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P40Power

OBS Chief
Joined
Apr 1, 2003
Messages
718
On my layout, the very cold winter and terrible time keeping of the Lake Shore Limited both West and Eastbound have made a Boston - Albany Shuttle train go in effect replacing the Thru Cars. Timekeeping on the line has been great for the last few weeks and passengers love that aspect, but they dont like having to get off the train and wait at Albany for the New York section to come along.

Viewliner Sleeping car service is also suspended until May on the line.

My regional manager has put an Amfleet Club car in the usual shuttle train consist and sleeping car patrons that have been effected by the loss of the Boston Viewliner are being put in the Club car, which offers more comfortable seating then standard coach accomidations. They will also be offered complimentary food and beverage service.

Demand hasnt been too high lately for seating on the train, a single Amfleet I coach and an Amfleet I club car have been usually enough to handle the load.

Rumer is that Amtrak (my model Amtrak) has been considering lately putting an extra frequency to compliment the Lake Shore Limited on the Boston- Albany route.

Todays westbound consist:

P40DC - 803 (Athearn - Made in USA! - Phase III scheme)

Baggage - 1167 (Athearn - Made in USA! - Phase III scheme)

Amfleet I Coachclass - 44951 (Walthers - Phase IV NE Direct)

Amfleet I Clubclass - 20115 (Walthers - Phase II scheme)
 
At least you're being generous to your FC passengers. :lol:

My layout is just a generic setup. My Auto Train finally regained an Auto Carrier (Phase IV), after months earlier a derailment put my Phase III carrier out of service indefinitely. The Auto Train is currently using 2 P-42's (Though my Amtrak may swap them for the 2 P40's), as well as Transition Sleeper, 2 Deluxe Sleepers, FC Lounge, Diner, Superliner II Coach, Superliner I Coach Baggage (though that will be swapped out once another Superliner II Coach is ordered), Lounge, and the one Auto Carrier. Since there's a shortage of Auto Carriers, its available primarily for FC Passengers on a First Come, First Serve basis because of the limited space.

In other news I've managed to locate a new AEM-7 (#911) in Phase III from an unnamed hobby shop, this would suppliment #901, #911, and NJT #4405, and would replace a P-40 on the Silver Meteor (Meteorite).
 
Hey I figure ya gotta give First Class passengers something, even if its just a seat in an tired Amclub that comes with a free Hebrew International Hotdog and choice of soft drink!

My layout is a semi-generic setup. Its based loosely on the Boston-Albany line, with a Pittsfield and an Albany, but the beauty is that most Amtrak stops through out the east are either Albany like or Pittsfield like so with a little imagination (imagination is a major key of the model railroad experience I think) it could take on the roll as any eastern rail line so one day I could run the Lake Shore and on the next day the Silver Meteor.

Your Auto Train sounds like a pretty good setup, though it sounds like only some passengers can bring their Auto. Sounds like it would make a good Capital Limited consist though. But ya gotta make due with what ya got, Im sure few people have the number of HO scale Auto Carriers to make a fully realistic consist . I would love to have a nice Superliner consist on the layout to make things more intresting, Walthers does make some sweet looking Superliners. . . maybe someday I will pick up a set. The only Superliner I have now is an older Con Cor Phase III sightseer lounge that has been missing its trucks for years and has never really seen service.

The AEM-7 is also another model I have been kind of looking at. Atlas makes a good model of this unit and like the Superliners could be a future purchase.

Onething I would like to see more of, is model railroad products made in USA. Our family is trying to buy as much products made in USA as possible to support the countrys labor system. Most of the model railroad equipment I have is made in China, with the big execption being some of the Atlas track (some of its made in USA, some China) and all of my Athearn equipment execpt for the F59PHI. There might be a few others made here, but thats the stuff I know of. Walthers makes some beautiful cars and I wish they were made over here, but for China made products they are of high quality.
 
My Layout is very much incomplete. I plan on getting a bigger table this summer, along with a few buildings. All I have are two Amtrak Stations. My layout is a one track loop with two tracks at one station. My consists are also nowhere near complete. My Silver Meteor (I call it the Meteorite, because its nowhere near completion) has a locomotive and three undecorated Viewliners, two sleepers (2300 and 2301, to be painted/decaled into phase III soon) and one "diner" (8400, currently a sleeper running A end forward, will undergo a kitbash to look like the prototype as soon as I get the necessary drill bits). I also need more cars (for an imaginary all-Viewliner consist). My Metroliner is currently a three car train, with an AEM-7 in Phase III (#901) two Amfleet I coaches and a Metroliner Lounge. A Club car would be one of my next purchases. I have a Northeast Direct Consist (really only an AEM-7 in Phase IV, and an Amfleet I Coach in NED Phase IV), I plan to purchase a set that would give it food service and 2-3 coaches from Internet Trains as my next purchase probably.

