In the early days, female passenger service
representatives could mix and match separates to
create a unique look.

For a corporation with a national scope, branding is essential in creating a unified image easily recognized by the public. This was especially true for the newly formed National Railroad Passenger Corporation, established by an act of Congress in 1970 to operate the country’s intercity passenger rail system. One of the first steps taken by the young company was to create a more relatable, catchy nickname. Although “Railpax” was initially used, it was soon replaced by “Amtrak,” a blending of the words “American” and “track.” It was considered “a short, powerful name, easy to pronounce and remember, with high visual impact..."

Amtrak also chose a service mark and graphic identity defined by the patriotic colors of red, white and blue. This fresh visual identity would carry over into the effort to create new uniforms for the Onboard Service and Station Service personnel with whom passengers directly interacted. Over the next four decades, these uniforms reflected popular color and style trends, thereby ensuring Amtrak employees projected a polished, professional image.

In late 1971, Amtrak hired well-known designer Bill Atkinson to craft a line of uniforms that presented a cohesive, modern personality for the railroad. Speaking of the task before him, Atkinson said, “The equipment is painted different colors, the personnel wear different uniforms…it’s felt [that] if they all wear similar uniforms the equipment and the people will feel more like they’re all on one team.”¹

Atkinson developed conceptual sketches that were presented to teams of employees, union officials and Amtrak executives. The new uniforms were manufactured with a blend of wool or cotton with Dacron polyester, a popular and “fashionable” fabric in the early 1970s.  Components were intended to be “serviceable, functional and easy to care for.”²  Atkinson took advantage of bold reds and contrasting color combinations and cleverly incorporated the Amtrak service mark—an inverted arrow—into many pieces, including jacket cuffs and along the neckline of a sweater intended for female passenger service representatives.

On uniforms introduced in 1972, designer Bill Atkinson worked in
chevrons echoing Amtrak's first service mark.

At the official unveiling ceremony held in February 1972 at New York Penn Station, Amtrak President and CEO Roger Lewis enthused, “This is the first time that an entire industry has been changed so completely in appearance. We are presenting a creative new look to show the nation that a new era in passenger railroading is opening.”³  Onboard Service and Station Service personnel modeled the various looks, which were “modern in spirit yet [retained] the colorful traditions of American railroading. In an article in Penn Central Post covering the fashion show, a writer described the clothing as representing a theme of “Nostalgic newness.”⁴ 

The conductor’s uniform remained traditional navy blue, but the Norfolk-cut jacket was finished with red saddle stitching. Conductors would also wear a western-style shirt with a red tie. A pouch resembling an attaché case provided room for the ticket punch, seat checks and other tools of the trade. In keeping with the relaxed, fun atmosphere of the onboard lounges, the bartender received one of the more colorful makeovers: a three button cuff bandana shirt and blue and white striped pants held up with tri-color suspenders.

Female passenger service representatives, sometimes referred to as "train hostesses," were given themost options, with pieces such as hot pants and a floor length skirt that could be mixed with various tops and sweaters according to the season. Perhaps indicative of contemporary male attitudes towards the entry of an increasing number of women into the workforce, Atkinson commented: “In this era of unisex, distinctive uniforms for the Amtrak gals, from ticket seller to hostess, are absolutely feminine…We feel that just because a guy is riding a train doesn’t mean he’s lost interest in girlwatching.”⁵  While promotional photos depicted female employees happily wearing hot pants and go-go boots, some women considered this attire unprofessional and favored skirts and slacks.

With employee input, new uniforms were introduced by spring
1978. In this promotional photo, Julie Byrne wears the new
look for female attendants.

At the ticket desk, male ticket sellers wore striped blue and white pants with a gingham shirt, red double-breasted vest and tie. Female ticket sellers wore a blue shirtwaist dress with brass buttons and “nifty” red, white and blue Amtrak scarf. The look was complemented by blue pantyhose and blue shoes. Red Caps, who help passengers with baggage navigate through the stations, wore a jumpsuit topped off with a beret.

The first uniforms were in use until the late 1970s when updates were made in preparation for the arrival of the new bi-level Superliner cars. The new uniforms would “combine comfort and fashion and present a professional image to the public.” An article in Amtrak NEWS noted that Dining car stewards would be receiving new “Amtrak Blue” uniforms“designed to look and wear better than the old two-piece red suits they replace.” These polyester ensembles had tailored jackets with rounded collars and flared, cuff-less trousers. A sense of formality was retained by requiring stewards to wear a white vest with five logo buttons and blue trim at the pockets, as well as a blue necktie.

Male attendants had found Atkinson’s white double-breasted jacket uncomfortable and too short, so it was changed to a longer, single-breasted style. Female attendants now wore navy blue slacks with a navy blue blouse or turtleneck pullover, as well as a white vest trimmed in blue to match the men’s jacket. As usual, the cost of the clothing was split between Amtrak and the employee. By April 1, 1978, Onboard Service personnel were wearing the new uniforms, although the arrival of the Superliners had been delayed by a year due to a strike at the manufacturing plant.

As Amtrak entered the 1980s and approached its 10th anniversary, the emphasis moved to easy-care fabrics in a combination of navy and burgundy. But only a few years later, the color palette again shifted—to calming navy blue and grey. Manufactured by the Grief Companies, which also made clothing for Ralph Lauren and Perry Ellis, the uniforms were made from a rich tropical wool blend with “classic lines and sharp details—clothes you can feel proud to wear.” Polyester/cotton blends were discarded in favor of polyester/wool cloth that “remain[s] lustrous and resist[s] wrinkles after countless wearings.”

In the 1980s, uniforms shifted from shades of
red to calming navy blue and grey.

Employees were encouraged to choose from a variety of “timeless accessories” such as cardigan and pullover sweaters “so you can put together a professional look that’s uniquely yours.” One major change, following employee input, was the addition of short-sleeve shirts and blouses for warmer months.

Reflecting current trends, Onboard Service chiefs and stewards wore a single-breasted navy blazer whose “extended square shoulders, tapered body and two-button closures create a slim silhouette that accentuates an image of confidence.” Outfits were set off with straight or bow ties for men and ties for women; against a burgundy background, a pattern was created by alternating the Amtrak logo in grey and blue.

Station personnel were to appear “efficient, yet at ease” in navy blue pants and vests; women also had the choice of a below-the-knee skirt. It was easy to identify station supervisors, since they wore grey pants with a navy blue jacket, as well as a tie. The jump suits and coveralls worn by Red Caps were replaced by pant and shirt combinations— epaulets also made their first appearance.

To help employees complete an overall look, the uniform guide offered advice on grooming: “To look your best, think simple. From your hairstyle and makeup, to stockings and footwear, steer clear of elements that might distract from the uniform’s clean, uncluttered lines.” Jewelry was to be in silver or gold tones. The guide also noted, “In business settings, the tousled look and other dramatic hairdos are out. Ditto for sculpted nails, bright polish and heavy makeup.”

The next major shift in uniform styles occurred as the company rebranded itself for the new millennium with a new service mark and color scheme. A major impetus for the refresh was the introduction of high-speed Acela Express service in the Northeast. To complement the launch of the service between Washington and Boston, Amtrak hired designer Stan Herman to create a new uniform. Herman had extensive experience with corporate clients including McDonald’s, Fedex and Avis.⁶ 

New uniforms unveiled in late 1999 introduced a blue, silver and
gray color scheme.

As in the past, the effort began with consultations with the employees about desired changes and preferred cuts and fabrics. Herman told the Chicago Tribune, “It was a matter of how far [Amtrak] wanted to go away from the traditional stance that railroads have been in. They’re moving out of blue and going to a beautiful blue, silver and gray. There will be a new color designated especially for the new [Acela] trains. We’re calling this new color Acela blue (a blue-green color).”⁷  Unveiled in late 1999, the uniforms included gray jackets for men and women, turquoise knit vests, chiffon scarves and pants with cargo pockets.⁸ 

First introduced on the Northeast Corridor, the uniforms were then supposed to be distributed nationwide. But this roll out never occurred; after a few years, Onboard and Station Services personnel determined that the old navy blue gabardine blend had been more comfortable and better retained its shape.⁹  It would take until 2006 to cycle through the existing stock of grey uniforms and fully transition back to the traditional navy blue. The only personnel not making a return to blue were the chefs and cooks who retained their traditional whites.

An article in Amtrak Ink, the employee magazine, highlighted one new feature of all uniforms: “epaulet slides, which are color-coded to reflect the job function of the employee.”¹⁰  Inspired by military uniforms, the epaulets were only worn on short sleeved shirts, as long sleeved shirts were generally paired with a navy blue jacket, vest or sweater, depending on the job position. Epaulet color schemes were later simplified, and today conductors wear a silver Amtrak logo and four horizontal stripes against a navy blue background; assistant conductors wear a silver logo on blue; and Onboard Service and Station Service personnel sport a white logo on blue.

Onboard and Station Services employees show off their uniforms in 2006.

Amtrak continues to adjust uniform design in response to employee input, fashion trends and new developments in the textile field. In the fall of 2013, approximately 5,700 Train Service, Onboard Service and Station Service employees were provided with a copy of the new Dress For Success uniform catalogue.  It highlights the wide array of components that are available to employees, including required uniforms, optional accessories and expected grooming standards.

In 2014, the Amtrak Uniform Program continues to evolve with a more business-like approach.  New fashion-forward neckwear with a subtle Amtrak logo has been distributed to employees. Male neckties and female ascot loops in rich burgundy or royal blue complement white or light blue dress shirts. Also, station employees at medium and small Amtrak stations across the system now have the option to wear a light blue polo shirt instead of the shirt and tie ensemble.  This new, more casual look is still professional but better meets the active responsibilities for Customer Service employees.

Ticket agent Angela Mobley helping a customer in 2013.

Tom Wiley, Manager-National Uniform Program and Standards, says: “It is important for us to hold on to tradition, but it is equally important to move forward with a uniform program that best meets the needs for Amtrak employees.  We want uniforms that employees are proud to wear and that evoke an attitude that ‘I am dressed for success and ready to be of service to you.’”

Fashion has proven a useful tool in Amtrak’s efforts to promote passenger rail as a modern, comfortable and efficient travel mode. While based in rich railroad tradition, uniforms have always responded to the needs of current employees and their job tasks by incorporating new fabric blends and appropriate tailoring. Ultimately, though, these uniforms leave the customer with an impression of a unified, professional workforce that is ready to assist them anywhere and at any time.

¹“Amtrak Designing Job Appealing,” Beaver County Times, December 17, 1971.
²“Amtrak presents a new look,” Penn Central Post, February 1972.
³Ibid.
⁴Ibid.
⁵“Amtrak Designing Job Appealing,” Beaver County Times, December 17, 1971.
⁶“Public Lives; Designer Looks Back With Pain and Pride,” The New York Times, September 11, 1998.
⁷“Stan Herman Takes Uniform Approach to His Designs,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1999.
⁸“Amtrak employees sport new threads,” The [Rhode Island] Hour, October 22, 1999.
⁹“You wanted blue,” Amtrak Ink, January/February 2003.
¹⁰“Traditional Uniforms to Return to NEC,” Amtrak Ink, February 2006.

Works Consulted

"New Stewards' Uniforms Feature Style And Comfort," Amtrak NEWS, June 15, 1977. 8.

"On-board Attendants To Receive New Uniforms," Amtrak NEWS, July 15, 1977. 5.

"On-Board Service Personnel Outfitted With New Uniforms," Amtrak NEWS, April 1978. 12.

National Railroad Passenger Corporation (1988?). Amtrak's Pride & Professionalism: Outfitting Your Future. Washington, D.C.

----- (2006). The Uniformed Look. Washington, D.C. 

----- (2013). Dress for Success. Washington, D.C.

The first of 70 new Amtrak Cities Sprinter locomotives—known as the ACS-64—was unveiled on Thursday, February 6, 2014 at Philadelphia 30th Street Station.  During a ceremony held in the historic North Waiting Room, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman and Siemens USA President and CEO Eric Spiegel spoke about the importance of the new locomotives, which will help power the economy of the greater Northeast and usher in a new era of improved reliability, mobility and connectivity for intercity rail passengers. The next day, locomotive No. 600 entered regular revenue service on the Northeast Corridor (NEC), pulling Northeast Regional train No. 171 on its way from Boston to Washington.

Amtrak, Siemens and federal officials cheer as ACS-64 No. 601 passes them during a test run.

The ACS-64 is the latest in a long line of distinguished electric locomotives, such as the GG-1 and AEM-7, that have carried passengers in the Northeast since large sections of the rail corridor were electrified in the 1930s. Constructed by Siemens at its plant in Sacramento, Calif., parts for the new locomotives come from approximately 70 suppliers in more than 23 states. Amtrak expects to have several more new locomotives enter revenue service in the coming weeks and then will receive monthly delivery of the remaining units through 2015.

Designed to run at speeds up to 125 mph, the dual-cab locomotive has a peak 8600 horsepower. A regenerative braking system can feed up to 100 percent of the energy generated during braking back to the power grid. A state-of-the-art microprocessor system performs self-diagnosis of technical issues, takes self-corrective action and notifies the locomotive engineer. In addition, there are redundant systems to ensure power is maintained to the passenger cars to keep heating and cooling systems working, the lights on and the doors operational. The locomotives also meet the latest federal rail safety regulations, including crash energy management components. Ultimately, this improved technology leads to a more energy-efficient locomotive fleet and significant cost savings.

The ACS-64s are manufactured by Siemens USA at its plant in
Sacramento, Calif.

