An Amtrak route segment no longer in use

[jloewen]

Totally agree. I was on it several times. I was just suggesting that NYP would work better for a daytime train.

Re "The original Montrealer worked fine from Washington DC to Montreal." yes and no. It did get slower and slower. I got on at Essex Jct. (it didn't go through Burlington itself, but you could park long-term at EJ) c.9:30PM. I remember they had a little "shoe" compartment, and originally the sleeper porter shined whatever shoes you left there. It got in to WAS around 9:30AM, considerably slower than driving, but hey, most of that time was sleeping.
Then it got so slow that it arrived in WAS at 10:50AM. No longer could you put in a day's work in DC. Sigh.

 

[jloewen]

The City of New Orleans used to go N of Jackson along the main line of the ICRR, to Canton, Winona, and I think Batesville as stops. Many people got on at Canton, especially students at the end of their HS senior year, moving permanently to Chicago. It contributed to making Canton a rather urban place (in the black community).

 

[jis]

Re "The original Montrealer worked fine from Washington DC to Montreal." yes and no. It did get slower and slower. I got on at Essex Jct. (it didn't go through Burlington itself, but you could park long-term at EJ) c.9:30PM. I remember they had a little "shoe" compartment, and originally the sleeper porter shined whatever shoes you left there. It got in to WAS around 9:30AM, considerably slower than driving, but hey, most of that time was sleeping.
Then it got so slow that it arrived in WAS at 10:50AM. No longer could you put in a day's work in DC. Sigh.

I think that comment was in the context of the train not arriving or departing its end point at oh-dark-thirty, and not about the finer points of what sort of convenient things could or could not be done at the end points.

 

[jiml]

The other consideration about termination point for a restored Montrealer might be servicing. If it were to have a diner (contemporary or otherwise) and/or sleepers, are any Viewliners serviced in WAS? Seems to me they're all on through trains. If an overnight train terminated at NYP, much easier to turn Viewliners there and have passengers transfer to existing corridor services. Obviously a daytime train does not have similar issues, so what jls has said above is more to the point.

 

[Seaboard92]

Washington can handle Viewliners. There for awhile Ivy City was turning the Cardinal during last years summer track work season.

 

[jis]

Washington can handle Viewliners. There for awhile Ivy City was turning the Cardinal during last years summer track work season.

Turning Sleepers at the away from service facility end is nothing special. Even Newport News in the past has turned Sleepers. Washington Ivy City is way more equipped to do almost anything compared to Newport News.

 

[Palmland]

Early Amtrak: the George Washington on C&O/B&O (pre CSX) Charlottesville to Richmond and the Broadway Ltd. on the port road (PC) Baltimore to Harrisburg.

 

[Willbridge]

So in 1975, the westbound #7 EB did not serve Rugby, Stanley, Wolf Point, Glasgow, Malta, Shelby, and Cut Bank? Or were they only listing most boarded/disembarked stations on that board, so that the listing of train #7 would fit on that board? If so, I could see how less boarded stations like Wolf Point and etc., were omitted from being listed. I enjoyed looking at these pics, and thanks for sharing your vintage pics. Were these taken at the location of the former Midway Depot in St. Paul, before the EB station serving St. Paul was moved to Union Depot?

I think those station listings were just someone's idea of the route. Trains 7/8 made all the stops that you listed. The photos were taken at the GN Station in Minneapolis, which was the original Amtrak station for the Twin Cities. Here's a bonus from the early days: an Amtrak agency station in Madison for the bus connection with the Builder.

 

[dogbert617]

I think those station listings were just someone's idea of the route. Trains 7/8 made all the stops that you listed. The photos were taken at the GN Station in Minneapolis, which was the original Amtrak station for the Twin Cities. Here's a bonus from the early days: an Amtrak agency station in Madison for the bus connection with the Builder.
View attachment 14510

Nice pic! I guess this'd be a bus station you'd ride a bus in Madison, that'd get you onto Columbus, WI to board the EB? I wonder if that building still stands, anymore?

The weird thing is that I'm all but sure a building I saw next to the train station building in Winona, MN(during that stretch/smoke break), had to have once served some sort of purpose for Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific/Milwaukee Road Railroad, looking at a labelscar I saw on that building. I will upload a pic of that onto here, later.

