Hi, I have not been on since last year. Having too much fun since retiring from CSX in 2017 and embarking on consulting this past year. While on the freight side for 32+ years I have been all over the US on Amtrak over that time and do clinics at prototype modeler meets on passenger trains, cars etc. I also have some knowledgeable contacts.
Great discussion, I have some comments and observations.
1 - MHCs
There were two series of MHC's built for Amtrak, the 1400 series followed by the 1500 series. The 1400 series rode on overhauled express reefer trucks cast in the 1950's/1960's while the 1500 series rode on new GSI G70 trucks (same as Horizon, Superliner II, Viewliner I/II). I believe the cars on which the speed restriction was placed on were the 1400 series with the older trucks after a nasty derailment of the Lake Shore limited.
As far as I know all of the 1400 series car gone, I did see a number of 1500 series in MOW service in the NEC in January but they are now quite old. Using a box car design or MHC for baggage service is problematic. You need access through an end door, which they do not have, and modifying them can be a structural issue. Then there are the doors, which are harder to open and close. While you can add snubbers and spring packages to allow running freight trucks up to 90 (as was the case of the box express cars Amtrak added in the 1990's), you cannot go 110 let alone 125. On the plus side, going with 70 Viewliner shells for the baggage cars gave them some practice and probably reduced the per unit cost for all of the shells.
Of note, the original spec for the current Auto Train auto carriers was for a speed of 90 MPH. I was working with Johnstown (now Freight Car America) on some new cars for the CSX phosphate service (we did not build them) and a Johnstown rep meeting with me in Tampa in 1999 was going to Sanford and showed them to me. He did not understand that speed as Auto Train ran at 70. I suggested that Amtrak was still probably fantasizing on running some on the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Arizona (which of course never happened). I do not know if the cars actually built several years later have that capability.
2 - The Viewliner II order, cars, changes and deployment
While this order has moved slower than a glacier, at least the cars are being built (unlike the CA and Mid-west bi-levels). The original order had a base of 130 cars: 25 each of sleepers, diners, baggage dorms and 55 baggage cars. There was a 70 car option: 15 diners, 15 baggage dorms, 10 sleepers and 30 baggage cars.
Intent - who knows now, as noted earlier in this forum we are two or three generations of Amtrak managers removed from the original orders. But I can add this, the Star, Meteor, Crescent and Lake Shore require 16 sets to cover, the Cardinal 2 (Tri-weekly), plus spare reserve. So, that's 18 sets, and 7 spares (enough to cover a daily Cardinal).
The base order would have covered those 18 sets with new diners, baggage dorms and add a sleeper to each, with 7 spares. As for the options, they would have allowed for the Palmetto to be extended to Miami (again) as a revival of the Silver Palm (which was part of a plan to add service to the FEC by re-routing the Silver Meteor over the FEC from Jacksonville to West Palm Beach), 4 sets of diners/sleepers would have been required, and perhaps revival of the Broadway or conversion of the Capital to single level cars (3-4 sets). With the long delays, these were not exercised.
As for the baggage cars. The 55 car base order would have barely covered the long haul trains equipped with heritage baggage cars and none of the regional trains. The 30 options would have covered the rest and would have allowed addition of checked baggage service to select NEC trains (that was their plan). With the options gone, they still needed to retire all the heritage baggage cars. The 15 obtained by cutting the baggage dorm order covered all existing assignments, long distance and regional (barely), but bailed on the NEC addition.
Baggage dorms were common prior to 1994 on all long hauls (of course out west the steam heated ones were replaced in 1981 by ex-Santa Fe hi-level transition coaches which had dorm space added to half the car). With only 10 left on the base order, and the dwindling number of onboard service people, one wonders where they will go. They were intended to house the diner and lounge staff, and as a place for the coach attendants to take a break (the sleeper attendants have a room in their car). I think the original plan was for 4 to be assigned to the Lake Shore (perhaps to Boston), and 2 assigned to the Cardinal makes sense to me. That would be 6 of the 10, but who knows now. Another odd thing I heard was that since there was no accessible bedroom on the cars they could not sell any of the roomettes as revenue space. Do not know if that is true, after all while they sell roomettes in the Superliner crew-dorms they never sell the accessible room in that car as far as I know.
Well, I guess we will all find out sometime this year! I was startled yet pleased to see the diner Albany on 97 Palatka, FL in March, so all the diners have arrived, finally.
Walter
