The Amfleet I was built to cost-effectively utilize the contemporary engineering of the MU Metroliner car bodies, which are very strong, and built for high speed use. Since the carbodies have curved walls, it would have been difficult to make the straight windows any higher. The Amfleet II's were re-engineered somewhat to allow somewhat taller windows.Since the primary mission of the "Corridor Cars" (Metroliner's) was to operate primarily in the NEC, where scenery was not much of a factor, the smaller windows were considered sufficient for the purpose. They had the added benefit of being smaller (and sturdier) targets for rock-throwing vandals, which were common along the right-of-way of the period.
I'm just glad the cars are strong. I like durable equipment, it's safer and just better overall.
How did those rock-throwers go away? There's still a large number of train vandals hanging around, the same with the buses. Vandals are the bane of ground transportation.
It was just the Pennsy trying to make their Metroliners look like the shuttle planes that flew the NEC. But it didn't work, 'cause the PRR went bankrupt (as Penn Central) anyway. Greyhound's MC-7 and MC-8 buses from the same time period didn't go with the flow of the planes, instead they made windows bigger and bigger.
As I understand it, the Amfleets common in the east were designed to mimic the aesthetics of an airliner, thinking that was the "modern" way of things. As part of that aesthetic, they used windows smaller than commonly found on other coach designs
I would say that Amtrak's Amfleet windows are larger than even the large windows featured in the new Boeing 787.
Can't think of the last time I, or anyone I have ever met, took a flight on an airliner to look out the window.....?
Ha! I refuse to fly unless I have a window seat.
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Me too! I hated my flight in the "middle-middle" seat of an United 77E. Not again!
I think there is a better case that the Metroliners, buggy though they were, were a success insofar as the business they generated. The thing to remember about the Penn Central is how much of a (no pun intended) train wreck it was. Even if they had woken up on merger day with a NEC capable of supporting 2:30 WAS-NYP and 3:00 NYP-BOS, equipment capable of doing that, and no ROW issues, it wouldn't have saved the company. Bought time? Sure...but even in a best-case scenario we might be talking about the Penn Central's bankruptcy after Hurricane Agnes instead of it happening in 1970. There were just too many lines in need of abandonment and too many internal integration issues for the company to work.
Ah, poor PC. I did not live then to know what was actually going on. Thankfully Conrail saved it.
Amfleets are the smoothe highspeed limosenes on rails. As long as the track was just reballasted and relaid, I would trust having a dentist remove a wisdom in one flying at 130mph, in one of the Amfleet II coach seats, which go all the way back with leg and footrests.
Confusing spelling, but I get it!