Engineers must go through specialized training before they are allowed to operate the ACS-64. This includes eight hours of classroom time as well as hands-on experience in the cab to become familiar with the various digital displays and their readings. Once this is completed, engineers take a “check ride” with a Road Foreman of Engineers who ultimately decides if the engineer is ready to operate the locomotive in regular revenue service. Visit the Amtrak Blog to learn more about the training program.

To mark the arrival of the ACS-64s, we thought we’d take a look back at the unveilings of our most recent locomotives, including the AEM-7, Genesis Series and the Acela power car. For more than a decade, these designs have largely defined the Amtrak fleet for travelers and rail fans across the country.

By the late 1970s, Amtrak was in need of a reliable, lightweight electric locomotive that would allow the company to phase out the GG-1s. Built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s and 1940s, these iconic units were simply approaching the end of their useful lives. The new locomotive would also supplement the fleet of electric E-60s, ordered in the mid-1970s. Although intended to replace the GG-1s, they had proved too heavy and were limited to maximum speeds of 90 mph.

The Swedish R4c influenced the design of the Amtrak AEM-7.

The company tested two foreign prototypes in 1976 and 1977: the Swedish R4c, designed by Allmanna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA), and the French CC 21000 built by the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF). During their trial period on the NEC, Amtrak designated the units x995 and the x996, respectively. ASEA’s R4c won out and became the basis for the Amtrak dual cab AEM-7, produced from 1978 to 1988.

Amtrak contracted with the General Motors Corporation Electro-Motive Division (EMD) to design and manufacture 54 of the 101 ton locomotives, and the first units have car bodies built by Budd. Each has 7000 horsepower and can achieve top speeds of 125 mph. Among railroad fans, the locomotive is affectionately known as a “Swedish meatball” or “toaster” due to its country of origin and compact, boxy design.

On May 9, 1980, dignitaries gathered at Washington Union Station to mark the entry of the first AEM-7 into revenue service. Congressman Robert W. Edgar, whose district included part of southeastern Pennsylvania, christened locomotive No. 901 with a bottle of champagne while officials from Amtrak, ASEA, EMD and the Federal Railroad Administration looked on. Following remarks from the assembled group, the locomotive pulled out of the station, leading Metroliner Service Train. 108 on its run to New York.

In May 1980, Congressman Robert W. Edgar christens the first AEM-7
to enter revenue service.

A decade later, Amtrak began thinking about the replacement for its popular F40 diesel-electric locomotive used to haul corridor and long-distance trains. The Amtrak Equipment Design group, led by Industrial Designer and Manager, Car Design, Cesar Vergara, drafted requirements for a new diesel-electric locomotive that would serve Amtrak into the 21st century. It would be the first American passenger locomotive designed from the ground up in more than four decades.¹

Working with General Electric (GE), Amtrak created a unit with increased fuel efficiency and fewer polluting emissions than its predecessor, while incorporating the latest microprocessor technology.² GE in turn joined with German affiliate Krupp, which had experience in the European market with the manufacture of lightweight locomotive frames and trucks.³

As indicated by its original name, AMD-103 (standing for Amtrak Diesel, 103 mph), the locomotive could reach 103 mph. To reduce the unit’s weight for greater fuel efficiency, GE employed a monocoque body“in which corner posts and overhead cross members provide 40 percent of the tensile strength.”⁴ For ease of maintenance and repair, the locomotive shell employs only flat surfaces, rather than more complicated curves.

Amtrak needed two models: a 4000 horsepower unit for general use, and a 3200 horsepower unit capable of operating over an electric third rail into New York Penn Station. The locomotive measures 69 feet from coupler to coupler, 10 feet across, and 14 feet, four inches high. The height was almost a foot less than its predecessors, meaning the locomotive could easily navigate all Amtrak routes, some of which included older tunnels and bridges with low clearances. Ultimately, two 4000 AMD-103s could replace three 3000 horsepower F40s.⁵

A P-40 stopped at the Winter Park, Fla. station.

One of the most advanced features of the AMD-103 was its integrated function control—on-board microcomputers that “constantly monitor propulsion, braking, engine speed, head-end power requirements and other data fed into them by probes from around the locomotive.”⁶ Engineers in the cab monitored a series of computer screens displaying key information about the locomotive’s systems.

With input from the Federal Railroad Administration/Association of American Railroads Cab Committee and members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the cab included an efficiently organized engineer’s desk and comforts such as sound-deadening insulation and air conditioning.⁷ Engineers were given extensive training so they would be comfortable with the new technologies and arrangement of the controller’s console.

Amtrak ordered 52 AMD-103s—42 4000 horsepower locomotives and ten of the third-rail compatible units. Before they were introduced into wide circulation, the locomotives were renamed the Genesis-Series 1 in recognition of the machine’s clear break from past designs. The name was chosen through an employee contest at the GE plant in Erie, Pa.⁸ Although the Genesis name stuck, the 4000 horsepower locomotive is now more commonly referred to as a P-40, while its mate is called a P-32-AC.

The California Zephyr, led by P-42 No. 57, passes near Granby, Colo.

Amtrak introduced the P-40 at an event held at Washington Union Station on May 11, 1993, when No. 803 was shown to the press. The following month, the Auto Train became the first train to employ P-40s.⁹ In 1996, Amtrak purchased 98 more Genesis locomotives for $235 million, but the horsepower was increased to 4250 for a top speed of 110 mph—thus the locomotive is known as the P-42. Today, there are approximately 200 P-42s in service across the country.

The last significant locomotive to enter service was the electric power car included as part of the Acela Express train sets designed and manufactured by a consortium of Bombardier and Alstom. Each of the 20 train sets includes six passenger cars between two power cars at each end. Measuring almost 70 feet long, 10.5 feet wide and 14 feet, eight inches high, the power car has 6169 horsepower and is capable of reaching speeds of 150 mph over current NEC infrastructure. To prepare for the arrival of high-speed rail service in 2000, the northern end of the NEC between New Haven and Boston was electrified, which included the installation of catenary poles, wires and electrical substations.

Amtrak opened its High-Speed Rail Training Facility in Wilmington, Del., in 1999 to train employees assigned to the Acela Express. It houses a full-scale motion simulator that duplicates the experience of operating Acela Express trains from inside the cab, an on-board service-training lab complete with seats, tables and food preparation areas, and nine classrooms. Over the next few months, the simulator will be reconfigured to also allow for ACS-64 training.

The inaugural Acela Express pulls into Boston South Station.

Intended to compete with airlines for travelers in the Washington-New York and New York-Boston markets, the service launched with a special VIP trip on November 16, 2000. Before the departure, Governor Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin, then-chair of the Amtrak Board of Directors, christened the train with the prerequisite bottle of champagne. In the background, a fife-and-drum corps pepped up the crowd with patriotic selections.

Once the speeches were concluded, guests boarded the train to experience a non-stop trip to New York in two hours and 28 minutes. A reporter for The New York Times described the Acela Express as “part airliner and part living room…quiet enough for a six-man a cappella group, Vocal Tonic, of Atlanta, to perform clearly in the aisles…”¹⁰ Touring the cabin, he called it “positively supersonic, with electronic screens like those in jetliners.”¹¹ Colorful fireworks lighted the night sky as the train pulled into Boston South Station that evening. A new era in North American high-speed rail had begun.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹“Make way for the Genesis Series,” Trains Vol. 53, No. 8 (August 1993).

²Bob Johnston, “Genesis: Amtrak’s new breed,” Trains Vol. 53, No. 9 (September 1993).

³Ibid.

⁴Ibid.

⁵Ibid.

⁶Ibid.

⁷Ibid.

⁸Ibid.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰Matthew L. Wald, “High-Speed Train Makes Flashy Debut,” The New York Times, November 17, 2000.

¹¹Ibid.

Gorgeous scenery is the perfect backdrop to a friendly
conversation between strangers.

Trains have long held a special place in the imagination, reinforced through novels and movies, as settings for intrigue and romance. On a cold winter’s night, soft light illuminates the Sightseer Lounge car, where passengers converse in hushed tones as stars twinkle above; in the Dining car, strangers get to know one another over a fine meal; and Mr. or Ms. Right might happen to choose the seat next to yours.

Paging through back issues of the official Amtrak employee newsletter, one comes across numerous articles detailing Amtrak romances— affectionately known as “AmRomances”: chance encounters that led to dates, proposals and even a few marriages. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we take a look back at some of the sweetest stories and catch-up with one couple.

In the mid-1970s, Stella, a college student at Kentucky State University, met her future husband, Kent, aboard the Southwest Limited. He had spent the previous few weeks exploring the country on his U.S.A. Rail Pass. As the train rolled across southwestern deserts and Kansas prairie, they decided to try a long-distance relationship via letters. A year later, they were married in Louisville. Honoring the train that brought them together, the rehearsal dinner “featured a red, white and blue Amtrak theme” that included Amtrak steins used as vases for the centerpieces, and a copy of the “Join Amtrak for a Journey into the Future” brochure for each guest.

A U.S.A. Rail Pass unexpectedly helped one man find his true love.

On her first train trip from New York to Philadelphia, Joanne purposely brought a book with her to deter a seat mate from striking up a conversation. In a letter to Amtrak, she noted, “I’m not unsociable but have run into many ‘characters’ in my travels.” Upon leaving Penn Station, a man took the seat next to her; although she tried to ignore him, he broke the ice by commenting on the title of her book. Before she knew it, she was engaged in conversation and plans were made to meet again for a real date. Within a year, they were contemplating a wedding on Amtrak.

The depot plays its part in a number of love stories too, for it is the place where last goodbyes are whispered before the conductor calls “All Aboard!” A decade ago, a couple held their wedding reception at the historic Santa Fe depot in Norman, Okla., which has been lovingly restored by the town to serve as an arts center and events space. As the party wrapped up, the bride and groom walked out the door and across the platform to catch the northbound Heartland Flyerto Oklahoma City.

One couple left their reception at the Norman, Okla. depot and
hopped on the Heartland Flyer to start their honeymoon.

For a Los Angeles couple, the old San Juan Capistrano depot, with its picturesque bell tower and arcades, was a romantic backdrop as they bid farewell to family and friends and boarded a southbound San Diegan (now the Pacific Surfliner) to start their honeymoon. The group had walked to the station from the reception, held a few blocks away at the famous El Adobe de Capistrano restaurant, known for its Mexican cuisine. The eatery was also a favorite of President Nixon, who during his time in office had a home in nearby San Clemente dubbed the “Western White House.” From the vestibule of a new Amfleet coach, the bride tossed her bouquet into the crowd. According to Amtrak NEWS, the couple viewed the train ride as a “more comfortable and relaxing trip than one in an automobile on the crowded freeway.”

Every so often, devoted rail fans and railroad employees inquire about holding a wedding on an Amtrak train. In December, 1977, an Oklahoma City couple was married aboard the Lounge car on the Lone Star (Chicago-Dallas/Houston). Amtrak NEWS recounted the story: “[William], an admitted rail buff, got the idea to be married aboard a train some time back but his future bride…didn’t take to the idea originally. However, after much discussion they decided it might be an interesting change from a traditional church wedding.”

Friends joined them on the train from Oklahoma City to Guthrie for the 45 minute trip. Once Reverend Bonner Teeter had finished the nuptials, guests enjoyed cake and champagne provided by Amtrak. Everyone then detrained at Guthrie while the newlyweds continued on to Chicago.

For one Florida couple, their marriage license reads: "Location:
Amtrak Silver Star."

According to R.W. Willaford of Plant City, Fla., he was “born and raised on trains…many people in my family have worked on the railroads.”¹ Thus when he and his fiancée considered a venue for their December 2000 wedding, a train made perfect sense. Back in the early 1970s, Willaford and friend Marshall Johnson had both worked for the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Given the option of joining newly-formed Amtrak, Willaford chose to stay with the freight side while Johnson became an Amtrak conductor.

Knowing his friend’s love of the railroad, Johnson suggested a ceremony aboard the Silver Star and subsequently worked to put the plan in motion. With more than 60 guests, R.W. and bride Felice boarded at Winter Haven and found the Dining car “decorated in green and white streamers, red bows and bells.” Take a look at their marriage license, and it cites “Amtrak Silver Star” as the location of the wedding; Willaford recalls the vows were uttered at milepost 832 between Haines City and Auburndale as the train glided through central Florida’s lake district. Following the ceremony, everyone enjoyed cake and hors d'oeuvres before getting off at Orlando.

The Southwest Limited made a
special stop for a couple celebrating
their golden anniversary.

Asked if he would encourage others to pursue a wedding on the rails, Willaford says, “Yes…do it. Most of our friends had never heard of a train wedding, but it sure was a fun experience for everyone.” Willaford retired from CSX the year before his marriage, but he and wife Felice are frequent Amtrak travelers. When his granddaughter graduates from high school this spring, he plans on taking her on a cross country train trip to Sacramento.

Over many decades, Willaford has collected a variety of railroad memorabilia— including a caboose, switcher engine, lanterns and signs. The refurbished equipment occupied his yard, and during Christmas and Easter parties hosted by the couple, children were invited to explore and ask questions. In late 2013, he donated the collection to Plant City, which has renamed its Union Station Depot Welcome Center in his honor.

The historic building now serves as a railroad museum, while close by, a new train viewing platform and tower give rail fans a safe and comfortable place from which to watch freight and Amtrak trains passing through town. A week ago, the community held its inaugural Railfest to celebrate Plant City’s railroad heritage and promote safe activities around trains and tracks.

A long, relaxing train trip is also a great way to celebrate an anniversary, especially for a romance that blossomed on the rails. In June 2003, Ken and Vicki spent their third anniversary aboard the Texas Eagle. Attired in a tuxedo and wedding dress, respectively, they arrived in the Dining car to find that the service attendants had decorated their table using materials at hand. Deft folds and an artistic eye transformed plain tin foil into elegant swans, while a cooking pot, with the addition of some napkins and carnations, became an ice bucket for champagne. Tomatoes in the salad were even carved into delicate roses!

