My sister and her husband came to California to visit us for Christmas.
She took the train (Southwest Chief) from Chicago to Fullerton.
On her train #3 there was a brand new Viewliner baggage car (#61069). Pretty cool to see this brand new car.
Here are a few pics I took of it arriving into Fullerton:
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Matt--
V-Bags first were assigned to #3-4, Chief, consist Dec 15, 2015. There should no longer be any H-Bags remaining in service.
Also of interest is that you photographed #61069 - the final car of the 70 ordered. Therefore, it is a safe assumption that all have been delivered.
Originally, 55 Bags were ordered, however, for whatever reason, 15 additional were added, with a like number of Bag-Dorms being cut.
All told, I'd dare say Amtrak is "flush" with V-Bags. Now what do they do with them all, as 55 was supposedly enough to replace all consists system-wide.
Posted by Southwest Chief (Member # 1227) on :
Thanks for the info Gilbert.
I took these pics Dec 20th 2015.
Kind of sad to see the old heritage baggage cars go. Especially when the former Santa Fe cars were used on the Southwest Chief. But they really had to go.
Also, as much as I like phase III, I have to say I don't like it mixed in with IVb Superliners.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Matt, many of us around here who also participate at the East oriented Railroad Net hold same view with regard to mixing Phase III with IVb. I find it hard to accept that all V-Bags were delivered so liveried.
I had thought Amtrak was just going to livery enough cars in Phase III to have the public "look at our NEW cars" and that eventually all would be reliveried in Phase IV-b. I can only hope time proves me correct.
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
It's not a baggage car, so maybe this topic's name should be modified to 'New Viewliner deliveries'.
Nice looking diner. Now let's hope the meals improve too. This must be the new diner, Annapolis, in service on the Silver Meteor. Delivery of these cars is excruciatingly slow, but guess we should be thankful we have them at all.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Time for a review of the 130 car order delivery status:
Baggage 70 ordered and delivered
Bagg-Dorm 10 ordered 3 delivered
Diner 25 ordered and delivered
Sleeper 25 ordered 1 delivered
Total; 130 ordered 99 delivered 31 "to go"
Two Bagg-Dorms were released this week. There is photo and Youtube documentation of them being en route from Elmira.
So,is Amtrak in any hurry to assign the BD's anywhere? Uh, about as rushed as they are to assign the 14 Diners "just sitting around" (11 needed to protect existing lines).
Representing additional Sleeping Car revenue, if Amtrak were run by entrepreneurs rather than hind quarter covering, finger pointing bureaucrats, those three cars would be in revenue service likely on The Cardinal where two would be in line, and one would be in CHI as a protect. What to do if you needed a protect at SSY? Well, you punt by blanking any unsold line space or snatch a VI Sleeper. Bureaucrats are more concerned that a Yard job might get some OT - and charged to their ResLoc.
Funny, but I don't think Mr. Anderson would have ever considered having a 777-200 "just playing hangar queen" at YSSY/SYD just in case their "one a day" to LAX was confronted with a "mechanical".