 

[jiml]

Washington can handle Viewliners. There for awhile Ivy City was turning the Cardinal during last years summer track work season.

Good to know. The last time I was on a Cardinal that turned at Washington it was a Superliner consist.

 

[Thirdrail7]

The Montrealer also operated on the NECR outside of New London. That was a supposedly a very nice route.

Additionally, I would like to see a return of the Keystone State Express service which utilized the NYP-PGH subway at Zoo interlocking and skipped 30th Station, Philadelphia.

 

[FreeskierInVT]

From ~1995 to 2014, The Vermonter used to travel via the New England Central Railroad all the way from St. Albans, VT to Palmer, MA, but now switches to a different line via Greenfield, Northampton and Holyoke. Service to Amherst was cut with the reroute.

Here's the last northbound train to stop at Amherst on 12/28/14:

 

[dumboldboy]

I will second the former 'S' Line routing of trains from Petersburg to Raleigh. In grade school I commuted on US1 south of Henderson, and we would occasionally meet the northbound Auto Train as it crossed the Tar River Trestle. Also, I would have loved to have ridden the 'S' Line via Ocala through Florida's hill country. Really.

 

[Qapla]

Years back the Silver Meteor used to go through Waldo, Fl on it's way from Miami to Jacksonville (Waldo is still listed as a "stop" on the Amtrak site) while the Silver Star used the eastern route that both trains now use.

The sad thing is, the tracks from Orlando, through Ocala and Waldo still exist (CSX owns them and runs freight on them every day) instead of having fallen victim to being removed ... so, service through Ocala and Waldo is still possible.

The sunset Limited used to run from New Orleans to Jacksonville. In 2005 Katrina wiped out a bridge and brought a stop to this portion of the SL. Since then, the rails and bridge have been repaired and freight runs on it daily. However, even with countless efforts to restore Amtrak service, it has not happened and does not seem too promising - to go from Jacksonville to New Orleans, you have to go through DC

 

[edding]

Back on topic, The International. Although the complete route is still in use by trains, the Amtrak train terminates at Port Huron with a name change and VIA provides the service on the other side. Formerly one of my "go-to" routes: Toronto to Chicago for western connections or change at Hammond-Whiting for Broadway/Capitol and on to Florida. The equipment variations alone were worth the ride, along with some great old stations on both sides of the border.

From my recollection, the International was another victim of post 9/11 actions. This was a great route and I'm sorry it's gone.

 

[jiml]

From my recollection, the International was another victim of post 9/11 actions. This was a great route and I'm sorry it's gone.

9/11 was the excuse, but it took almost 4 years after for the train to be discontinued. There were a number of other factors, including equipment utilization and VIA Rail not prioritizing the route by moving it to the slow and sparsely populated route between Toronto and London used by only 1 other train per day (vs. the 5 on the other route). For those of us who used it for Amtrak connections at Chicago or Hammond-Whiting it became totally impractical. It was always late long before it got to the border, then the extra formalities there post-9/11 just made matters worse. Every connection was long gone before it arrived, requiring an overnight in Chicago. It's worth pointing out though that never did the border crossing degrade to the current state of the Maple Leaf and require leaving the train for Customs and Immigration in either direction. Unfortunately the more recent threat to that train brought about the change by US CBP and the retaliatory move by Canada ("anything they can do, we can do at least as well"). Lots of good memories though - Superliners behind a low-slung VIA LRC, the nice lounge on the VIA consist with equipment recovered from Amtrak and the historic stations on the route on both sides of the border - still accessible on the Blue Water and VIA's Sarnia train.

 

[bratkinson]

That picture of the Madison WI station brought back strong memories of when I was a student at UW-Madison in the late '60s. In my sophomore year, my folks moved from suburban Milwaukee to suburban Chicago as my father changed employers. Depending on the timing, sometimes I'd take the bus from that station to Columbus to catch the Hiawatha to Glenview where my dad would meet me. Other times, the 3-car MILW train from CHI direct to Madison (the Varsity) was my route to and/or from Madison.