The story of a couple from Baring, Mo. perhaps best demonstrates how railroads are threaded into the fabric of our lives, holding memories that remain always. Floyd and Edith, married in October 1927 at the Presbyterian Parsonage in Memphis, Mo., boarded a Santa Fe train at nearby Baring on their way to a California honeymoon.

Michael and Tess met on an Amtrak Cascades train,
bonded over coffee and eventually married.

To mark their golden anniversary, they wanted to recreate that first train trip—except the Santa Fe Railway no longer operated passenger trains, and the Amtrak Southwest Limited, which used the Santa Fe tracks through town, did not stop in Baring. But upon hearing their story, Amtrak worked with the railroad to make a special stop on October 3, 1977. As a group of friends and relatives gathered at the shuttered depot to see the couple off on their west-bound journey, time must have stood still for a moment.

Even in this age of social media and instant communication, old fashioned romance remains—check out the Amtrak Blog for the story of Michael and Tess, who met on an Amtrak Cascades train, connected over a cup of coffee and ended up married four years later.

Do you have a story of an “AmRomance”? Share it with us!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ R.W. Willaford. Interviewed by Amtrak History. Telephone interview, Washington, DC, February 11, 2014. All quotes by Willaford are drawn from this interview.

“Amtrak Honeymoon For California Pair,” Amtrak NEWS, July 1, 1977. 5.

“Golden Wedding Trip,” Amtrak NEWS, October 1, 1977. 5.

“Train Romance,” Amtrak NEWS, October 1, 1977. 6.

“Lone Star Wedding,” Amtrak NEWS, February 15, 1978. 7.

“Amtrak Romance,” Amtrak NEWS, July 1980. 14.

“Couple weds on rails,” Amtrak Ink, February 2001. 10.

“Amtrak Chef Makes Meals on the Move,” Amtrak Ink, July 2003. 5, 11.

“Train Whistles, Romance and Wedding Bells,” Amtrak Ink, January 2005. 10.

Amtrak advertised package tours
in the Northeast and West.

Winter has certainly made its presence known across the country—often accompanied by substantial snow in Eastern and Western mountain ranges. For many, the next few months are a great time to hit the slopes with a pair of skis or a snowboard, all the more so with Winter Olympians’ skill and daring fresh on our minds.

Skiing has been popular in the United States since the early 20th century, brought to this country by travelers who had visited, and admired, Europe’s famous Alpine ski centers. Recalling trips to Klosters and Zermatt, Switzerland; St. Anton, Austria; and Chamonix, France—host to the first Winter Olympics in 1924—Americans sought out similar experiences in North America.

One person who saw the potential for developing winter sports infrastructure in the U.S. was Averell Harriman, a banker and chair of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) who in 1936 opened the ski resort at Sun Valley, Idaho. Familiar with European precedents, Harriman believed the growing popularity of skiing could help the UP fill its trains, which like its competitors, experienced a dramatic drop in passenger traffic during the Great Depression.¹ For those who could not afford travel to Europe, an American resort of equal charm could potentially fill a market need; it would also bring attention to areas served by the railroad.

Harriman hired an Austrian count to scout Western locations suitable for his resort, eventually settling on a valley in the Sawtooth Mountains near Ketchum, Idaho, a small mining and sheep-herding town on the UP mainline. The railroad constructed a lodge, ski paths and even invented the modern chair lift to carry skiers to the top of the mountain.² Soon after its inauguration, Sun Valley, in part due to its isolated location, became a favorite spot of Hollywood stars and other well-known figures.

The Montrealer stopped near a dozen popular ski spots in Vermont and Quebec Province.

By the 1930s, railroads across the country were instrumental in transporting sports enthusiasts to the slopes aboard designated “ski trains” that usually included extra baggage space for stowing skis and other equipment.³ A writer later noted in Skiing magazine, “Skiing would probably not have expanded so rapidly during [the 1930s and 1940s] had there been no ski trains. Few cities were near ski slopes.”⁴ Services operated from New York and Boston to upstate New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, while out West, trains carried folks from major urban areas to resorts in Utah, Colorado, Montana and other states. One of the best-known ski trains was the “Snowball Special,” begun in 1958 by the UP to carry passengers between Los Angeles and Sun Valley.⁵

Bilingual menus gave the Montrealer a cosmopolitan flair.

By the 1950s, many of these special services faced increased competition from the automobile. Meanwhile, the sport of skiing grew exponentially as the “industry capitalized on new equipment developed, ranging from snow vehicles and ski clothing to improved boots and skis.”⁶ Post-World War II prosperity and increased leisure time gave Americans new opportunities to pursue sports and other activities.

Winter sports received another boost in 1960 when the Winter Olympics returned to the United States after a 28 year absence. A live telecast from Squaw Valley, Calif., allowed Americans to watch ski jumping, alpine skiing and cross-country skiing events in real time. Between 1960 and 1978, the number of American ski resorts expanded from approximately 240 to more than 700, reflecting a strong interest in the sport.⁷

Amtrak, which took over the operation of most of the nation’s intercity passenger rail services on May 1, 1971, soon came to realize the potential marketing possibilities in promoting trains to skiers. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, numerous articles appeared in magazines such as SKI and Skiing that compared Amtrak trains to the ski trains of yore. The writings reveal an intense interest in using passenger rail to reach ski spots and describe schedules, station stops, onboard accommodations and meal options. The train’s relaxed, convivial atmosphere is usually cited as a major reason for choosing rail.

Early Amtrak brochures depicted skiing as a fun and youthful sport.

One of the first routes heavily promoted to this group was the Montrealer (northbound)/ Washingtonian (southbound) between Washington and Montreal.⁸ Although it passed through Vermont in the late evening and early morning hours, the train stopped at towns such as White River Junction, Montpelier and St. Albans that were in close proximity to major ski centers including Stowe, Bolton Valley, Jay Peak and Smuggler's Notch. The one catch was that making the short journey between the stations and resorts often required an expensive cab ride.

Vermont was initially left out of the Amtrak system, as the last passenger rail service within its borders had ended in 1966. State leaders and advocacy groups mounted an effective campaign to revive rail service, finding success with the launch of the Montrealer/Washingtonian in late September, 1972. While Americans used the train to head to the snowy north, Canadians made connections at New York or Washington, D.C. for sunny Florida destinations. It gained a reputation for its cosmopolitan flair, with menus and other information printed in English and French.

The Le Pub lounge was a key attraction for passengers aboard
the Montrealer.

Reporting on Amtrak’s “rookie season transporting easterners to the slopes,” Robert Shafer from SKI magazine noted that “the Vermont ski industry, and friends, implemented a well-financed, smartly-aimed lobbying effort”⁹ to get the train routed via the Connecticut River Valley and the Green Mountain ski belt rather than through upstate New York.¹⁰ Shafer also added: “A number of the East’s more active ski clubs eagerly enlisted in the cause, deluging home-district Congressmen with a voluminous, hard-hitting direct mail campaign.”

Travelling aboard the Montrealer, another reporter with Skiing magazine described “embellishments [that] include special handling for skis, and a bar car called Le Pub, plus a series of package plans put together with various areas and lodges…”¹¹ The Tavern-Lounge Le Pub was a key attraction, known for its ambiance and piano player. Like many sports, skiing is a social activity that usually involves going out in groups. Thus, it made sense to provide travelers with a relaxing place to talk and enjoy themselves on the way to Vermont, or “après-ski” as they headed home.

The popular Amtrak SKI PASS could be shared among friends.

In promotional material, Amtrak described Le Pub as a place “where you can gather with new friends and old acquaintances…dimly-lit, [this] romantic cocktail lounge car has cozy, comfortable chairs, intimate tables…” Stories abound of late-night sing-alongs punctuated by bright laughter. The Skiing magazine reporter observed that “at about 2 A.M. we were all agreeing that Amtrak threw a pretty good party.”¹²

To encourage skiers to try the train, Amtrak worked with tour operators and resorts to create special package deals aimed at both families and singles. They generally included roundtrip fare, hotel accommodations, lift tickets and even rental cars. Amtrak was also willing to work with large groups of skiers, particularly ski clubs. A group of 25 or more could book an entire car for its use.¹³

From the 1970s on, the company distributed thousands of its “Pick of the Peaks” brochures—one for the West and one for the East—describing the available packages and the best way to reach ski destinations by train. Color photos show rosy-cheeked skiers in fashionable sports gear as they enjoy picnics, swoosh down the slopes and soak up the winter sun. As one brochure mentioned, “Meet other ski buffs and make new friends. Polish your ski jargon and share ski tips…Before you know it…you’ve arrived.”

Snow-capped peaks beckon skiers in this poster advertising
resorts in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

In the East, Amtrak promoted the Montrealer and Adirondack for Vermont, upstate New York and Canadian resorts, while out West, ski destinations such as Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Park City, Utah; Big Mountain, Mont.; Bogus Basin, Idaho; and Vail, Colo. could be found along the routes of the Empire Builder, North Coast Hiawatha, Coast Starlight, San Francisco Zephyr and the Pioneer.

Passengers could also buy a SKI PASS, good from November to April, that entitled the holder to eight coach trips to a "ski resort station" for the price of six—a 25 percent discount. Even better, the pass could be shared among friends. If interested in upgrading to a Sleeping car or Amclub car, or a Metroliner Service train, reservations could be made at the station one hour prior to scheduled departure.

Today, Amtrak remains a popular mode of transportation for ski enthusiasts. Passengers may make their own arrangements, or take advantage of a regional rail tour package. Amtrak works with long-time tour partners and western ski resorts to assemble vacation packages that appeal to all budgets and travelers. The Empire Builder takes passengers directly to Whitefish, Mont. for skiing at Big Mountain, while Winter Park, Colo. is a busy winter stop along the route of the California Zephyr. From the latter’s stops at Denver and Glenwood Springs, car rentals allow easy access to Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Aspen, Snowmass, Sunlight Mountain and Powderhorn.

This winter, Amtrak tracked the adventures of a team of free skiers that ventured to western Montana via the railsto experience the trip of a lifetime. Check out their storyon theAmtrak Blog.

Have you taken Amtrak to the slopes? Do you remember Le Pub? Share your memories in the comments section below!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ Julie Berry, "Sun Valley’s Elite Beginnings: European Influence on the American Ski Industry" (Masters Thesis, Colorado State University, 2011).

² Ibid.

³ Hank Barlow, “The ‘Golden Age’ of Ski Trains,” Skiing, October 1984.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Charles R. Goeldner and Stacy Standley, “Skiing Trends” (paper included in the Proceedings of the National Outdoor Recreation Trends Symposium, 1980).

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ After 1974, the train was simply known as the Montrealer for its south- and northbound runs.

⁹ Robert Shafer, “Amtrak’s Rookie Season,” SKI, October 1973.

¹⁰ Steve Brayton, “Focus: The Return of the Montrealer,” Passenger Train Journal, March 1973.

¹¹ Dinah B. Witchel, “Ski Trains Are Back-Sorta,” Skiing, January 1974.

¹² Ibid.

¹² Alice Van Buren, “Moonlight on the Rails” Skiing, November 1982.

The fun and frivolity of Mardi Gras inevitably leads to thoughts of New Orleans, where the holiday attracts merrymakers from around the country—and world. The storied city’s reputation for delicious cuisine, innovative music, fine architecture and unique cultural traditions has even worked its way into advertising created for the City of New Orleans (Chicago-New Orleans) and Crescent (New York-New Orleans). Although today an important component of the long-distance network, the latter train did not join the Amtrak family until 1979—almost eight years after Amtrak took over most of the nation’s intercity passenger rail services.

When the Amtrak system map was unveiled on May 1, 1971, the Southern Railway's Southern Crescent (New York-New Orleans) was not included.

Following the creation of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in 1970, 20 private railroads chose to hand over their trains to the new company. Only three railroads—the Rock Island, Denver and Rio Grande Western and the Southern Railway—decided to maintain independent services. Under Section 404 of the Rail Passenger Service Act, railroads that did not enter into contract with Amtrak were not allowed to discontinue “any intercity passenger train whatsoever prior to January 1, 1975.” If a railroad moved to end a service after that date, Amtrak was given authority “to initiate passenger train operations between the points served.”

On this 1978 route map, the dashed line indicates that the
Southern Crescent is not part of the Amtrak system.

Recalling that transitional period, former Southern Railway President Graham Claytor, Jr., who later served as President and CEO of Amtrak, noted: “I looked over the situation and it was clear to me that we didn’t have to sign up with Amtrak. We could afford to keep our primary train and make it the finest in the country.”¹ The day before Amtrak assumed operations on May 1, 1971, the Charleston, S.C. News and Courier noted that Southern’s decision to remain independent did not indicate a lack of confidence in Amtrak, but rather reflected “Southern’s known regard for the public relations value of its passenger service.”²

Southern’s premier train was the Southern Crescent. It ran daily from New York to Atlanta, with tri-weekly service between Atlanta and New Orleans. It was created in 1970 by combining two of Southern Railway’s best-known name trains: the Southerner and Crescent. The former went into operation in 1941 as an all coach streamliner with daily service between New Orleans and New York, while the latter traced its roots to the 1890s and had generally carried Pullman Sleeper cars. New stainless steel streamliner equipment was introduced on the Crescent and Southerner in 1949. Sleeping car passengers could choose among roomettes, bedrooms and a master room (bedroom with a private shower and drawing room). The new combined train initiated in 1970 offered coaches and Sleeping cars, as well as Dining car service between New Orleans and Washington.

