Pure speculation. Maybe Amtrak meant to replace the PPCs with the new Nippon (NS ) bi levels. When that became moot it was time to park the PPCs and plan for other equipment allocations ?
VIA’s stainless steel “heritage” equipment is starting to fall into this category. They are already planning to retire the ex-Amtrak coaches, which have mainly been used in Eastern corridor service.
Nothing lasts forever, not even stainless steel. Ride while you still can.
Yes I figured though I think the VIA CP equipment was approx ten years newer than most of the equipment originially conveyed to Amtrak in 1971. Not sure of the CN equipment but I seem to remember that CP ordered it’s equipment in the 1950’s possibly the mid-1950’s.
I’ve got plenty of miles though in Vista Domes when Amtrak ran them as well as the Super Domes (mostly excursions). I have so much vacation time now that I work with the government (but still a private company)…they gave me 3 weeks to start, and well with all the holidays I only spent 2 weeks last year so this year I have 4 weeks plus a week of Holidays and another week of sick days, that coupled with I get to work at home almost exclusively…almost like I am retired. So I might use it as an opportunity to ride the Canadian Coast to Coast but only one way. Too much time on a train round trip without stopovers.
Returning from the Chicago Electric Railfan Association this evening, I noted that we were on a recently refurbished Budd Bilevel Stainless Steel Commuter coach #753. I got into conversation about it with our conductor who went to the electrical locker and came back with the cars maintenance card. It indicates that the car was built in 1957 (with steam heat and incandescent dc lighting similar to the PPC) and is owned by the West Suburban Mass Transit District. in 1972, The West Suburban Mass Transit District (WSMTD) was formed by communities along the line to help the CB&Q RR secure ferderal funding for capital improvements. The Railroad transferred ownership of thier bilevel commuter cars to WSMTD as part of the development. So these commuter cars are almost as old as the Pacific Parlor Cars. Car looked good, rode well, had new LED emergency lights. (These were noted as they activate when the hotel power is transfered from shore power to HEP) While it was built in 1957, Metra rebuit it in 1973 and it got 480 volt Air Conditioning, Heat and Lighting. Now it has been refurbished. It will be interesting to see how long it continues in service. Metra is starved for capitol as the state and the feds want to starve public services it seems. So Metra is now planning to buy used 1998 Amtrak Los Angeles based MP59PHI’s being made surplus by the new Siemans
Trinity Rail Express in Dallas started with second hand GO Transit Equipment and still has it in use. Would do Chicago taxpayers well to exercise a little more financial restraint now and then. Metra also likes the Chinese or Cecil B DeMille approach to railroad employment compared to Trinity Railway Express which outsources most operational railroad employment to Herzog. Metra loves it’s ticket sellers with the human touch, TRE has automated kiosks. Metra conductors are on each train checking tickets, TRE only spots checks and predominately uses the honor system since it realizes ticket revenue is ONLY a part of operation when the government subsidizes you each year. Metra has had issues with croynism in the past, TRE has not.
In regards to the commute cars. Since Metra doesn’t keep very good stats on wihich it might be held accountable. It trully would be interesting to see how many turns or roundtrips each commutter car made each day to their outlying points and the downtown stations each day. Or at least a miles per day per car figure. That would make for interesting reading because I see a lot of cars owned by Metra only used in peak service and just basically sitting parked for most of the day. If I had to guess I would guess the average Amtrak car puts on more miles in a day than a Metra car does. Additionally, the average Amtrak car is probably subjected to more stress due to the higher speed nature of intercity transport and the climate changes that a Long Distance train might experience just on a one way trip vs a locally run commutter car.
I’d have thought just about the opposite. Most high-speed running would affect the trucks far more than the carbody, and the speed changes would be much lower, particularly in braking.
Average commuter service on the other hand involves considerable repeated buff and draft, often with capacity load, numerous times in a single trip. This would be exacerbated in push mode if there were any accumulated slack in the draft gear; I remember some pretty good nudges and even some outright bangs on Metro-North back in the FL9 years, and a different sort of whump at about 5mph or so from Penn Line trains inbound to Washington with HHP8s.
I’d also suspect thermal-cycling effects to be more pronounced ‘inside to outside’ for commuter cars as all the doors repeatedly open and close in winter or summer compared to the extremes on, say, a Coast Starlight run (and those can indeed be dramatic but are usually fairly slow transition at current Amtrak speeds).
Most large suburban operations have pretty sharp rush-hour peak demands which makes efficient equipment and crew utilization difficult at best. Almost the entire car fleet is needed to cover morning and evening peaks but less than half is needed to cover midday and weekend base service.
Metra has also had to deal with complaints from riders regarding the closure of manned ticket agencies, which can quickly turn into a political issue.
Oh I agree, the population needs to want change before change happens. I think the whole state would rather just pay the iterative tax increases then reform anyones operations or operating budget / practices. Thats my perception.
Question: Did any of the other El Cap equipment get saved? Any in museums or tourist railroads? Coaches, diners, transition-dorm cars?
If something was once built by man - it can be rebuilt by man also.
The only thing in questgion is the price!
I am glad I got to ride one of them when I took Coast Starlight from Portland to San Francisco on CZ in 2003. We had to be bused to Eugene, OR because of UP track work and boarded train at Klamath Falls about 10 pm. The diner was kept open for those of us in first class and we had free wine with our meal, since we had missed the wine/cheese party. The steward did give me a small bottle of wine to take when I talked to him the next morning. Beautiful car and glad I got to see it. Reminded me of my trips on original CZ and all Pullman UP City of Los Angeles with friends. Never was able to ride those trains with Dad’s pass. Sorry to hear they are going but it probably does have to do with older equipment finding it hard to find replacements. Glad you caught them passing on video and thanks for sharing.
Gee it’s great to have an airline guy running our passenger railroad, isn’t it?
Almost as good as having a railroad guy running a airline.
Sad to see them go. My only ride on the Coast Starlight was new years eve 2010/NYD2011. I had lost my job in the beginning of December and so I couldn’t afford first class. I think it does a disservice to suggest they were under patronized. Us west coasters love our local wines and craft beers. A shame it was only for first class. I suspect such service would have been well patronized across the board. To the point that 2 lounges could have been justified.