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All Aboard Amtrak 1971-1991 By Mike Schafer A 20 year salute Hard Cover
All Aboard Amtrak 1971-1991 By Mike Schafer A 20 year salute to the National Railroad Passenger Corp
176 Pages
Hard Cover
Copyright 1991
Table of contents:
Table of contents:
Foreword
A MESSAGE FROM AMTRAK'S PRESIDENT4
Introduction
THE TIME MACHINE5
1/Countdown to Amtrak
SETTING THE STAGE FOR A NEW ORDER6
2/Infant Amtrak
1971-1976: A NEW BEGINNING14
3/Autonomy and adolescence
1976-1981: AMTRAK COMES OF AGE30
4/The struggle for stability
1981-1991: A DECADE OF FINE TUNING42
5/Power for the people
FROM E-UNITS TO AMD'S,
THE LOCOMOTIVES OF AMTRAK60
6/Places on wheels
AMTRAK'S DIVERSE CAR ROSTER72
7/Amtrak Superstars
THE LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS OF 199184
8/Cruisin' Amtrak Boulevard
NRPC'S SHOWCASE:
THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR128
9/Rank-and-file Amtrak
COMMON-FOLK CORRIDORS
AND MEDIUM-HAUL TRAINS140
10/Amtrak, call home
THE STATIONS AND SHOPS OF AMTRAK158
11/Making the trains worth
traveling again
A SAMPLER OF PROMOTIONS
AND MARKETING170
An Amtrak time line
20 YEARS OF BENCHMARKS174
Why would a devout student of the passenger train who was born in the 1940's be such a loyal follower of Amtrak? After all, it was the National Railroad Passenger Corporation's formation which ultimately doomed more than halt of U.S. passenger trains on May 1, 1971, ending a colorful period of individualism, history and operation in railroading.
Indeed, several of my contemporaries lost interest in American passenger trains that fateful day, citing that homogenization of what was in fact the skeletal remains of a once-vast and amazingly diverse rail passenger transport system had taken the last breath out of a dying industry. It is easy for me to understand their feelings, and I must confess that at times I shared their cynicism as an infant Amtrak foundered through its formative years.
Perhaps this is all the result of a little mind game I play every so often-which involves some explanations. I rode my first passenger train (Illinois Central's Hawkeye) about 1953 or so and immediately fell in love with rail travel. With more personal freedom at hand in my mid-teens, I made passenger trains a quest, photographing and/or riding everything my paltry budget would allow.
My memories of those days in the 1960's were bittersweet. Although I reveled in the excursions my buddies and I took on the likes of Erie Lackawanna's Lake Cities, Monon's Thoroughbred. Milwaukee Road's Arrow and Gulf, Mobile & Ohio's Midnight Special, I knew at the time these conveyances were living on borrowed time. No matter how fine those rides were, knowing that these trains-indeed, perhaps all long-distance U.S. passenger trains-faced certain oblivion always seemed to cast a bit of a pall on such outings.
And that's the one thing perhaps many of us old enough to remember tend to forget about the 1960's, the final decade of the traditional passenger train: there seemed to be no hope. I wanted to see new trains inaugurated; I tried to imagine what it would be like if the railroads of 1967 actually ordered brand-new passenger locomotives and rolling stock. I wished I could have seen IC's Land 0' Corn touted in a hometown TV commercial. Most of all, I wanted to see the trains full of customers.
So I regarded Amtrak's arrival as a last hope-albeit with a high price for the devout passenger-train enthusiast what with fewer trains and standardization. And at the time, I was ready to embrace anything that appeared it might give new life to this industry I so love.
And that mind game? I like to imagine what it would be like if I could time machine myself back to myself in the 1960's. So there I am, in 1967, in Rockford, Ill., mourning the loss the Land 0' Corn, our hometown streamliner, which has just made its last run. 'Hey Schafer. . . its me-or I mean you-from 1991. Don't sweat it! In the 1970's, you'll not only have a streamliner still serving Rockford, but it will have domes and diners and then later, brand-new equipment!'
Or how about this one: It's 1968 and I'm madly typing away at my college English Composition term paper, which is on the impending demise of the California Zephyr (on which I received an 'A" and actually convinced the professor and his family to take the CZ to California). . . *Schaf, me again from 1991. Do you realize that you'll be riding the California Zephyr 20 years from now?!
Here's another: It's 1970 and four of us are riding a heavyweight ex-Pennsy
P70 day coach on Penn Central's Cincinnati-Chicago train 65 making cracks about the dilapidated equipment.
'Schaf, would you believe you'll be riding a press run in 1979 debuting new sleepers, coaches and diners?!`
O.K. One more It's Friday afternoon, April 30, 1971, and I'm watching the last eastbound B&O Capitol Limited recede from Ash Street crossing in Chicago. The "Cap" was one of my favorite pre-Amtrak trains and I just had to be on hand for its passing 'Schafer. Skip the grieving. . . In 20 years almost to the day you'll be taking the Capitol Limited to Washington, D.C., to meet with Amtrak folks. . . who will be helping you with a book you are writing on Amtrak's 20th anniversary.' On with the show.
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