The national timetable issued on April 30, 1978, included an interesting 
note regarding the Southern Crescent.

Under Claytor, the company maintained the Southern Crescent’s high level of customer service. Cosmetic enhancements included the refurbishment of the 1949 Crescent rolling stock and repainting of the locomotives in the Southern’s historic Virginia green and gold livery.

According to the first Amtrak timetable, southbound Southern Crescent cars were attached to Amtrak Train No. 173 between New York and Washington (Train No. 126 northbound). Upon arrival in Washington, they were switched over to Southern’s diesel locomotives in order to continue the journey to Atlanta/New Orleans. South of the capital, Southern Railway designated the Southern Crescent as Train No. 1 (No. 2 northbound). The trip from Washington Union Station to Atlanta Peachtree Station took approximately 13 hours; for those riding the entire 1,153 miles to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the journey lasted about one full day with arrival in the early evening.

Amtrak began operating the Crescent
on February 1, 1979.

Those wishing to continue past New Orleans towards Los Angeles aboard their Sleeping car could do so via a through car that was parked overnight at New Orleans and switched onto Amtrak’s Sunset Limitedthe following day. Some services were limited to certain parts of the route, such as complete dining and beverage options between New Orleans and Washington but only snack and beverage service between Washington and New York. Passengers could also enjoy the scenery from a Dome car between Atlanta and New Orleans.

Careful readers of the April 30, 1978, timetable may have noticed an interesting footnote to the Southern Crescent schedule: “The Southern Railway has made application to the Interstate Commerce Commission [ICC] to discontinue this service. Confirm operation with agent before traveling.” Although the railroad had kept the service active past the 1975 deadline imposed by the Rail Passenger Service Act, it had begun to lose money on its passenger operations. According to Southern, that loss amounted to $6.8 million in 1977, during which the train carried 165,000 passengers.³

The railroad decided to offer the service to Amtrak, including the refurbished 1949 rolling stock, valued at $4 million, plus $2.7 million in cash, but the Amtrak board of directors rejected the deal. It was soon followed by another offer of $6.7 million in cash, but that too was turned down.⁴ In early 1978, the railroad petitioned the ICC to end the service by April 6, but the commission ruled that the train had to continue to operate until at least August of that year. Meanwhile, public hearings were held in 21 communities along the route to discuss the impacts of discontinuance.⁵ Following these meetings, the ICC in August ordered Southern Railway to run the train for one more year. Reporting on the case, The Spartanburg Herald noted, “The ICC expressed hope that an arrangement can be made so that after the year the Crescent can be operated by Amtrak…”

The Crescent, led by an F40 locomotive pulling Heritage cars, graced the official 1986 Amtrak calendar.

During the fall, Amtrak and Southern negotiated a tentative $6.7 million agreement in which Amtrak would take over the route of the Southern Crescent by early 1979, as well as much of the refurbished 1949 equipment. The St. Petersburg Times reported in December: “No details were available of the money involved in the agreement, but it was understood that Amtrak would lease the…locomotives and cars rather than purchase them.”⁶

Viewliner cars include two rows of
windows in each room.

An agreement was finalized in January, 1979; Amtrak President and CEO Allan Boyd assured the riding public, “We recognize that the Southern Crescent is a regional institution and we intend to see that it remains one of America’s finest long distance trains.”⁷ New daily service under Amtrak began on February 1st.

To celebrate the takeover of the train, now simply known as the Crescent, Amtrak launched a promotional campaign under the phrase “Southern Comforts and all that Jazz!” It not only reflected the region’s reputation for good manners and satisfying comfort foods, but also highlighted New Orleans’ international renown as a birthplace and incubator for jazz. Amtrak’s new red brochures featured a thin yellow crescent moon as a romantic backdrop to the silhouette of a man playing the trumpet and wearing a bowler set at a rakish angle.

In an article in The Spartanburg Herald detailing Amtrak’s preparations for assumption of the service, a reporter noted that “[Amtrak] replaced the silver flatware that had been used by Southern. Souvenir-hungry rail buffs had stripped the Southern Crescent’s dining cars bare in the last several months.” Further along in the article, Southern Railway conductor J.A. Cladwell Sr. remarked on the train’s future: “There’s always a silver lining waitin’ for those things that’s needed and worth it.”⁸

At Washington, the Crescent switches from an electric to a
diesel locomotive.

The first departure from Washington involved champagne toasts as the vintage Southern cars were pulled by Amtrak locomotives dressed in patriotic red, white and blue. Upon arriving in New Orleans on Friday night, passengers were greeted to the sounds of the Olympia Brass Band. Railfans were also on hand to document a new era for their beloved train.

Amtrak’s Crescent takeover coincided with the release of a Congressionally-mandated report on a proposed restructuring of the national route system. The U.S. DOT argued that the train did not carry a sufficient passenger volume and also found that “there is frequent bus service directly linking all the stations on this route between Washington and Atlanta [and] adequate bus service directly linking all the stations between Atlanta and New Orleans…In addition, the route is paralleled for its entire length by Interstate Highways, and frequent direct air service is available between major points on the route.” Following negotiations in Congress, the Crescent was retained along with a handful of other routes originally scheduled for elimination.

Amtrak later replaced the Southern’s equipment with Heritage cars constructed during the same era for other railroads that had been rebuilt to utilize head end power for heating and lighting. The Heritage coach, Sleeping and Lounge cars remained in service until Amfleet II coaches and Lounge cars, and the then-new Viewliner Sleeping cars, were assigned to the train in the mid-1990s.

The Crescent crosses the James River near
Lynchburg, Va.

The Viewliner cars were the first single-level Sleeping cars manufactured in the United States since the 1950s. One of their most popular and distinctive features is an upper row of windows that allows ample natural light to enter the Roomettes and Bedrooms. The Crescent continues to carry Heritage Dining cars that will soon be replaced by newly constructed Viewliner II Dining cars; among the Heritage Dining cars still in service across the Amtrak system are three of those built for the Southern Railway in 1949.

In fiscal year 2013, the Crescent carried approximately 307,000 passengers, nearly double the number it transported before the 1979 Amtrak takeover.

Did you ride the Amtrak Crescent in its early years? Share your memories with us in the comments section below or share this post on Facebook!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ Fred Frailey, Twilight of the Great Trains, (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2010).

²“Southern Goes Solo,” The [Charleston, South Carolina] News and Courier, April 30, 1971.

³“Southern Crescent To Run For At Least Another Year,” The Spartanburg [South Carolina] Herald, August 4, 1978.

⁴ Robert Page, “Southern Crescent: To Roll or Not Roll,” [Lexington, N.C.] Dispatch, March 23, 1978.

⁵“Crescent May Go Amtrak,” The Spartanburg Herald, May 11, 1978.

⁶ United Press International, “Southern Crescent pact nearer,” St. Petersburg [Florida] Times, December 8, 1978.

⁷ Howard Benedict, “Brock Adams will announce cuts in Amtrak,” Lewiston [Maine] Evening Journal, January 31, 1979.

⁸‘“Southern Comfort and All That Jazz’ Promotes Crescent,” The Spartanburg Herald, February 5, 1979.

In the days when dozens of major railroads were vying with one another to carry people and freight, branding and visual identity were important in setting a company apart in the public mind. Railroads branded themselves in a variety of ways, such as creating standard station designs, color schemes, uniforms and logos. In many cases, this visual identity drew upon the history and culture of the region served by the railroad.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, popularly known as the “Santa Fe,” was particularly adept at expropriating elements of Southwestern landscape, American Indian cultures and Spanish Colonial history in crafting its corporate identity. By the early 20th century, depots large and small took on a Spanish flair with stuccoed walls and red tile roofs, while patterns from Navajo rugs and Mimbres pottery appeared in advertising artwork and train décor. For many Americans, these designs evoked a taste of the exotic and provided a glimpse into a little known region.

Some of these design elements carried over to Amtrak, which upon assuming operation of most of the nation’s intercity passenger rail services in May, 1971, had the complex task of figuring out how to merge them into one system. Vestiges of the predecessor railroads lived on in those early years while Amtrak strove to define and standardize its own identity.

With a cursory glance, the Amtrak baggage tag above appears to show a bi-level Superliner car, but looking closely, you notice that the side of the car says “Santa Fe.” Part of Amtrak’s early fleet included stainless steel Hi-Levels ordered by the Santa Fe for use on El Capitan (Chicago-Los Angeles). These popular cars would later heavily influence the design of the Superliners.

Amtrak retained some of the Santa Fe's Southwestern-inspired
decor, such as the Mimbres bird panel in the back of this coach.

While Amtrak used the cars, it printed baggage tags declaring “I traveled the Hi-Level Amtrak way.” The red border is reminiscent of American Indian motifs. Amtrak followed in the Santa Fe’s footsteps by incorporating similar designs into posters advertising Southwestern travel; upholstery fabric used in the Superliner cars; and even on a menu cover from the late 1990s when Amtrak wanted to give each long-distance train its own regional identity, including specialized cuisine. But rather than appeal to a sense of the exotic as the Santa Fe had done a century earlier, these efforts seem more like attempts at creating romantic imagery that would tie Amtrak to passenger railroading’s rich traditions.

You can try your hand with signals or the engineer's stand.

The Amtrak Exhibit Train, which tells the story of Amtrak’s creation and advancement through artifacts, memorabilia and interactive exhibits, recently kicked off its 2014 tour. The Exhibit Train was created in 2011 to celebrate the company’s four decades as the nation’s primary intercity passenger rail operator. That milestone also prompted the creation of the Amtrak Archives and this website.

While you can enjoy interesting photographs, posters, menus and other items on History.Amtrak.com, the traveling Exhibit Train gives you a chance to see a selection of objects up close and in person. The main displays are housed in former Santa Fe Baggage cars from the 1950s that were refurbished at our principal heavy maintenance facility in Beech Grove, Ind. Employees with specialties in metalwork, electrical systems and other crafts transformed the interiors into bright and welcoming spaces.

A Red Cap stands next to the stations display.

A female mannequin dressed in a vintage passenger service representative uniform, complete with white go-go boots, greets visitors as they enter the first car. You can admire colorful, evocative advertising posters by famed graphic designer David Klein, see a pair of Superliner seats covered in their original Southwestern-inspired fabric and study china patterns used on long-distance trains. Rail fans young and old especially love the model trains depicting typical consists from the early “Rainbow” era to today.

Further along, a large wall-mounted display explores the evolution of station design and highlights the varied architecture found along the rails, from romantic Spanish colonial revival to Beaux-Arts grandeur to sleek mid-century modern—which is now gaining new admirers thanks to television shows like Mad Men.

Kids especially love hearing the horns. Kids gravitate to the horn display, where they can push buttons to hear different melodies Amtrak has used for its SDP40F, F-40, E-60, AEM-7 and P-42 locomotives. You usually see kids covering their ears until they realize the sound isn’t too loud!

Other displays include a mock-up of a new Viewliner II Roomette, an engineer’s stand and information about Amtrak’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Throughout the cars, video screens let visitors try their hand at Amtrak trivia or explore sleeping accommodations on our Superliner and Viewliner cars. In the Bistro car, which now serves as a gift shop, you can even spot an old Railfone in an alcove.

Check Amtrak.com for the Exhibit Train’s current schedule—we invite you to explore our history up close! Know someone who would enjoy this blog? Share this post on Facebook.

Working on an archive involves a fair share of sleuthing, and a memory for detail certainly doesn’t hurt. In the course of sorting through boxes of material, you come across photographs and other items with no explanatory information. Based on clues in the image—clothing, buildings, equipment paint schemes—you can usually narrow down when and where the scene took place. Other times, you can’t seem to fill in any of the blanks, and the item goes into a “mystery” pile to be later revisited.

Note the bird decorations above the windows and on the back wall.

I uploaded this postcard a few months ago, and although it was obvious that it showed a Dining car, I wasn’t sure of the car’s origins. In preparation for the start of service in May, 1971, Amtrak handpicked approximately 1,200 cars from a total pool of 3,000 held by the 20 railroads that had been relieved of their passenger service obligations.

Almost 90 percent of the chosen cars were either constructed of, or sheathed in, stainless steel, which meant lower maintenance costs. Mechanical and electrical overhauls were needed on roughly a third of the fleet, as were refurbishments to the interiors. In addition to coaches, Lounges and other car types, the purchase included 140 Dining cars of differing configurations.

I was recently working on material for National Train Day, celebrated on May 10 at locations across the country, and came across a reference to the Southern Pacific Railroad’s streamlined Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles), which included a Dining car embellished with images of birds. The mention of the birds rang a bell, and I remembered this postcard. My hunch that it showed one of these Dining cars was confirmed by searching through images and articles online.

The Southern Pacific (SP) launched the new, extra-fare Sunset Limited in August, 1950. It used five stainless steel passenger train sets manufactured by the Budd Company at its plant in northeastern Philadelphia. In addition to a Baggage-Postal car, Baggage-Dormitory car, divided Chair car, three passenger Chair cars and six 10-6 Sleepers, each train also carried a “Pride of Texas” Coffee-Shop-Lounge car, a “French Quarter” Lounge car and an “Audubon” Dining car.

By the mid-1970s, Amtrak had redecorated many Dining  
cars with bold and colorful interiors; the early Amtrak blue
china is on the table.

The bright and fun décor, coordinated by Philadelphia-based architect John Harbeson, was clearly inspired by the cities and regions through which the train ran. In addition to his architectural practice, teaching and writing, Harbeson worked with the Budd Company on designs for various streamlined trains from the 1930s onward. His vision for the Coffee-Shop-Lounge car included longhorn steer heads, spurs and a bar decorated with cattle brand marks, while the Lounge featured cast-iron trellises in reference to New Orleans’ French Quarter architecture.

