I was browsing RailPictures when I came across this photo from 2000 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=13172. Do any of you know more about this situation?
Erik
My guess would be that the normal locomotive was in for repairs or service.
When Amtrak took over the Valparaiso suburban locals from Conrail, they re-equipped them with the ex-C&NW long-haul bi-levels, none of which had control cabs. Originally, 2 P30CH’s back-to-back were used as power, switching from one end to the other at the end of the run. Later, Amtrak used an F40PH at one end with a CR GP7 or GP9 on the other end. After that, some of the coaches were equipped with control cabs.
Well, it’s the Amtrak Cascades Talgo train by the looks of it. The F59PHI on that particular end of the train probably had to be taken off, or there was no Amtrak power available, so they slapped on that Espee Geep instead (was probably nearby at the time).
Amtrak has an interesting deal that they do on the Milwaukee - Chicago HIawathas. They have a normal locomotive on one end of the set of 6 or so cars. On the other end, instead of a cab car, they have a FP40 shell - with the prime mover taken out. They use the normal control stand to remotely control the other locomotive. The area where the prime mover was has been converted to baggage and they have a roll up door in the side of the carbody of the locomotive. Kinda interesting.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=74379
I know about those very well! There are some in use in the Cascades paint up in the NW corridor that are used now on one end instead of 2 F59PHi’s.
In fact, I’m modeling one in my fictional “Amtrak Midwest” paint scheme (which is extraordinarily similar to Ph. 5 except the words “midwest” were added to the logo).
The crews call them (not affectionately) as “Cabbages”. But they DO like them for the safety factor.