joining Amtrak. The Santa Fe transferred other cars to Amtrak, but the Hi-Level cars were unique. In fact, they inspired Amtrak to work with car manufacturers to design and build the Superliners you see today.
The cars migrated to the Coast Starlight and were renamed the Pacific Parlor Cars. These are the last first class lounge cars to run on any Amtrak passenger train. They were unique to the Coast Starlight as their simply were not enough of them to use on other routes.
Re-purposed, the Pacific Parlor Cars were intended to be only for sleeping car passengers while the Superliner Sightseer Lounge was intended for coach passengers. Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson believed these non-revenue cars were an extravagant, non-standard expense the company could no longer afford. No doubt Anderson’s tenure at Delta Airlines has him cutting every pos
Great documentation. Fortunate to have those tumbleweeds trailing near the end.
Somewhere out there is a kid who rode in the cars thinking “I knew this was too good to last”. Shades of the 50’s and steam era, and me.
Thank you. I didn’t even notice the weeds until I was editing the video and thought it was a perfect metaphor.
It’s possible I rode in one of these cars. I was born in 1954 and we used to ride the Super Chief/El Capitan from ABQ to CHI back in the day.
Thank yopu for capturing this and giving them the send off. Nice production and you caught four of the five cars. The inclusion of the tagging at the end (Forgive…,) was nice. I don’t know what the costs involved with keeping them going (or the risks) were that made Amtrak decide to retire them but they were over what is typically the life of a passenger car beng 62 years old. I rode them at least twice and found them to be very pleasing, ride, ambiance and service. Anyone have any knowledge of Amtraks plans for their disposal?
I have no direct knowledge of their plans. However, a few years ago Amtrak issued a long term planning document dealing mostly with equipment acquisitions. It contained a couple of sentences to the effect that cars surplus to their needs MUST be sold to someone guaranteed to scrap them.
I took that to mean that in the future they did not want the situation that has occured with VIA Rail Canada – somebody buys their castoffs, rebuilds the cars and gets millions more miles out of them. Among other things, it’s just too hard to explain that to Congress when asking for money to buy new for Amtrak’s fleet.
There is a slight suspension that these cars have an asbestos problem ?. The long maintenance cycle each year was much longer than other equipment took. A few of the previous monthly performance reports noted that sealing of the cars was a part of the work cycles. If Amtrak did have to seal the asbestos locations it might be a fact that they would not like to become public knowledge.
Amtrak got rid of them for the same reason it is getting rid of the Heritage Baggage cars and Diners. They are old, parts are not standard and some have to be fabricated, in Amtrak’s opinion they are at the end of their useful lives… exactly where Amfleet I will be in another 4-5 years.
I was stationed at Camp Pendleton for all of 1960. I rode the El Capitan from LAX to Chicago and back twice during the year. The high level equipment was unlike anything that I had experienced. I was entralled by the lounge and dining cars.
Things change. Life moves on! Outside of a few rail buffs I suspect most Coast Starlight passengers won’t know that the Pacific Parlour cars are gone. The Coast Starlight is still one of Amtrak’s best rides.
jps1 is right. I doubt if anyone but railfans really care. Few if any people (other than railfans) rode the Coast Starlight because of the Pacific Parlour Cars. Most sleeping car passengers just stay in their rooms moving back and forth to the diner at meal times. Mostly because they are bored and eating is something to do. I rode them once and really enjoyed the sevice and ambiance but there were never more than three or four of us in the cars at any one time.
All I’m saying is that out there somewhere is a kid, who rode in them, who, once they find out they are gone, will think to himself, this was to good to last.
I thought exactly that as a boy and young teen watching the U-4 Streamlined Northerns doing track speed non stop past our otherwise busy station in Burlington. Now they had been around since 1936 and were certainly far from new in 1959 but from my perspective I just knew this was something so good it won’t last.
I suppose most people did not care, but I did, and for certain Yard Limit if he was around.
The last time I rode the Coast Starlight (a year and a half ago), the Parlour was well patronized–especailly when we were running right on the coast (I found the only vacant seat then). On previous trips, it seemed that people did enjoy the quiet that prevailed.
I probably am that kid. I was born in 1954 and my family used to ride the Super Chief/El Capitan from Albuquerque to Chicago to visit my grandparents in Indianapolis. I have probably ridden in one of the PPC’s at one point, although I have no memory of it. I definitely remember the dining car and the dome car!
It’s always nostalgic to see something become a relect of history, but hopefully someone will come along and purchase one of them, just as people have purchased much older cars for private and charter use.
Nothing in railroading lasts forever. We all complained the infamous Trains Magazine curse accelerated many of the things too good to last, but in just as many cases things hung on past the time of decent farewell (as for the A-B-B-A sets of F units on EL) to the point you know it’s time to let go (as with the last running GG1s)
Some good things are more current, if no less bittersweet: I still remember my introduction to AC4400s, no more than weeks in service at that point, curving south off the SSW main to run track speed down to Shreveport … they are far from new, now, and most if not all repainted. There are relatively modern NJT engines that will give you all the urgent mechanical excitement you could want (albeit not looking too carefully at the styling). Heck, there is that whole thing called the Rocky Mountaineer, which I can’t enjoy anywhere near as much as Canadians can, and that I hope runs indefinitely … but it will not be with current equipment, or people, or probably the kind of esthetic it does now.
Reading between the lines it’s a shame there can’t be replacement-in-kind for these hi-level cars. The same was true of the ‘bar cars’ in the New York area, and the private train-club service before it. I can hope they find homes in dinner or excursion service; I think it will not be difficult to place them even if Amtrak nails the door shut on operating them as private cars. And someday, perhaps, either a new service or one of those Ed Ellis style cruise-train ideas will give us a suitable replacement to treasure for a time.
Well said…and it’s quite optimistic!
They should go to Museums around the USA too give them a good home. for people too see how train travel was.[:D]
Since they are hi-level cars, it would take some extra arrangements to properly display them at a museum so the interior could be viewed.
Even at 86 years old, I am truly too young to have experienced open-platform observation-car riding in regular deluxe equipment on premium passenger trains, like the re-1939 Century and Broadway. This, too, wa something too good to last, despite its disadvantages.
However, I did have the good fortune to relive the past on the Suncook Valley mixed, the Waterloo Ceder Falls and Northern interurban, and private car trips and railfan specials in Chief Illini, PRR 120, Lehigh Valley 353, the narrow gauge Nomad and William Jackson Palmer, and a CN Newfy Bullet office car round trip. And with Jack May and Buce Russell some of the CN west of Calgary in a CN office car on the Dominion. And a few of these possibilities still exist for us. So maybe there will be an opporuntity to relive this past as well.
Rode the eastbound ElCap once mostly for the experience, even though I probably could have billed a client for the sleeper. Enjoyed the trip and the lounge car was certainly a contributor.
I think I meant Edmonton and not Calgary!
Yep. They were a connection to the Santa Fe, another era of rail travel, and a uniquely West Coast feature. They are being missed.
Dave, A trip on the Rocky Mountaineer’s Gold class is as close as you can get today. And it is wonderful. Open back deck, Upper level dome seating lower level dining and first class service.