A contemporary article in Railway Age magazine described the 48-seat Audubon Dining car as “decorated in soft tones of Bayou green, turquoise and Gulf blue, with hand-painted reproductions of bird illustrations by the famous artist and naturalist, John James Audubon…the background of the ceiling is turquoise with a diagonal lattice of the green superimposed to form an arbored effect.” The drapes had a bird-of-paradise motif, and even the blinds were turquoise and green.

It’s not clear what year the image on the postcard was taken, although it was likely in the early 1970s. Comparing it to older photos of the car during its SP days, not much had changed under Amtrak, except perhaps for the use of the blue Amtrak china—which happened to fit in perfectly with Harbeson’s color palette.

May is National Historic Preservation Month, a time to examine and celebrate historic places that tell our collective stories. Experience has demonstrated that historic preservation, when undertaken as part of a larger economic development program, contributes to community revitalization by strengthening a city, town or neighborhood’s identity and sense of place.

Railroad depots have played a special role in the modern preservation movement. When private railroads began trimming their passenger services and closing stations in the 1960s, depot preservation became a rallying point for communities afraid of losing their built heritage. This was especially true for towns founded by the railroads where the depot had served as a central gathering spot to hear news, see friends, pick up a package or enjoy a meal.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis and historic preservation advocates aboard a special Amtrak charter train - dubbed the "Landmark Express" - headed from New York to Washington in April, 1978.

Today, more than one-third of all Amtrak-served stations are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This honor indicates that a property is associated with significant events, activities and people in the nation’s history, or that it is noted for particular architectural or engineering achievements. Groups large and small work to preserve these buildings and share their stories with the public. Through the Great American Stations Project, Amtrak engages with communities interested in renovating and enhancing their stations.

It should come as little surprise that a train station—New York’s Grand Central Terminal—was at the center of an early, prominent court case challenging the legality of historic designation programs. Following the demolition of New York's Pennsylvania Station in 1963, the city established the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). This new body had the authority to “protect architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status…”

Single-level Amfleet cars, introduced in 1975, were the first rolling
stock built exclusively for Amtrak.

In 1968, the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads, both in financial difficulties, merged to form Penn Central (PC). The company proposed to construct an office tower over Grand Central to take advantage of the prime real estate and raise needed revenue. With the destruction of Pennsylvania Station still fresh in people’s minds, there was public uproar at the plans to drastically alter the Beaux-Arts terminal. The LPC had listed the building as a historic landmark a few months earlier and rejected PC’s proposal. The railroad then sued the city, arguing that the landmark designation prevented it from gaining a reasonable economic return on the property—and therefore constituted an unlawful taking.

The Municipal Arts Society (MAS) headed the movement to block the terminal’s destruction or significant alteration. Following a 1975 New York State Supreme Court ruling in favor of the railroad, MAS helped establish the Committee to Save Grand Central Station, whose most famous member undoubtedly was Jackie Kennedy Onassis, wife of former President John F. Kennedy. Her preservation background and celebrity created valuable publicity for the campaign and helped the group spread its message beyond New York.

Amfleet cafe cars include a food service station in the
center with seating on either side.

Penn Central Transportation Company v. New York City eventually worked its way to the United States Supreme Court in spring 1978. On Sunday, April 16, the day prior to the oral arguments before the Court, the MAS and Committee chartered a special Amtrak train—dubbed the “Landmark Express”—to carry preservationists and advocates to Washington for a press conference at Union Station (which was threatened with demolition only a few years later) and the Supreme Court argument the following day. Then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch bid the group farewell.

At stops in Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore, Committee members gave brief speeches and welcomed additional supporters. More than 400 people filled the eight cars, which included four Amfleet coaches and three cafes followed by a private car. The latter was the Pennsylvania, which only ten years earlier had carried the body of Robert F. Kennedy from New York to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The atmosphere onboard was jovial, with two mimes, a pair of clowns and jugglers roaming the aisles while a classical trio and a banjo player provided musical accompaniment.¹ McDonald’s provided hamburgers and French fries for the trip, and Committee members handed out T-shirts, balloons and buttons emblazoned with “Save Grand Central.” According to an article in Amtrak NEWS, Onassis made an effort to thank everyone on the train and stopped to talk and take pictures.

Like Grand Central, Washington Union Station was also
threatened with demolition in the late 1970s.

In Washington, Second Lady Joan Mondale, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a jazz band welcomed the group. At the press conference, Onassis stated, “If Grand Central goes, all of the landmarks in this country will go as well. If that happens, we’ll live in a world of steel and glass.”² Following the formal remarks, attendees enjoyed a cake baked in the shape of Grand Central Terminal.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of New York City that summer, and Grand Central was saved from the wrecking ball. Metro-North Railroad took over operation of the facility in 1983 and began a multi-million dollar series of restorations that culminated in a rededication ceremony in 1998. Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited, Empire Service trains and Maple Leaf used the terminal until April, 1991, when all New York City services were consolidated at Penn Station. This was made possible by the completion of the Empire Connection, a 10 mile rail line up the West Side of Manhattan and over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge onto the mainland.

Today, Grand Central Terminal is not simply a transportation hub for commuter rail, the subway and local buses but also a popular destination for fine dining, shopping and special events. It also stands as a preservation success story for future generations.

¹John Belle and Maxinne R. Leighton, Grand Central: Gateway to a Million Lives, (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000).

²Ibid.

The former Amtrak station in Rockville, Maryland, in the late 1970s.

I found the photo above in a slim, bright yellow box along with others that appeared to depict the same train at various small depots. Turning it around, the photo was unmarked, providing little clue as to where this scene took place. But the more I looked at it, I couldn’t help but think that the building seemed familiar—and then I realized that it is located just a few miles outside of Washington, D.C., in the town of Rockville, Maryland. Although it still stands, the historic late 19^th century passenger depot is no longer used by Amtrak or any transportation provider.

A similar poster can be seen on the depot's
wall next to the utility pole.

In the early 1980s, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, which operates the region’s subway and buses, pushed out into the Maryland suburbs. It constructed an intermodal transportation center in Rockville to house its services along with Amtrak and commuter rail lines. To make way for the new complex, the old depot was moved south approximately 30 feet. Refurbished as offices, it now stands amid mature trees next to the railroad right-of-way and is visible from the Capitol Limited (Washington-Chicago).

In addition to Rockville, the yellow box includes photos of similar scenes in Brunswick, Maryland, and Martinsburg, West Virginia. Each includes a crowd, but the way the people are milling about, they appear to be gathered for a special occasion. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the images depict the inaugural run of the Shenandoah(Washington-Cumberland-Cincinnati) in October, 1976.

An early flyer for the trainnoted, "Now for the first time you can take in eye-opening daytime views of the beautiful Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains as you travel..." It also touted the use of new stainless steel, single-level Amfleet cars on the Shenandoah—they are clearly visible in the photos. Introduced in 1975, the Amfleet cars were the first rolling stock exclusively manufactured for Amtrak. Shenandoah passengers could initially transfer to the combined Mountaineer/James Whitcomb Riley (later the Cardinal) at Cincinnati for connecting service to Chicago. Since the discontinuance of the Shenandoah in 1981, the portion of the route between Washington and Cumberland, Maryland, has been covered by the Capitol Limited.

The Rockville depot in May, 2014.

Studying the photo carefully, little details start to emerge, such as the red, white and blue paper conductor's hats tied around the utility pole. Amtrak still has a version of this hat that is given out to children at special events. Posters similar to the one tacked on the depot’s wall promoted various features of the Amfleet cars. Above the pointed arch window is an original Amtrak sign spelling out the station name against a blue background. It also incorporates the company’s first service mark, a stylized arrow that was retired in 2000. And standing close to the train is a service attendant dressed in a crisp, white, double-breasted jacket, helping passengers up and down the stairs. Closing your eyes, it’s not hard to imagine yourself among the crowd, catching bits of conversation and admiring the gleaming silver cars in their patriotic livery.

Were you on the inaugural run of the Shenandoah? Do you have memories of traveling on this train? Share them with us in the comments section below.

The top shelf shows images of the company in its early years.

May was an exciting month for the Amtrak History team; in addition to celebrating National Train Day, we were invited to create a display for the Museum of Transportation—St. Louis (MOT). Located on a campus west of the city, the MOT is recognized as one of the largest and best collections of transportation vehicles in the world. Since 1944, the museum has striven to be the leader in protecting and interpreting North America's transportation heritage.

The museum complex includes one of the first man-made railroad tunnels (no longer in operation) west of the Mississippi River, four miles of switching and exhibition track and 10 buildings housing transportation-related memorabilia and documents. The railroad enthusiast will find more than 70 locomotives on display, and there are also extensive collections of automobiles, buses, streetcars, aircraft, horse-drawn vehicles and riverboat materials. Young children flock to “Creation Station,” a hands-on learning environment that introduces them to all modes of transportation while developing learning skills.

The menu on the left features the famous Gateway Arch.

Located in the William R. and Laura Rand Orthwein Education & Visitor Center, the Amtrak history display traces our more than four decades as America’s intercity passenger rail operator, primarily through archival images and select memorabilia. Some pieces, such as a lunch menu with the Gateway Arch, were chosen for their local connections.

Visitors to our traveling Amtrak Exhibit Train always admire David Klein’s colorful posters; therefore, we had to include one on the top shelf—its bright colors and engaging patterns catch the eye. Proceeding chronologically, photos explore employee uniforms, rolling stock, technological advances such as the computerized reservations system and the introduction of customer amenities including AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi.

This shelf highlights state partnerships, customer amenities
and new initiatives including AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi.

Also highlighted are Amtrak’s partnerships with 19 state transportation departments and other entities that help fund trains on 28 passenger routes across the country, including the Piedmont Service (Charlotte-Raleigh) in North Carolina and the Lincoln Service (St. Louis-Chicago) in Illinois.

One shelf is devoted to the long-standing Amtrak-Missouri partnership, which was established in 1979 as a result of the discontinuance of the National Limited (New York/ Washington-Kansas City). Without that train, the busy St. Louis-Kansas City corridor would have had no passenger rail service; thus, Missouri signed an agreement with Amtrak to help fund continued service. To mark the 30^th anniversary of the partnership in 2009, the trains were collectively renamed the Missouri River Runnerthrough a public contest.

The bottom shelf focuses on Amtrak in Missouri since 1971.

If you are in the St. Louis area in the course of the next year, stop by the Museum of Transportation to check out the display! We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section below, or take a photo of the display to share on social media with the #AmtrakHistory hashtag.

With July 4th right around the corner, our thoughts turn to barbeques, neighborhood parades and fireworks displays—events meant to bring us together with friends and family as we celebrate the establishment of our nation and its long fight for freedom.

In keeping with the spirit of Independence Day, Amtrak is running a special train—No. 1776—on the holiday. Departing the nation’s capital late in the evening, it will allow passengers to watch the spectacular fireworks show on the Mall before heading north to New York and intermediate points.

Railroads are strongly woven through our collective history and have been intimately involved in the country’s expansion by transporting people, supplies and ideas while also establishing economic links within and between regions. Railroad depots in communities large and small have also served as the backdrop to major life events for millions of people—departing home to start a new career, shipping out to war, returning to the embrace of loved ones—the stories are countless.

Thus, it’s no surprise that the above Washington-New York timetable from 1975 features an electric E-60 locomotive against an unfurled early American flag. The image also tied into commemorations leading up to the major Bicentennial celebrations the next year. Taking a look inside, one can see that the trains running on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) once bore varied names. Many referenced Revolutionary War era figures and battles, such as the Minute Man, Valley Forge and Bunker Hill. These nameshad carried over from the predecessor railroads that operated similar services prior to the start of Amtrak operations in May, 1971.

Amtrak retained the colorful names until fall 1995, when all the Northeast Corridor trains were rebranded under the NortheastDirect umbrella and simply known by their numbers. Only the premium, high-speed Metroliner Service trains maintained a separate identity, which had been in place since their introduction by Penn Central in 1969.

According to a November, 1995, article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NortheastDirect rebranding campaign included interior refurbishment of approximately 150 cars that received new seats, upholstery and carpeting.¹ Four trains between Boston and Washington also gained new Custom Class service: for an extra fee, a passenger could take advantage of “reserved seats in a special car, free non-alcoholic beverages and newspapers, and hot or cold meals served in a dining car with fresh linens.”² Amtrak advertised the new NortheastDirect service through radio and television spots.

But the individual train names were not gone for long. Although still broadly branded as NortheastDirect service, the trains regained their individual identities within a year. The names would last until spring 1999 when they were again removed from the timetables. Another branding change followed the completion of the Northeast High-Speed Rail Improvement Project in 2000, which resulted in the electrification of the NEC between New Haven and Boston and set the foundation for all-electric service along the corridor’s entire length. At the end of that year, Amtrak introduced the high-speed Acela Express.

Amtrak introduced the NortheastDirect brand in 1995.

As part of a larger rebranding effort built around Acela Express, NortheastDirect trains were subsequently renamed Acela Regional. However, confusion about the two Acela services led Amtrak in 2003 to simply call the conventional trains Regionals. Five years later, they gained their current branding: Northeast Regional. As part of that process, Amtrak refurbished Café and Business Class cars and introduced new menus. Train consists were also altered, with the Café Car moving to the center where it is easily accessible from both ends of the train.³

Today, travelers in the Northeast still encounter one patriotically named train: the Ethan AllenExpress (New York-Rutland, Vt.), named after a Revolutionary War hero and founder of Vermont. The train that bears his name was established in 1996 and is especially popular with winter sports enthusiasts who visit the mountain resorts of Vermont to ski, snowboard and enjoy the beautiful landscape.