In response to an earlier question, I recently saw pictures of the station still in use for some non-railroad purpose. However, there's a couple of pieces of former MILW passenger equipment there as well. I also recall reading an article online indicating that one of them caught fire about a month ago while some restoration work was being done on it.

 

[RPC]

Additionally, I would like to see a return of the Keystone State Express service which utilized the NYP-PGH subway at Zoo interlocking and skipped 30th Station, Philadelphia.

That would require the North Philadelphia station to become more...um...passenger friendly.

Another entry: the Capitol Limited used to run on the Pennsy main Chicago-Pittsburgh.

 

[Siegmund]

Most of the 'highlights' have already been mentioned.

The longest as-yet-unmentioned segment I can think of is the Coast Starlight having once gone more or less straight north from Davis to Redding rather than going via Sacramento and Chico. That changed sometime in the early 80s.

Somewhat later was the reroute of the Southwest Chief via Riverside and Fullerton rather than Pomona and Pasadena.

In a similar vein, I might mention through service that is no longer available: Seattle-San Diego, Boston-Florida, Milwaukee-St. Louis, and Milwaukee-Detroit without having to change trains in LA, NYC, and Chicago respectively.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

Another one on the Florida trains is Tampa-St. Petersburg. The route is used today by a CSX local. The station in Clearwater was torn down but the one in St. Petersburg still stands and was converted into commercial use. There have been proposals to turn it into a commuter rail line, but it is very circuitous compared to I-275 so light rail along the interstate is a more widely known proposal. Personally, I think both would be a good idea as the light rail would serve Tampa-St. Petersburg and areas along the highway while the CSX line could connect Clearwater to both cities as well as brining other destinations such as Largo and Oldsmar into the system. However, given local politics I am doubtful either will occur in the near future. Amtrak returning is even less likely given the current operation which allows both SS trains to terminate in Miami/Hialeah at the service facility and yard there.

 

[jiml]

Another one on the Florida trains is Tampa-St. Petersburg. The route is used today by a CSX local. The station in Clearwater was torn down but the one in St. Petersburg still stands and was converted into commercial use. There have been proposals to turn it into a commuter rail line, but it is very circuitous compared to I-275 so light rail along the interstate is a more widely known proposal. Personally, I think both would be a good idea as the light rail would serve Tampa-St. Petersburg and areas along the highway while the CSX line could connect Clearwater to both cities as well as brining other destinations such as Largo and Oldsmar into the system. However, given local politics I am doubtful either will occur in the near future. Amtrak returning is even less likely given the current operation which allows both SS trains to terminate in Miami/Hialeah at the service facility and yard there.

We were in that area a couple of months ago. The track through Oldsmar indeed features one daily train. I noted that some of the trackage near St. Pete has been severed by road reconstruction so not sure how far a local can get south of Tampa. It's created other problems too: https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/...en-for-alcoholism-drug-use-and-homeless-camps

 

[RPC]

Also speaking of the Keystones: before they switched to diesel power most Keystone trains would originate in Suburban Station and use the upper level at 30th Street. (This routing was left over from the Pennsy.)

 

[jis]

Also speaking of the Keystones: before they switched to diesel power most Keystone trains would originate in Suburban Station and use the upper level at 30th Street. (This routing was left over from the Pennsy.)

Keystones run on electric power, not diesel power.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

We were in that area a couple of months ago. The track through Oldsmar indeed features one daily train. I noted that some of the trackage near St. Pete has been severed by road reconstruction so not sure how far a local can get south of Tampa. It's created other problems too: https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/...en-for-alcoholism-drug-use-and-homeless-camps

The track is severed in downtown St. Petersburg but is continuous beyond the former Amtrak station. If commuter rail were to be built on that corridor the track would probably need to be rebuilt anyway due to poor quality, and there has been little expansion onto the abandoned right of way, so I don't think it would be that much of a challenge to complete the final segment into downtown St. Petersburg.

 

[Twin Star Rocket]

Well, if you consider the TEXAS EAGLE is a rebranding of the former INTER-AMERICAN, then you can include
the segment from Taylor TX to Milano TX as a segment no longer used on a scheduled basis.