Amtrak in Wyoming!?

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TraneMan

TraneMan

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Mar 16, 2008
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Rochester, MN
I was watching "Ask This Old House" that was on last weekend, and in the opening of the show, it show a shot of Amtrak train.. View the video at 50 sec into the show.

I am guessing they were in Denver area, that is about 100 miles to the south of Cheyenne.
 
The California Zephyr may sometimes detour via Wyoming due to track work. Other than that, the last time Wyoming had regularly scheduled Amtrak service was before the Pioneer stopped running in 1997. A few years ago, Amtrak did a study of potentially reviving the Pioneer, but Congress has yet to take serious action on that front.
 
The CZ detour did go up that far. I took that route in September 2009. It is actually faster that way DEN-SLC since it does not go through the mountains. There were no scheduled stops between DEN and SLC except for at least one "stretch break" (Green River, WY).
 
Actually a crew change point. Thus, it just happens to be a "smoke/stretch break" but only if they stop on the right track. (Green River has 2 tracks, but only one has a platform.)
 
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A lot of the stations are in good shape. Check out http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/ for photos of all the stations on a lot of Amtrak routes, including some that were more recently abandoned like the Dessert Wind and the Pioneer. I think the biggest obstacles to getting service back on those routes are U and P.
 
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I would love to see the Pioneer back, even if they saved by just running it from SLC to PDX or SEA as a connection with or without thru cars from the CZ.

If it did well, then perhaps they could extend it to DEN via Wyoming later on....
 
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railiner said:
I would love to see the Pioneer back, even if they saved by just running it from SLC to PDX or SEA as a connection with or without thru cars from the CZ.If it did well, then perhaps they could extend it to DEN via Wyoming later on....
Click to expand...
Maybe it will happen if UP gets a new President.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
railiner said:
I would love to see the Pioneer back, even if they saved by just running it from SLC to PDX or SEA as a connection with or without thru cars from the CZ.

If it did well, then perhaps they could extend it to DEN via Wyoming later on....
Click to expand...
Maybe it will happen if UP gets a new President.
Click to expand...
UP is but a minor problem and people should really stop blaming them for everything. Amtrak needs equipment, Amtrak needs stations to be fixed, Amtrak needs money to make this happen. And Amtrak has none of that at present; so UP isn't even a factor at this point in time. Until Amtrak can cross those other hurdles, it can't even think of approaching UP to talk about a schedule.
 
AlanB said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
railiner said:
I would love to see the Pioneer back, even if they saved by just running it from SLC to PDX or SEA as a connection with or without thru cars from the CZ.

If it did well, then perhaps they could extend it to DEN via Wyoming later on....
Click to expand...
Maybe it will happen if UP gets a new President.
Click to expand...
UP is but a minor problem and people should really stop blaming them for everything. Amtrak needs equipment, Amtrak needs stations to be fixed, Amtrak needs money to make this happen. And Amtrak has none of that at present; so UP isn't even a factor at this point in time. Until Amtrak can cross those other hurdles, it can't even think of approaching UP to talk about a schedule.
Click to expand...
Where'd the old Pioneer equipment come from? And the old stations?
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
Where'd the old Pioneer equipment come from? And the old stations?
Click to expand...
Amtrak had more Superliner's back then than they do now, and some of the current services now running daily, were not running daily back then. As of about a year ago or so, at least 23 Superliner's had been scrapped, and at least another dozen are sitting around basically being used for parts and awaiting eventual scrapping.

As for old stations, many of them probably need work, will have to have platform work done, need employees, ticket equipment, etc. That all costs money, money that Amtrak doesn't have and Congress isn't providing.
 
While I don't have an exact breakdown on just how many cars could be returned to service, beyond the 23 that were scrapped, as of Jan 1st 429 Superliner cars are listed on Amtrak's active roster. Amtrak had 479 built originally, which means that 50 cars are OOS (Out Of Service). And more than half of those will never see service again, seeing as how 23 are already scrapped and again there is probably another dozen basically waiting for scrapping and being cannibalized for part in the meantime.

While I didn't look at the precise breakdown of what cars are OOS, those 50 cars OOS could in theory make up 5 Coast Starlight trainsets minus of course the Parlour Cars. The current CS consists use 10 Superliner cars.
 