Do you remember when the Northeast Corridor trains had individual names? Share your favorite one with us in the comments section below.

¹ Tom Belden, “Amtrak Boosts Non-metroliner Service It’s Now The Northeast/direct Line,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 13, 1995.

² Ibid.

³“New Amtrak Ad Campaign Promotes Re-launch of Northeast Regional Service,” Webwire, July 15, 2008.

W. Graham Claytor, Jr. took the helm of Amtrak
in 1982.

In early May 1982, Amtrak President and Chairman Alan S. Boydannounced his resignation. He had spent a little more than four years at the company’s helm, guiding Amtrak through the Congressionally-mandated 1979 route restructuring and a change in presidential administrations. The prior year, Boyd presided over Amtrak’s 10^th anniversary; in that first decade, total revenues had risen 311 percent to $506.3 million, while passenger miles traveled increased 60 percent. Amtrak had grown to become the nation’s sixth largest intercity public transportation company.

Boyd reflected during an interview with TheNew York Times, “I foresee a bright future for the nation’s revitalized rail passenger network, and thus it is with mixed emotions that I end my direct involvement with Amtrak.”¹ According to an interview with Dan Cupper of Passenger Train Journal, Boyd believed he had accomplished three major goals at Amtrak: creating credibility for the company before Congress and the public; reforming labor contracts to be in line with modern business practice; and improving operations, particularly relationships with the host railroads that helped lead to better on-time performance.²

Successor W. Graham Claytor, Jr., named to Amtrak’s top position on June 11, arrived the next month “with the goal of improving every service currently operating and at the same time reducing the costs of operating those services.” He acknowledged his predecessors, noting that their “legacy…is the stability of Amtrak as a system and as an institution.”

Amfleet II coaches and food service cars began arriving in 1982.

A lawyer and World War II naval hero, Claytor gained extensive knowledge of passenger and freight railroading as the vice president, president and chairman of Southern Railway between 1963 and 1977. At the formation of Amtrak in 1971, Southern declined to turn over its passenger services to Amtrak. Although the railroad eliminated its other remaining passenger trains in the mid-1970s, the flagship Southern Crescent (New Orleans-Washington-New York) continued to operate until 1979 when it was then transferred to Amtrak and renamed the Crescent. Following retirement from Southern, Claytor began a second career in government service with the Carter administration. Between 1977 and 1981, Claytor served as Secretary of the Navy, Acting Secretary of Transportation and Deputy Secretary of Defense.³

Although Claytor took the helm of Amtrak during a recession that suppressed ridership, the company still ended fiscal year 1982 with more than 19 million passengers. Amtrak also met an important statutory goal of recovering 50 percent of its total operating costs through revenues—more than three years ahead of schedule.

By 1982, employees at Beech Grove finished converting the
Heritage Fleet from steam to electric head-end power.

To reduce costs and improve productivity, Amtrak management negotiated directly with the unions representing non-operating employees. In the past, the company had accepted the same contracts the freight railroads had negotiated with their unions. In May, unions representing ¾ of the total employee force signed agreements, and later that year, Amtrak carried on negotiations directly with the unions representing train and engine crews in the Northeast Corridor. The new contracts provided for an “hourly basis of pay, elimination of supplemental payments, and modernized work procedures.”

To facilitate further discussion between the unions and management, a Joint Labor/Management Productivity Council was created to “examine and recommend improvements in all areas of activity that affect Amtrak’s productivity.” It included a member from each labor organization representing employees, an equal number of management members and a public chairman. The council discussed areas of mutual concern, evaluated working conditions and made recommendations to resolve standing problems.

The Track Laying System was used on the Northeast Corridor to
replace ties, install continuous welded rail and align the track.

By 1982, Amtrak completed a multi-year program to convert all of the remaining Heritage Fleet cars from steam to electric head end power. New car development and acquisition efforts undertaken in the 1970s now meant that modern, reliable Amfleet I, Amfleet II and Superliner cars composed approximately two-thirds of the total fleet. The Amfleet II single level coaches and lounges, intended for overnight trains, began arriving that year. For motive power, the 3000 horsepower F40PH, capable of hauling trains at 100 mph, proved the mainstay of the long-distance locomotive fleet; in the Northeast, Amtrak received AEM-7 No. 932, the last in the original 47 unit electric locomotive order.

Freight railroads, over whose rails Amtrak ran its long-distance services, invested $15 billion in right-of-way improvements in the early 1980s; coupled with better operating agreements, Amtrak was able to reduce running times and boost many trains’ on-time performance. One of the year’s most significant achievements was the launch of ARROW, a new nationwide ticketing and reservation computer system. It replaced the Amtrak Automated Reservation and Ticketing System (ARTS), which due to growing call volume had experienced delays and shutdowns. ARROW had ten times the computing capacity and restored an optimal two- or three-second response time.

As the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project neared completion,
Metroliner Service trains regained their fast run times.

In the Northeast, the five year long Northeast Corridor Improvement Project (NECIP) was nearing its end. In 1982, Amtrak noted that the Track Laying System, a series of machines that moved along the rails and replaced ties, installed continuous welded rail, cleaned ballast and aligned the track, was close to laying its one-millionth tie. In addition, crews replaced track in the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel near Baltimore Penn Station, completed maintenance-of-way bases in Perryville, Md., and Providence, R.I., and also finished work on a dozen bridges.

The improved infrastructure allowed Amtrak to bring Metroliner Service schedules between Washington and New York back under three hours; only two years before, major NECIP work meant that some Metroliner frequencies had been stretched to almost four hours. Travelers may have also noticed that the original self-propelled Metroliner equipment was replaced by Amfleet cars pulled by a locomotive.⁴

Continuing a trend started under Alan Boyd, Amtrak utilized its physical assets and highly trained workforce to win outside contracts representing new revenue sources. Employees at the Beech Grove, Ind., maintenance facility overhauled 15 commuter coaches for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, generating $3 million. Amtrak also signed a $9 million contract with Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie, S. p. A. to assemble 294 rapid transit cars for the Washington, D.C., area subway system.

In hindsight, 1982 marked a time of transition toward newfound institutional stability. In its first decade, the company was led by three men who each put their own stamp on its culture and operations. They had established standard procedures, overhauled the locomotive and rolling stock fleets and guided the company through adjustments to its national route system. Claytor, skilled in both railroading and politics, built on this solid foundation over the next decade and came to define an era.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ Daniel F. Cuff, “Business People: Amtrak’s Chairman Plans to Step Down,” TheNew York Times, May 6, 1982.

² Dan Cupper, “Drawing a bead on Boyd,” Passenger Train Journal Vol. 14, No. 2 (August 1982)

³ Richard D. Lyons, “W. Graham Claytor, Architect of Amtrak Growth, Dies at 82,” The New York Times, May 15, 1994.

⁴ Bruce Goldberg, “Metroliner’s Amazing Career: Pivotal moments in the life of America's first high-speed train,” Trains website (June 30, 2006).

In addition to the above links, sources consulted include:

National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Annual Report for fiscal year 1982.

All quotes, unless otherwise noted, are drawn from this report.

As the Sunset Limited makes its tri-weekly journey between New Orleans and Los Angeles, it offers passengers views of ecologically diverse bayou and desert landscapes, the United States-Mexico border and historic small towns such as Deming, N.M., where the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads drove a silver spike in March, 1881, to mark the completion of the second transcontinental rail line.

Railroad aficionados probably know that the Sunset Limited is the oldest “named” train in continuous operation in the United States. Operated by Amtrak since 1971, it is the descendent of a former Southern Pacific service dating to 1894.  In addition to seeing natural and historical landmarks, passengers heading to or from New Orleans cross over one of the nation’s great engineering marvels: the Huey P. Long Bridge. Since the company’s early days, Amtrak promotional material has shown the Sunset Limited on the bridge, often with the city of New Orleans as the perfect backdrop.

The Sunset Limited crosses the Mississippi River over the Huey P. Long Bridge in the late 1970s.

Located upstream and west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, the Huey P. Long Bridge was the region’s first permanent railroad and automobile crossing over the Mississippi River. Although long-dreamed of by railroad promoters and city boosters, bridge construction did not begin until 1933 during the Great Depression. Financing and construction was overseen by the Public Belt Railroad Association, a non-profit, city-owned corporation with a mission to better organize the rail lines serving the city and its extensive port facilities. To this day, the corporation, now known as the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, owns, operates and maintains the railway portion of the bridge while the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development maintains the roadway portion.

When completed in 1935, the soaring structure was the longest steel trestle railroad bridge in the world. The well-known engineering firm of Modjeski, Masters & Chase, Inc. designed the 4.36 mile long bridge at a cost of $12.8 million. It originally contained two railroad tracks in the center, flanked by two-lane highways on either side. From 2006 to 2013, the state of Louisiana undertook a $1.2 billion project to widen the bridge by adding a lane and shoulder in each direction. Since its dedication, it has borne the name of Huey P. Long, who served as Louisiana’s governor and senator at the time.

The Sunset Limited crosses the Mississippi River over the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1995.

The photographs above from the Amtrak Archives show two views of the Sunset Limited on the bridge, one from the late 1970s and the other from 1995. The most noticeable difference is the trains’ consists. In the older image, the train includes a variety of single-level sleeping, dining, baggage and coach cars that Amtrak purchased from the predecessor railroads when it took over the nation’s intercity passenger rail services in 1971. The later image shows the train made up of bi-level Superliner cars; although the first Superliners entered service in late 1979, they did not replace Heritage Fleet equipment on the Sunset Limited until early 1981. At the time the photo was taken in 1995, the route ran between Los Angeles and Miami via New Orleans; Amtrak suspended service east of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The older black and white photograph is shot from an angle that allows you to see how the highway ramps and railroad portion of the bridge come together to cross the river, whereas the newer image emphasizes the bridge’s immensity and strength. Bathed in twilight’s soft light, it takes on a pinkish glow that makes it stand out against the dark shoreline.  Looking far into the distance, you can spot the high-rises of New Orleans’s Central Business District southwest of the famous French Quarter. In this related image, the Superdome’s curving white mass is clearly visible.

New Orleans is an important southern hub for Amtrak. North of the passenger depot, noted for colorful murals depicting the history of Louisiana, there is an Amtrak maintenance facility where employees perform running/turn around maintenance on all of the long-distance rolling stock and locomotives associated with the Sunset Limited, City of New Orleans(New Orleans-Memphis-Chicago)andCrescent (New Orleans-Atlanta-New York). The skilled shop employees also service and perform light overhauls for Viewliner and Heritage cars used on the Crescent.

Check out these other great aerial photos of the Sunset Limited taken for the 1995 marketing campaign.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Historical information about the Huey P. Long Bridge is drawn from:

Coco & Company, LLC, “Huey P. Long Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River approximately midway between nine & twelve mile points upstream from & west of New Orleans, Jefferson, Jefferson Parish, LA ,” Historic American Engineering Record, United States Department of the Interior, 2005.

Today we celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Adirondack (New York-Albany-Montreal), which for much of its 381 mile journey follows the broad Hudson River and Lake Champlain’s meandering western shore. Skirting the river’s edge, the train offers pretty views of hilltop homes and boaters out on the water. Further north, particularly along Willsboro Bay south of the Port Kent station, the rails hug rugged cliff sides that drop precipitously down to the lake’s surface.

The Adirondack made its inaugural run on August 5, 1974; revenue service began the next day.

Although Montreal had long been connected to the American rail system, the original Amtrak route map unveiled in spring 1971 included no international destinations. This changed the next year when Congress enacted legislation authorizing $2 million to support three new services to Vancouver, Montreal and Nuevo Laredo.¹

In determining a route between New York City and Montreal, Amtrak had two choices: one through the Connecticut River Valley and up the eastern side of Lake Champlain via Vermont, or one up the Hudson River and the western side of the lake through New York. State leaders and advocacy groups in Vermont mounted an effective campaign to revive rail service, and Amtrak launched the overnight Montrealer/Washingtonian (Washington-New York-Montreal) in late September 1972. Amtrak chose the longer Vermont route because it passed through the state’s popular skiing region, thereby opening up possibilities to attract sports enthusiasts to the service.

In the early 1970s, growing environmental awareness and the first energy crisis encouraged Americans to reconsider their use of natural resources. To tout itself as an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective mode of transportation, Amtrak responded with a new advertising campaign using the slogan “Save energy—take our car.”

Against this background, the state of New York decided to take advantage of Section 403(b) of the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970—the legislation that established Amtrak. It allowed states to work with Amtrak to institute new services if they agreed to reimburse the company for at least two-thirds of any associated losses. One of the state’s proposed routes was between New York City and Montreal, which prior to the start of Amtrak operations had been served by two Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) trains: the daytime Laurentian and the overnight Montreal Limited.

New York State and Amtrak approached the D&H about using its tracks between Albany-Rensselaer and Montreal, to which the company agreed in 1974. The D&H would also provide the initial equipment for the train, as Amtrak did not have enough cars for the service.² It would be another year before Amtrak received the first single-level Amfleet cars, which then became the standard equipment used on most eastern trains. According to the agreements among the three parties, Amtrak operated the train south of Albany-Rensselaer and the D&H oversaw the northern leg. Amtrak staffed the dining car while the D&H provided the rest of the on-board crew; later, the D&H also arranged for a dining car crew north of Albany-Rensselaer.³

To support the new service, called the Adirondack in honor of the mountains of northeastern New York, the state devoted $3.2 million “for track rehabilitation, station renovation and construction, and locomotive and passenger car rebuilding.”⁴ The funds came through a voter-approved transportation bond issue.⁵

Interestingly, at a time when Amtrak was repainting the cars it had purchased from the predecessor railroads in its own patriotic red, white and blue livery, the equipment from the D&H retained the company’s blue and yellow scheme and lettering as part of the agreement with the state and Amtrak.⁶ Of particular note were the PA diesel locomotives that the D&H designated for the service. Constructed by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric at mid-century, they exhibit a long nose and sleek lines that make them a favorite among rail fans even today. Four units were rebuilt for the Adirondack to include 2400-horsepower engines.⁷ Baggage-mail, diner-lounge and coach cars formerly used on the Laurentian were chosen to round out the rolling stock.

