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I think its safe to say that Talgo cab car is totaled and I don't see how that set operates without it. Is there *any* spare equipment anywhere that can be subbed in? Last summer I noticed there was a Horizon set with a Viewliner baggage car at the end and no NPCU running but I think I only saw...

Internal systems like plumbing, HVAC, and electrical may need partial or complete replacement but those aren't necessarily life-limiting issues. In fact, if Amtrak was properly capitalized, these systems would have been rehabbed on the Superliners a long time ago. As an example, the last...

I might be ignorant of all the limiting factors, but the average lifespan of a passenger railcar in the US has been about 50 years. VIA has squeezed even more out of the all-stainless Budd cars they inherited from Canadian Pacific, albeit their operations are on a vastly smaller scale and some...

Came here just to say that Lark would be a much better name than "Dreamstar." :cool: I think this could be viable if and only if it runs from LAUPT and then up the peninsula into San Francisco proper. If passengers have to commute into SF from the Oakland area after they arrive its going to be...

Agreed. The fact that it is a manufacturing problem means we're seeing it go all the way up the supply chain to airliner manufacturers, it has gotten quite ugly. Its not just maintenance, either: its the design philosophy: the 737 is based on a 70 year old airframe that dates back to the...

You're probably talking about the WLBm 172: https://heros-rail.com/images/PDFs_UK/Data_sheet_WLABm_171_and_WLBm_172.pdf. No single accommodations, but in my opinion it is still a better design than Superliner. I'm not sure if it could fit in NEC tunnels or meet all the various platform height...

I'm curious how it reduces costs long term, exactly. Shorter trains = smaller onboard staff requirements, easier to load and unload at stations, lower cost-per-seat maintenance needs. There are established and clear reasons why railroads around the world pursue bilevel rolling stock on...

This is the way. The Amfleet replacement should have been bilevel (a TGV Duplex isn't as tall as NJT's Bombardier MultiLevels, so yes, it can be done). Its not worth the trouble for long distance.

On cold days railroads will heat switches using propane and natural gas burners. In excessive heat there isn't much that can be done to prevent damage, but the tracks are regularly inspected, including using computer aided vision and drones to look for conditions that could cause a derailment.

$2 in 1963 is approximately $20 today according to the consensus of various internet search results I got. Does today's quality match what AT&SF offered? Probably not, but something to think about anyway.

Much love for the slumbercoaches for their price though- if the most important thing to you was privacy and a bed, and you weren't going to need to have all 3 meals in the diner it was a good deal. You bring up a good point- there's a need for an "unbundled" sleeper experience for those on board...

For sure! And so exotic compared to today...I remember a brief time when the Auto Train buffet cars did duty on the Silver Star, and ex-PRR Budd lounges occasionally filled in for the Amfleet II lounges- I believe those cars were permanently assigned to the Tampa section for most of the 1980s...

Its definitely not the first time a P32BH has been called in to pinch-hit, and they used to regularly power the Pennsylvanian, a much lighter train but ascending more hills than a Florida train would. These routes are pretty flat- a single F40PH powered the JAX-MIA and JAX-TPA sections of these...

In my opinion, airlines in North America fall into these 3 broad categories, ranked by the amount of misery you are likely to experience traveling with them from least to greatest: 1. Would be a poor airline on any other continent: Delta. 2. Distasteful but somewhat reliable: Air Canada...

"What is the mission that amtrak's long-distance service is fulfilling?" - to put it bluntly, acting as placeholders for future short- and medium-distance passenger rail corridors so that right-of-way, stations, and other infrastructure needed to develop those services isn't lost forever. I...

I love the Canadian but it simply isn't fulfilling the same mission as Amtrak's services. Not even the long-distance ones. Its not the 1950s and it won't ever be again. I am not saying that Amtrak's services can't or shouldn't be improved, but nostalgia for this kind of operation isn't going to...

The worst thing about airline food is the inconsistency. I've had buy-on-board meals that ranged from edible to dumpster-ready. Business class and transoceanic meals have never been, to their credit, that bad, but there's still much too wide a variance in the offerings especially considering...

Just another person chiming in to say that I'd be very sad to see lie-flat seats on trains. Train travel is better than air travel generally, no need to pursue the lowest common denominator. I'm curious as to whether today's travelers would ride in open sections on trains. I know that the...

Color me unfazed. In the days before operating a railroad became too expensive, ND got hit by plenty of winter storms. The rotary snowplow is an impressive invention and BNSF has them: Plowing ahead: Heavy snowfall is no problem for BNSF’s rotary snowplows.

I am too young, but my mom told me about flying in one of these from NYC to Puerto Rico. She told me that it was loud and those big 4 piston engines vibrated the cabin a lot.