AlanB said:
Swadian Hardcore said:
railiner said:
I would love to see the Pioneer back, even if they saved by just running it from SLC to PDX or SEA as a connection with or without thru cars from the CZ.

If it did well, then perhaps they could extend it to DEN via Wyoming later on....
Click to expand...
Maybe it will happen if UP gets a new President.
Click to expand...
UP is but a minor problem and people should really stop blaming them for everything. Amtrak needs equipment, Amtrak needs stations to be fixed, Amtrak needs money to make this happen. And Amtrak has none of that at present; so UP isn't even a factor at this point in time. Until Amtrak can cross those other hurdles, it can't even think of approaching UP to talk about a schedule.
Click to expand...
The study was done. There was not enough potential passenger demand for Congress to seriously consider increasing the subsidies to Amtrak to provide the service. A dead (iron) horse for now, but us foamers can still dream.
 
As far as equipment goes.....when the Pioneer first began, it consisted of a baggage car, a couple of Amfleet I's, an Amdinette, and a Heritage 10-6 sleeper. It originated in SLC, received connection from the RGZ, then the same at Ogden from the SFZ, and continued up to Seattle.

In the matter of detours, "that far north", the SFZ on occasion would detour even further north--by way of McCammon, Idaho, when the line thru Echo Canyon was blocked....

I was aboard the SFZ during one of those detours eastbound, and after regaining the mainline at Granger, Wyoming, "Uncle Pete" put on a dazzling display of its might, rolling us along at 100 per, until turning down towards Denver at Speer. We arrived in Denver just slightly delayed, thanks also to some padding.

Union Pacific still had some pride in those years.....
 
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railiner said:
As far as equipment goes.....when the Pioneer first began, it consisted of a baggage car, a couple of Amfleet I's, an Amdinette, and a Heritage 10-6 sleeper. It originated in SLC, received connection from the RGZ, then the same at Ogden from the SFZ, and continued up to Seattle.
In the matter of detours, "that far north", the SFZ on occasion would detour even further north--by way of McCammon, Idaho, when the line thru Echo Canyon was blocked....

I was aboard the SFZ during one of those detours eastbound, and after regaining the mainline at Granger, Wyoming, "Uncle Pete" put on a dazzling display of its might, rolling us along at 100 per, until turning down towards Denver at Speer. We arrived in Denver just slightly delayed, thanks also to some padding.

Union Pacific still had some pride in those years.....
Click to expand...
Up through Idaho? Could someone post a map? I don't even know which line you are talking about. :help:
 
Can't post a map off hand, but if you go to the link I posted previously, you can click on Idaho and it will show you that there is currently one station in Sandpoint, and there are four abandoned stations Boise, Nampa, Pocatello, and Shoshone.
 
Swadian Hardcore said:
railiner said:
As far as equipment goes.....when the Pioneer first began, it consisted of a baggage car, a couple of Amfleet I's, an Amdinette, and a Heritage 10-6 sleeper. It originated in SLC, received connection from the RGZ, then the same at Ogden from the SFZ, and continued up to Seattle.
In the matter of detours, "that far north", the SFZ on occasion would detour even further north--by way of McCammon, Idaho, when the line thru Echo Canyon was blocked....

I was aboard the SFZ during one of those detours eastbound, and after regaining the mainline at Granger, Wyoming, "Uncle Pete" put on a dazzling display of its might, rolling us along at 100 per, until turning down towards Denver at Speer. We arrived in Denver just slightly delayed, thanks also to some padding.

Union Pacific still had some pride in those years.....
Click to expand...
Up through Idaho? Could someone post a map? I don't even know which line you are talking about. :help:
Click to expand...
I can't post a map, either, But if you look at an old Amtrak route map that showed the route of the Pioneer, the detour I rode went north from Ogden on that route until reaching McCammon, Id., which is just south of Pocatello. From there we turned southeast, on the route of the former UP City of Portland, until reaching the UP mainline at Granger, Wy......

 
Regardless of whether the TV crew filmed the Amtrak train on a detour through Wyoming, or whether they used a clip that was

shot in another state entirely, it's a sloppy editorial decision to include the footage as something representative of Wyoming.
 
On the subject of Amtrak in Wyoming I remember their was some talk of a corridor train between Denver and Cheyenne. Was that all in my head? :wacko:
 
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