Amtrak converted the Adirondack to RTL Turboliners in early 1977.

While the passenger cars were sent for refurbishment, stand-ins included older heavyweight coaches and commuter coaches leased from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.⁸ The D&H also leased two Skyline buffet lounge-dome cars from the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). They included a kitchen, dining section with booth seating for 17, coach seating for 26 downstairs and seats for 24 in the dome.⁹ These cars provided dining space until the D&H diner-lounges Adirondack Lodge and Saratoga Inn were ready for service. Not long after the Skyline domes went back to CP, Amtrak added its own dome cars to the train at the state’s suggestion.

The inaugural trip, intended for state, Amtrak and D&H officials and members of the press, took place on Monday, August 5, 1974. As the scheduled New York-Buffalo Empire Service train arrived at Albany-Rensselaer, crews detached four coaches from the rear and added them to five waiting cars. The first train included PA1s No. 17 and No. 18 decorated with flags, six coaches, Skyline dome car Willsboro Point, buffet-lounge car Champlain, and at the rear, D&H office car No. 200, which had an observation platform.¹⁰

Turboclub featured spacious one-by-two seating.

Following congratulatory remarks, New York Governor Malcolm Wilsoncut a blue ribbon, and guests boarded for the journey to Montreal.¹¹ The train stopped at each station along the route, where crowds gathered to herald the return of passenger rail service in the Champlain Valley. Photos from the trip show people holding banners and wearing paper Amtrak conductor hats. New York Times reporter Edward C. Burks recorded the scenes, which included “the firing of muskets by honor guards in colonial costume at Saratoga Springs and Whitehall, a salute from speedboat enthusiasts on picturesque Lake Champlain… [and] a schoolboy swing band [at Plattsburgh].”¹² Aboard the train, passengers enjoyed “a buffet luncheon, including caviar, which was served by an array of Amtrak and D&H hostesses.¹³

The Adirondack entered regular revenue service the next day; according to the first timetable, a one-way coach ticket between New York’s Grand Central Terminal and Montreal’s Windsor Station cost $22.25.  In April, 1975, the Adirondackbecame an independent train for its entire New York-Montreal run—the coaches were no longer carried by Empire Service trains between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer.

Two years later, on March 1, 1977, Amtrak converted the Adirondack to RTL Turboliner equipment, thereby ending the use of the D&H cars and locomotives. The new trainsets were based on the earlier RTG Turboliners, which were in turn developed from a French design. Built by Rohr Industries, seven RTL Turboliner trainsets were delivered to Amtrak in 1976-77 for use in upstate New York. They were modified from the RTG units to include American couplers and standard 480 volt head-end power. To access Grand Central Terminal, the RTLs were also equipped for third rail electric operation.

Promotional material noted that the new trains offered “a smooth, quiet ride in an air-conditioned, entirely carpeted interior (walls and ceilings as well as floors)" and large, wide windows from which to admire the scenery. Passengers could choose between coach or Turboclub, a reserved club car service featuring spacious two-by-one seating and assistance by an attendant. The Adirondack currently uses a mix of Amfleet I and Amfleet II coaches. A P-32 locomotive leads the train between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer since it is capable of operating over an electric third rail into Penn Station (all Amtrak trains serving Grand Central Terminal switched over to this facility with the completion of the Empire Connection in 1991).

The Adirondack has always been popular with those in search of colorful fall foliage. In recent years, the train has included a special, historic piece of equipment during this period: the Great Dome car. Open to all passengers, it features upper level seating beneath the dome for all-around panoramic views. Built by the Budd Company in 1955 for the Great Northern Railway, the dome car was originally used on the Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle). Amtrak obtained the car in 1971, and it was later used in regular service on the Auto Train (Lorton, Va.-Sanford, Fla.). Although the Great Dome is today used on various trains and in charter services, it often appears on the Adirondack or Cardinal (New York-Chicago) in the autumn.

The Adirondack skirts rocky outcroppings along Lake Champlain.

On weekends from May through October, passengers aboard the Adirondack can learn about cultural, historical and natural landmarks along the route through the Trails & Rails program, a joint initiative of Amtrak and the National Park Service. Volunteers based out of the Vanderbilt Mansion and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt national historic sites ride the train between Croton-Harmon and Albany-Rensselaer, while their counterparts from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Area are available between Saratoga Springs and Westport.

Four decades after the inauguration of the Adirondack, New York State continues to financially support intercity passenger rail service as part of a statewide multimodal transportation system. New York State, Amtrak and the federal government are currently working together to undertake numerous projects that will enhance the rail network. These include the addition of a much-needed fourth track at the Albany-Rensselaer station, signal line improvements south of Albany, the construction of an additional track between Rensselaer and Schenectady, and grade crossing improvements along the southern portion of the Empire Corridor. When completed, these infrastructure improvements will positively affect the on-time performance and reliability of the Adirondack and Empire Service trains.

Check out memorabilia from other Amtrak inaugural trains!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

¹ National Railroad Passenger Corporation, 1972 Annual Report, (Washington, D.C., 1972).

² Karl R. Zimmermann, A Decade of D&H, (Oradell, N.J.: Delford Press, 1978).

³ Doug Lezette, Delaware & Hudson Passenger Trains: The Final Decade, (Goffstown, N.H.: Railroad Explorer, 2002).

⁴ Zimmermann

⁵ Lezette

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Zimmermann

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Lezette

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Edward C. Burks, “New York-Albany-Montreal Train Is Resumed With a Festive Air,” The New York Times, August 6, 1974.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Ibid.

Part of organizing material donated to the Amtrak Archives simply involves grouping like things together, such as timetables, advertisements and equipment photos. This is a useful exercise because it often helps us see items in a new light—you begin to recognize patterns or common motifs that connect objects. This recently occurred when we organized ticket jackets, the paper folders into which a ticket agent places your tickets for safekeeping.

At the end of their journey, most people probably throw the jacket away without a second thought. And in the age of eTicketing, many passengers never receive a ticket jacket in the first place, but rather print tickets at home or show a QR code on their smartphone for the conductor to scan. Perhaps in a few years’ time, the jackets and paper tickets will simply be pieces of railroad history from the pre-digital era.

Laid out together on a table, the jackets’ colorful imagery provides a mini-history of Amtrak over the past four decades. The company uses the front panel to tout customer service initiatives, highlight new equipment and showcase stunning scenery along various routes. Inside, the panels usually include an explanation of refund and baggage policies and other travel essentials. There’s also space for the ticket agent to pencil in your train number, car number, departure date and time and final destination. Sometimes there are advertisements for Amtrak merchandise or goods offered by outside vendors, such as discounts to a museum or show. Below we take a look at some of the jackets and the stories they reveal:

Dating from the late 1970s, this jacket tantalizes with the phrase “Superliners are coming….” In its first decade, Amtrak concentrated on overhauling and replacing the fleet of cars and locomotives it had purchased or leased from the predecessor railroads. Amtrak rebuilt the best of the older cars and converted them to electric head-end power; interiors were modernized with vibrant color schemes including combinations of orange, red and purple.

Orders were quickly placed for new single-level Amfleet cars and gas-turbine powered Turboliner train sets. In 1973, an Amtrak team started designing the bi-level Superliner cars that first entered service on western long-distance routes six years later. The jacket includes a drawing of a Superliner car in the Phase III paint scheme from 1979.

Issued in 1982, this jacket uses the first Amtrak service mark as the building block for a larger, dazzling geometric design. The service mark was developed for Amtrak by the marketing firm Lippincott & Margulies, Inc. According to a press release issued on April 19, 1971, “Key elements in the new [Amtrak] corporate identity program are crisp, modern graphics and a distinctive, motion-oriented, service mark in the national colors…Eventually [it] will be used as the design motif for passenger car exteriors and interiors…” In 2000, the company unveiled the current blue service mark that also imparts a sense of movement through flowing lines.

The growth of the internet in the 1990s transformed the way businesses interact with their customers. Amtrak embraced this new communication platform by launching Amtrak.com in 1997; by 2000, it had become one of the most bookmarked sites on the web. This ticket jacket (above left) from 2002 shows a young couple picking out tulips at a market, perhaps because they saved time by buying their tickets online instead of going to a station or travel agent.

Building upon the success of Amtrak.com, the company launched eTicketing across the national system in 2012. It allows passengers to print their tickets at their convenience or use a smartphone to show the eTicket to the conductor, thereby resulting in shorter ticket lines at stations, fewer tickets sold onboard trains and a decrease in the number of lost tickets. The eTicket program also provides Amtrak with accurate real time knowledge of who is on the train, en route reporting of onboard equipment problems and more efficient financial reporting.

This jacket from 2001 (above right) draws you in with a gorgeous photograph that, judging by the landscape, probably shows the Coast Starlightin California. Rolling hills recede into the distance as waves break onto shore down below, creating foamy whitecaps. The route of the Coast Starlight is oftenconsidered one of the most scenic, offering views of  wildflower meadows, the Cascade Range and Puget Sound.

Sleeping car passengers can enjoy the scenery from one of the bi-level Pacific Parlour cars, which were originally built in the mid-1950s for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Due to their popularity, they served as the model for the Superliners. Amtrak refurbished the Pacific Parlour cars in the mid-1990s to provide a casual, yet elegant, space for Sleeping car passengers to relax. Passengers can enjoy an intimate meal upstairs, a movie in the onboard theater or play a board game.

Photography is again effectively employed to draw the viewer’s attention to the cover of this recently-issued ticket jacket. Against a warm, golden orange sky, a cross country train passes through an open landscape. The latter reminds passengers that intercity rail service connects not only major urban areas, but also small and medium-sized communities, many of which lack other forms of public transportation. Messaging in the top left hand corner highlights the economic impact of Amtrak service on local communities through goods and services purchased and wages paid to employees.

Do you collect Amtrak ticket jackets or ticket stubs? Tell us about one that holds special meaning for you in the comments section below.

In Fiscal Year 1978, Amtrak began a program to convert cars purchased from the predecessor railroads from steam power to electric head-end power (HEP). Under the older system, a boiler in the locomotive heated water to create steam that was then piped throughout the cars to provide heating; lighting and air conditioning were supplied by a generator and batteries in each car. Head-end power used electricity generated by the locomotive to perform all of these functions.

Heritage cars at Beech Grove undergo conversion to head-end power.

An article in the August, 1980, issue of Amtrak NEWS explained some of the issues with steam power: “Internal systems of pipes and wires progressively deteriorated and become increasingly unreliable, although, in many cases, the car structure itself was sound. Cars froze up in the winter and air conditioning failed in the summer with agonizing regularity.” Meanwhile, new equipment such as the single-level Amfleet cars and the bi-level Superliners were built with modern all-electric systems.

To address this difference, Amtrak experimented with steam to HEP conversions under President Paul Reistrup. Work took place at the Beech Grove shops, the primary Amtrak heavy maintenance facility located southeast of Indianapolis. Crews focused on sleeping cars assigned to the Night Owl (Washington-Boston), Montrealer (Washington-Montreal), Cardinal (Washington-Cincinnati-Chicago), Inter-American(Chicago-Laredo/Houston) and other overnight trains that had recently gained Amfleet equipment. With the success of these upgrades, Amtrak leadership decided to make the leap and convert entire train sets to HEP.

The first train overhauled was the Lake Shore Limited(New York/Boston-Chicago), which included work on coaches, diners, sleeping cars and lounges, followed by the Broadway Limited (New York/Washington-Chicago), Crescent (New York-New Orleans) and Silver Meteor (New York-Miami/St. Petersburg). Depending on the type of car, conversion cost between $250,000 and $400,000—versus about $1 million to purchase a new car. Amtrak completed the conversion program in 1982.

Thanks to Amtrak NEWS, modern readers can follow the conversion process through the photos below:

• A car was stripped both inside and out following fumigation.

• Wiring was removed and old steam lines and all exterior fittings except the air tanks were cut away.

• The empty car shell, ready to be fitted with new components, was cleaned with an acid-foam wash. In the above image, carman R.A. Bennett completes the washing.

• New exterior equipment was then hung below the car, including transformers, an air conditioning unit, distribution boxes, an emergency battery box, water tanks, a new plumbing system and a 480-volt electrical train line. Above, top, carman Tom Leathers and carman-welder John Skaggs assemble a foam-lined jacket to cover and insulate a car's water tank. Above, bottom, Mike Baker and Jeff Bocock, carmen-welders, roll an air conditioning unit into place under a dining car.

• Crews moved the car to the coach shop where all new wiring was connected. Heating elements were installed along the floor—here performed by carman Dave Kern. In diners, all-electric kitchens replaced the original wood-burning stoves, thereby creating a much more comfortable work environment for the chef and cooks.

• Decorative features such as etched glass partitions and wall panels were cleaned, restored and reinstalled “to remind passengers of the cars’ rich heritage.”

• Concurrent with the work mentioned above, the car’s trucks (wheel assemblies) were rebuilt using new and refurbished parts. Here, carman Chester Hollis grinds down rough spots on a truck frame.

