I have seen some 2006 photos on railpictures.net of the Illinois Zephyr with three Superliners instead of Horizon cars. Can any Illinois railfans confirm if this is the new consist or just a two-time occurrence?
It only runs with Superliners during the Winter because Superliners preform better then Horizon’s during the Winter Months.
Different train, same vicinity/situation: I have ridden the Mule when they were using Superliners instead of Horizon cars. I remember it distinctly because somebody left a shopping cart between the rails and I got to see one heck of a light show out the door on the rear of the train.
Here in Aurora we see the train with both types of cars on different days…never seems to be any rhyme or reason as to why.
I would assume the superliners are only for the high traffic times…Holidays and so on.
Only during the Winter for the most part, in the Non-Winter Season it is Horizon’s.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=133186
Now THAT’s a good looking train if you ask me!
It might depend on car availability.
CC
If they run with three Superliners, do they stick a snack coach on to provide meal service? Or does it go without any snack service?
They use a Coach-Cafe. BTW I did see 518 lead 347 this winter, that was a Cool Train. They use Superliners in the Winter when Amtrak sends cars down to FL for the School Boy Special.
I remembr when 518 and her sisters were the only power used on the Southwest Chief man those were the days.
OH Man I remember those days Very Well, Loved the Roaring of the 12 Cyndlers, it was cool to a young kid to hear those units Reeving up when pulling out. I wi***hose days could return.
You have to be one of only a handful of people who doesn’t mind seeing hood units on the point of a premier passenger train. David P Morgan had an interesting editorial comment about this matter back when Seaboard Air Line bought 20 SDP35’s for its passenger pool. DPM opined that the SDP’s would be OK for mail and secondary trains but first-line trains should get E9’s.
Yes the Great DPM loved the streamlined units. I however loved the fact that GE took a basic freight engine stepped up the gearing added a HEP genarator and delivered the lot of 20 in less than 9 months. EMD stated it would take them 2 years to do what GE did. Now who has the better engineers on staff.
I remember one day back in the early 1980’s when I was at the Aurora Amtrak station (before they switched Amtrak to Naperville) and saw the (then) Southwest Limited come in with two SDP40F’s, one E9A, one E8B, and one P30CH…WHAT A CONSIST THAT WAS, and all steam heated to boot!