Viewliner II Part 2: Dining Car Production, Delivery, Speculation

[mgl1978]

Spotting Viewliner 2 Cars 6/21/2017

#19

 

[tommylicious]

Nice! Put 'em on the LSL already!

 

[TommyBNSF]

Neat to see 8400 and the VL2 Diner in the same consist.

 

[Thirdrail7]

AmtrakBlue reporting in, Sir! Mission accomplished.

 

[Jacob Goes By Jack]

Does anyone know if these two are in revenue service now, or still being worked on in Hialeah?

 

[KnightRail]

Does anyone know if these two are in revenue service now, or still being worked on in Hialeah?

That's a negative on revenue service. Only one on the road this week has been Atlanta.

 

[A Voice]

Does anyone know if these two are in revenue service now, or still being worked on in Hialeah?

That's a negative on revenue service. Only one on the road this week has been Atlanta.

Are Annapolis and Augusta out of service for something?

 

[KnightRail]

"Heat wave" in Annapolis

 

[AmtrakLKL]

68005 went live on 98 today.

 

[pennyk]

68005 went live on 98 today.

missed it by a day. Darn!

 

[neroden]

OK, so which of these are on the road now? Sounds like Annapolis is being repaired, Albany is being modified, and Baton Rouge hasn't come out of its Amtrak inspection yet.

So are Indianapolis, Augusta, Atlanta, and Boston all rolling? Or are some of them in the shop too?

If they all get fixed, that barely covers the existing decrepit levels of dining car service. I can't wait to see more cars out. At least three more seem to be needed before we get decent breakfasts back on the LSL -- probably more.

Of course I know nobody can really answer this question since nobody outside CAF or the very high levels of Amtrak will know until the last minute. But geez, when can we expect more?

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

OK, so which of these are on the road now? Sounds like Annapolis is being repaired, Albany is being modified, and Baton Rouge hasn't come out of its Amtrak inspection yet.

So are Indianapolis, Augusta, Atlanta, and Boston all rolling? Or are some of them in the shop too?

If they all get fixed, that barely covers the existing decrepit levels of dining car service. I can't wait to see more cars out. At least three more seem to be needed before we get decent breakfasts back on the LSL -- probably more.

Of course I know nobody can really answer this question since nobody outside CAF or the very high levels of Amtrak will know until the last minute. But geez, when can we expect more?

I believe Augusta is not in service at this time; I am not informed as to why. Theoretically, if even these 7 cars could be active at the present they could occupy all the active consists of the SM and Crescent. Obviously, there would still need to be usable Heritage diners because of maintenance and the need for protect cars.

 

[neroden]

Thank you. Geez, three cars operating, four in the shop, no timeline for more deliveries... ugh.

 

[DennisInGeorgia]

Just so long as there's a VL diner on 20 nb from ATL Aug 9 AND we can board before the diner is closed, we can handle anything else

 

[A Voice]

Just so long as there's a VL diner on 20 nb from ATL Aug 9 AND we can board before the diner is closed, we can handle anything else

While it's possible you'll have a Viewliner dining car, it is more likely you will still have a Heritage diner. Even if all the currently delivered cars are in service by then, there aren't enough yet to cover all sets of both the Crescent and Silver Meteor.

 

[west point]

FYI. The May MPR showed 3 Heritage diners were worked on at Beech and released the past few months including May and one additional being worked on at New Orleans. The MPR did not specify what work was done at BEE ?

 

[Thirdrail7]

68004 is clear and free to navigate.

 

[Ngotwalt]

Have they worked out a fix for the air conditioning yet? Any word if Annapolis and Augusta are back in service yet?

Nick

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

I have seen all three of the Crescent consists in Atlanta over the past three days and none of them had a Viewliner diner. Now with Baton Rouge operating there are 4 active Viewliner diners, which is enough to equip all the active consists of the SM.

 

[dlagrua]

After following this thread since it started, I have arrived at the conclusion that the CAF Viewliner order will never be completed. We will probably see a car come out of production now and then but since CAF underbid the contract, they lose money with each delivery. If you disagree; let me know when the first sleepers are delivered , put in use and I'll buy you a drink.

 

[KnightRail]

^you are going to be buying a lot of drinks. That would be a much safer bet on the Nippon Sharyo contract which at this point is fantasy.

 

[Lonestar648]

Could CAF be lobbing Congress to pressure for the contract cancellation? That would make the Anti Amtrak crowd happy because it puts Amtrak in an equipment bind.

 

[jis]

The contract is not with Congress. So nominally Congress should have nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact there was no Congressional appropriation in support of this contract to start with either.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

^you are going to be buying a lot of drinks. That would be a much safer bet on the Nippon Sharyo contract which at this point is fantasy.

So name a date and place a bet and we'll see who wins.

 

[A Voice]

After following this thread since it started, I have arrived at the conclusion that the CAF Viewliner order will never be completed. We will probably see a car come out of production now and then but since CAF underbid the contract, they lose money with each delivery. If you disagree; let me know when the first sleepers are delivered , put in use and I'll buy you a drink.

I'll have a large Sweet Tea please.

No matter how slow the delivery, the last Viewliner car will eventually be delivered. As KnightRail alluded to, CAF is no Nippon-Sharyo. From reports, Amtrak is relatively satisfied with the Viewliner order aside from the glacial pace of completion.