• The car was painted inside and out and branding elements such as striping and the Amtrak logo were applied.

• New windows made of a combination of glass and lexan (a strong plastic) were installed, as were carpeting and reupholstered seats. Above, carman-trimmer David Patton installs seats in a coach. The wall panels with Mimbreño-style birds indicate that the car once belonged to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

• Reworked trucks were set back under the car.

• The car underwent 48 hours of quality control tests before being placed back into active service.

Many of these cars remained in service until replaced by the Amfleet II and Viewliner cars in the early 1980s and mid-1990s, respectively. Some Heritage dining cars are still used today on eastern routes, although they are slated for replacement as part of an order of 130 new single-level, long-distance cars being built by CAF USA.

A Beech Grove machinist attaches a lift strap to a General Electric locomotive block.

Beech Grove continues to function as the company’s principal heavy maintenance facility. Approximately 500 employees rebuild and overhaul Superliner, Viewliner, Surfliner, Heritage and Horizon car fleets. P32, P42 and F59 locomotives also are overhauled and rebuilt for use across the Amtrak system, as is other equipment for state partners and other passenger railroads. In Fiscal Year 2013, employees at Beech Grove performed the following work:

• Five locomotive wreck repairs were completed and the units returned to service;
• Eighty-one Superliner cars, 20 Horizon coaches, 13 Viewliner sleeping cars, 13 Surfliners and five Heritage dining cars were overhauled or remanufactured;
• Sixteen locomotives received Life Cycle Preventative Maintenance;
• Six F59 locomotives received a mid-life overhaul;
• Unplanned and unbudgeted repairs were made to 15 locomotives and 10 passenger cars that terminals in other cities were unable to repair;
• Three Non-Powered Control Unit (NPCU) locomotives and three Horizon food cars were overhauled and leased to the State of California;
• Two locomotive trucks overhauled for Metro-North;
• Painted the Amtrak P42 Veterans Locomotive;
• Rebuilt parts for private cars; and
• Produced 10 locomotive wheel sets (“combos”) for New Jersey Transit electric locomotives as part of fleet repair efforts after Hurricane Sandy.

Read more about the history of the Beech Grove shops in this earlier blog post.

One of a series of Amtrak seasonal images by illustrator Nathan Davies.

Although this summer was a little cooler than usual on the East Coast, it’s still hard to believe that autumn is upon us. Whenever I think about the changing seasons, my mind turns to a collection of images produced for Amtrak in the late 1980s by illustrator Nathan Davies. Scenes include trains moving through rich farm fields, snowy mountains and along the shore, a lighthouse in the distance.

One of Davies’ works (above), featured on the cover of the national system timetable released on October 28, 1990, shows a train crossing a small, partially frozen river. In the background is what most of us probably think of as an idyllic New England landscape with a picturesque covered bridge and sturdy white farmhouse nestled amid bare trees. Bright oranges and reds paint the river slopes, where migrating ducks rest before continuing south.

It’s reminiscent of the archival photograph below showing the overnight Montrealer (Washington-Montreal) through the portal of a covered bridge. Not only do you see the northbound train, but in the background is another covered bridge. When we found this photograph in a folder with other images, the location was a mystery. But thanks to the two bridges, we were able to figure out that it shows the train at Northfield Falls, Vt., which is between the Amtrak station stops at Randolph and Montpelier.

The northbound Montrealer passing through Northfield Falls, Vt.

The photographer stood on the Station Bridge that carries Cox Brook Road across the Dog River; built c. 1872, it features a 138 foot long Town Lattice truss. In the distance beyond the tracks is the Lower Covered Bridge, which dates to the same period. The 55 foot long queenpost truss structure carries the road over its namesake Cox Brook. To our advantage when trying to determine the location, this happens to be the only spot in Vermont where one historic covered bridge can be seen from another.

The Vermonter passing through the countryside.

As an international train, the Montrealer had a cosmopolitan flair resulting from the need to provide menus, announcements and other information in both English and French. It was also known among skiers since it provided easy access to numerous winter resorts. On April 1, 1995, it was replaced with the daytime Vermonter, which ends its northbound journey at St. Albans. Since its inception, the Vermonterhas been financed primarily through funds made available by the Vermont Agency of Transportation. The state also provides financial support for the daily Ethan Allen Express between Rutland, Vt., and New York City.

The Vermonter, much like the Adirondack (New York-Montreal) and Cardinal (New York-Chicago), is especially popular in the fall—the train is a perfect spot from which to admire the rich colors of the changing leaves. It passes through beautiful forested landscapes just east of Lake Champlain, through central Vermont and along the Connecticut River Valley.

This year, passengers aboard the Adirondack can admire the foliage aboard the historic Amtrak Great Dome car. Built by the Budd Company in 1955 for the Great Northern Railway, it features upper level seating beneath the dome for all-around panoramic views. The car’s six-week run on the Adirondack lasts from September 25 through November 4, 2014. Check out this Amtrak press release for schedule details.

Have you ever taken an Amtrak train to see the fall foliage? If so, which train? Share your story with us below.

An exciting aspect of working in the Amtrak Archives is the phone calls and emails we receive from readers and visitors to this website. Their insights often help us better understand and categorize pieces in our collection. Occasionally, we hear from persons interested in donating items ranging from slides to pamphlets to even a uniform. These donations not only help round out our collection, but also demonstrate the public’s interest in America’s Railroad. As a sign of appreciation, when adding an item to the website, we always include the donor’s name in the object description unless he or she asks to remain anonymous. Below we highlight recent additions to the archives.

Old Amtrak service pins feature the first service mark.

Cleaning out a storage room in Seattle, Amtrak employee Paula Cullinane found a set of pins that the company created to mark employees’ five, 10 and 25 year anniversaries. Amtrak distributed the first five-year service awards in 1977 to approximately 250 people. Intended as a lapel pin, it also came with a small chain so men could use it as a tie tack. Made of antique gold, it features the first Amtrak service mark with a small ruby set below to denote five years. Two rubies thus denote ten years of service.

Then-Amtrak President and CEO Paul Reistrup presents five year service awards to the company's first two employees.

The photo above shows then-Amtrak President and CEO Paul Reistrup presenting the first service awards to two of the company's most senior employees, both of whom started working at Amtrak before it took over operation of the nation's intercity passenger rail network on May 1, 1971. To the left of Reistrup (center) is Beverly Balanda, who became the first official Amtrak employee on February 22, 1971, as executive secretary to the incorporators of the company. To the right is Isaac Battle, who started working for Amtrak on March 1, 1971, as chauffeur to the incorporators.

For the June 1993 dedication of the new Western Reservation Sales Office (now known as the Western Reservations Call Center (WRCC)) in Riverside, Calif., Amtrak ran a special train from Los Angeles for employees. This commemorative ticket, donated by longtime Amtrak employee Gerald Powell, features a stylized image of the building with a train; a matching pin was also distributed.

Commemorative ticket marking the inauguration of the Western Reservation Sales Office.

The WRCC was established in 1971 in Seattle, Wash.; it later moved to San Francisco and then Los Angeles where it remained for almost two decades. Due to the high costs of leasing office space in Los Angeles, the Amtrak Board of Directors approved capital funds in 1990 for the purchase of land and construction of a call center. Amtrak chose Riverside after a nationwide search, and the new facility was officially dedicated on June 12, 1993. Agents received the first call the next day.

As of 2013, the WRCC is open 20.5 hours a day. Between it and the Mid-Atlantic Reservations Contact Center outside of Philadelphia, Amtrak can answer customer questions and take reservations for train travel 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. In fiscal year 2013, the contact centers handled approximately 7.3 million calls. Riverside staff can also respond to requests related to group and travel agency bookings, as well as the Amtrak Guest Rewards customer loyalty program.

The X2000 undergoes testing along the Keystone Corridor in Lancaster County, Pa.

Earlier this year, we received an email from Ingwar Afeldt, who as an employee of Swedish State Railways, was sent to the United States in 1992-1993 to instruct Amtrak Road Foremen and Engineers on the operation of the high-speed X2000 train. Afeldt had been among a small group of Road Foremen selected to train and test the new X2000 in Sweden, where it debuted in revenue service in September 1990.

At the time, Amtrak was exploring the development of high-speed rail and leased two European trainsets for testing: the X2000 and the German Inter City Express (ICE). Both trainsets were used in revenue service on the Northeast Corridor in 1993, and they would later inform the design of the Acela Express equipment. The trainsets were also put on display in cities across the country. Afeldt generously donated 82 images he took during the X2000 national tour, as well as related memorabilia.

Designed and built by Asea Brown Boveri, Inc. for the Swedish State Railways, the X2000 shown above was tested by Amtrak because it could travel at higher speeds than conventional trains on existing main line track. Here the X2000 makes test runs at Leaman Place, Pa., in December 1992. Located between the Amtrak stations at Lancaster and Parkesburg, Leaman Place is where the heritage Strasburg Rail Road connects with the Keystone Corridor—thus the pairing of the steam locomotive with the modern, electric, high-speed X2000. Check out more of Afeldt’s tour photos (and keep an eye out for others to be posted in the future).

A cachet on this envelope marks the 30th anniversary of the Lake Shore Limited.

The last item came to the archives via the 2014 National Train Day celebration held in Toledo, Ohio. Bill Gill, Chairman of the Toledo National Train Day Committee, donated this envelope, which includes a cachet on the cover with an image of an Amtrak P-42 locomotive in the Phase III paint scheme. The decorative cachet, along with the railroad-themed stamps, were made to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the modern Lake Shore Limited (New York/Boston-Chicago), which began operation on October 31, 1975 (note that the cancellation stamp is for October 31, 2005). The stamp labeled “Ohio for Passenger Rail” is an example of what stamp collectors call a “Cinderella stamp,” meaning that it has no postal use and is merely decorative and educational.

Interested in making a donation to the Amtrak Archives? Feel free to contact us at history@amtrak.com

On October 29, 1978, the eastbound Niagara Rainbow (Detroit-Albany-New York) made its scheduled stop in Niagara Falls, N.Y., restoring intercity passenger rail service to the city after a 17 year absence that predated the creation of Amtrak. As the train pulled into the refurbished station off Lockport Road northeast of downtown, it was met with cheers from the assembled crowd of more than 500 onlookers. While many gathered on the platform, others sought an elevated view from the Hyde Park Blvd. Bridge that crosses over the tracks.

The eastbound Niagara Rainbow pulls into the Niagara Falls, N.Y. station on October 29, 1978.

An hour earlier, the group had gathered in front of the depot to hear speeches by local and state officials including Congressman John LaFalce; William C. Hennessy, commissioner, New York Department of Transportation; and Niagara Falls Mayor Michael O'Loughlin. The Viking High School Marching Band from nearby Grand Island played musical selections, and Amtrak provided sweet rolls, coffee and soft drinks.

Visitors were welcome to tour the new station, which had been built as a freight house in 1959 for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Using one of the old New York Central Railroad stations closer to downtown was not an option, as both had been demolished in 1964, three years after that company discontinued service to the city.

A reporter for Amtrak NEWS noted: “One innovation [at the station] is the utilization of the long former freight house to provide direct access to the parked…Empire State Express. Doors in the building were moved to match the location of doors on the train. Passengers will be able to step directly from the train into the heated building…” Once the speakers had taken photos in front of the train, many climbed aboard with members of the press for the next stop at Buffalo’s Exchange Street station, where another ceremony was held.

City, state and Amtrak officials address the crowd to mark the start of Amtrak service in Niagara Falls.

Amtrak inaugurated service with two daily roundtrips via the Niagara Rainbow and the Empire State Express(New York-Albany-Niagara Falls).The former had recently received new Amfleet equipment, while the latter used RTL Turboliner trainsets. Built by Rohr Industries, the RTL Turboliners were delivered to Amtrak in 1976-77 for use in upstate New York. They were modified from the earlier RTG Turboliner units to include American couplers and standard 480 volt head-end power. To access Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the RTLs were also equipped for third rail electric operation.

Restoration of service to Niagara Falls and Buffalo’s Exchange Street depot, as well as construction of a new station in the Buffalo suburb of Depew (intended to replace Buffalo Central Terminal), was made possible by a partnership between Amtrak and the State of New York. Under an agreement, the state provided funding for the required facilities while Amtrak operated the new service. The state, through its passenger rail program, also funded improvements to the track between Buffalo and Niagara Falls at an approximate cost of $6 million. Four years earlier, the partners had worked together to restore service in the Champlain Valley with the inauguration of the Adirondack (New York-Albany-Montreal).

To the left is the Lehigh Valley Railroad freight house that became the Niagara Falls station.

More than three decades later, the city of Niagara Falls broke ground in August 2010 on the new Niagara Falls International Railway Station and Intermodal Transportation Center. Located along Main Street closer to downtown, the facility incorporates an 1863 U.S. Customs House and an adjacent, new building.

The historic customs house will contain an Underground Railroad Museum and a Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection unit, while the new structure will include a passenger waiting room and possible retail uses. The overall project also includes upgraded tracks and signals and a dedicated passenger rail siding. When completed in 2016, the station will serve Amtrak, local buses, taxis and shuttles.

In fiscal year 2013, more than 32,000 travelers began or ended their journeys at the present Niagara Falls station, which is served by Empire Service trains (New York-Albany-Niagara Falls) and the Maple Leaf (New York-Niagara Falls-Toronto). Including the Lake Shore Limited and Maple Leaf, the Empire Servicecorridor offers three daily round-trips east of Niagara Falls, four east of Buffalo, six east of Schenectady, and 12 south of Albany to New York. The operations of Empire Service trains and the Maple Leaf are supported by funds made available by the New York State Department of Transportation.