Viewliner II - Part 1 - Initial Production and Delivery

[Steve4031]

Looks like a baggage car.

 

[PRR 60]

Looks like a baggage car.

Yep. And, can I say those vents on the roof look ugly. Wasn't there some other way to vent other than those four things that look like attic vents bought from Home Depot?

 

[NE933]

So do we know if and when one of them will go to Hialeah? I am vacationing in Florida and would love to see the first new Viewliner in over twenty years.

 

[neroden]

There has to be a cheaper way of moving one car, rather than having two engines, an Amfleet (I'm guessing this is to satisfy the twelve-axle rule present on a number of railroads), Amtrak crews, and freight crews.

I guess one of two things is possible:

(1) Only one car is ready. (Ouch. Geez. Hope not.)

(2) The equipment move itself is actually a form of testing, and if it goes well future cars can be brought in as freight shipments along the same route with much less overhead. (Hope this is it.)

 

[edjbox]

any more pics beside the ones on trainorders.com???

 

[printman2000]

Video...

 

[The Journalist]

Interesting mixture of paint schemes on that train. I like the Amtrak America/Phase IIIb(?) scheme a lot, though.

 

[afigg]

There has to be a cheaper way of moving one car, rather than having two engines, an Amfleet (I'm guessing this is to satisfy the twelve-axle rule present on a number of railroads), Amtrak crews, and freight crews.

I guess one of two things is possible:

(1) Only one car is ready. (Ouch. Geez. Hope not.)

(2) The equipment move itself is actually a form of testing, and if it goes well future cars can be brought in as freight shipments along the same route with much less overhead. (Hope this is it.)

The Amfleet I cafe car may be along so the crew picking up the Viewliner have a place to sit and work. Amtrak apparently still has a surplus of Am I cafe cars.

This is the first delivery, so moving just one baggage car for testing both the delivery procedure and the car for speed & stability test is understandable. The question is how long will it be before the next car or cars are moved from Elmira? Next week? Several weeks? Longer? We will have to wait and find out.

Meanwhile, the new baggage car will be one intensely photographed and videoed new baggage car.

 

[mfastx]

Why is the new car in an older paint scheme? Did I miss something?

 

[neroden]

Amtrak is slowly planning to repaint (well, actually, "re-vinyl") the equipment for the so-called "long distance" services into this new paint scheme, as part of an "Amtrak America" branding scheme for the so-called "long distance" services.

It isn't actually Phase III paint, though it's sort of similar -- call it IIIb. This was announced some time back.

 

[MikefromCrete]

That's the way the cars previewed a few months ago were painted. Who knows why? Maybe somebody high in Amtrak's command likes the old paint scheme.

 

[MattW]

Amtrak is slowly planning to repaint (well, actually, "re-vinyl") the equipment for the so-called "long distance" services into this new paint scheme, as part of an "Amtrak America" branding scheme for the so-called "long distance" services.

It isn't actually Phase III paint, though it's sort of similar -- call it IIIb. This was announced some time back.

I thought that it was later reported that the Phase III scheme would be temporary?

 

[neroden]

I didn't see that. Do you have a citation?

They use vinyl wraps for everything now, so it's become much simpler to change "paint" schemes.

 

[PerRock]

Amtrak is slowly planning to repaint (well, actually, "re-vinyl") the equipment for the so-called "long distance" services into this new paint scheme, as part of an "Amtrak America" branding scheme for the so-called "long distance" services.

It isn't actually Phase III paint, though it's sort of similar -- call it IIIb. This was announced some time back.

I thought that it was later reported that the Phase III scheme would be temporary?

I haven't heard anything official one way or another. One would think if they were re-branding Long-Dist we would have seen more existing cars being put into this scheme. Also the question has to be asked, why didn't Indianapolis get the IIIb scheme? I'm leaning towards believing that the new Viewliners are getting this scheme as a temporary "hey look we got new cars" paint scheme, but who knows at this point.

peter

 

[Big Iron]

I like the red springs in the trucks.

 

[PerRock]

this picture just showed up in my FB feed:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3841216

peter

 

[Guest]

The cars look awesome but idk why but these cars look more like Acela cars than Viewliner I.

 

[cpamtfan]

The Amfleet I cafe is there so the train can run at MAS. Light engine moves have a speed restriction.

 

[neroden]

Also the question has to be asked, why didn't Indianapolis get the IIIb scheme?

Done well before the announcement.

I'm leaning towards believing that the new Viewliners are getting this scheme as a temporary "hey look we got new cars" paint scheme, but who knows at this point.

Could be something to that... on the other hand, we've also heard that Amtrak is planning to send the Viewliner Is through the shop after the Viewliner IIs have arrived. They might show up in the new paint scheme after that.

 

[Palmetto]

The Amfleet I cafe is there so the train can run at MAS. Light engine moves have a speed restriction.

This suprises me in that MAS between Elmira and Albany/Rens is high enough to justify the Amfleet car. I'm assuming that this move terminates at Rens.

 

[MattW]

The Amfleet I cafe is there so the train can run at MAS. Light engine moves have a speed restriction.

This suprises me in that MAS between Elmira and Albany/Rens is high enough to justify the Amfleet car. I'm assuming that this move terminates at Rens.

I read elsewhere that the speed would be 50mph in some places. With light engines they could probably only go 30, though each railroad has their own speeds for light engine moves.

 

[NE933]

So, any word on the Viewliner II baggage car - what's it doing, any more releases plannened in the next few days, etc?

 

[neroden]

Nope, no word. I presume it is undergoing top-secret testing in Albany. ;-)

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Maybe they're getting hobo approvals. h34r:

 

[NE933]

Lol!! Thanks for making me smile! Oh, that is too funny. I wouldn't mind playing the hobo!!