On the Commuter Side I have a NJ Transit train setup, thats an ALP-44 and three Comet II (or as Walthers calls them, Horizon) coaches, one of which is a cab car. Its often standing room only, but I'd like to address the Amtrak parts first.

The only other consist is a P40, Heritage Baggage Car, Heritage Sleeper, and Heritage Diner in Phase IV. I'd move that P40 and the one from the Meteor, once I can get that AEM-7 for the Meteor. That train would get a P42 from the Auto train when that happens. It'll probably act as a backup consist for the Meteor in case of PM, etc. The only other spare I have is a Superliner II Lounge, which would either remain a spare or expanded in a new consist.

As for AEM-7's, good Luck, I managed to stumble on A phase III, which is pretty rare now. Internettrains.com has Acela AEM-7s, but other than ebay, its hard to find, since production ended a while ago.
 
Im in the same boat you are Viewliner layout wise. . . very much incomplete. I havent had much time to work on the layout much, but Im trying to get into getting a good chunk of the senery done. First I still have some track work to do. But there is a circle around the new, much larger layout.

It would be sweet if I had a buddy like you or Amfleet that lived close, then we could pool our resources and build an awesome layout with the space I got! And then we could put our equipment together as well and make some very realistic consists! I have quite the Am-Fleet myself.

Im pretty happy with my Amtrak equipment situation at the moment. I could use two more Amfleet II coaches and another Viewliner, but for the moment I think Im all set.

Maybe someday I would have a nice MBTA consist going myself, but like you Viewliner, I am going to address other issues before that comes into play.

Viewliner, Id hate to be on your Commuter train during rush hour!!
 
It would be nice if we were close enough to pool our resources, but we'll just have to deal with our situations. I want to make my Northeast Direct train the Federal, and I'm not sure whether to combine the Heritage Sleeper, Diner and Baggage with my Amfleet II's to make a Three Rivers (Heritage Sleeper), or a Silver Star. What do you think would work better? My commuter operation will hold up for the time being.
 
Now the Three Rivers would be an intresting proposition to run with the Heritage sleeper, though if you want to utilize the Diner it would be a better bet to go with the Star of course. Now your planning to run the Viewliners with the Star I presume?

The Three Rivers would be a bit more intresting I think, because the whole direction the consist faces changes at Philly, so that would add some variety into the operating plan. Also ya cant forget about adding on the countless mail and express cars (if you have some, I only have 3 myself. . . two are painted freight cars).

But heres a question, what year(s) is your layout set in Viewliner? Mine is set in my own era, its like 97ish equipment paint with the latest schedules and operation. It seems that you are in the same sort of deal
 
I'm thinking of going with the Silver Star, largely because I could combine my Pennsylvanian (2 Amfleet II Coaches, 1 Amfleet II Lounge) and the Baggage Car and Diner. The Heritage Sleeper could act as the Dorm until I get an actual dorm lounge, at which point, it could be retired/used as a backup. I'd have to get a few (two maybe) Phase IV Viewliners for that though, along with one for the Federal at some point.

The three undecorated Viewliners will be part of the Silver Meteor, which will be an all Viewliner Consist. One Sleeper will temporarily be split between revenue/crew use, while the other will be running solely as a revenue sleeper. Even though I'm losing out on revenue space, it allows my passengers to have a crew for the diner. The Diner (not actually converted yet, but we'll pretend it is for now) will serve snacks between meals. Smoking (as on the Federal, Metroliner, NJ Transit, and maybe the Star) is prohibited on this train. The next Viewliner for this train would be a Dorm-Lounge (with a conductors office), followed by Baggage Car, Lounge, and then Coaches.

As for the Three Rivers, I'll run the Broadway Limited eventually, in an all Heritage Consist, maybe adding a Dome Coach in Philly (or pretending its the Capitol Limited). Temporarily, I could Run the Phase IV Sleeper, but the Consist will be all Phase III, as will the Silver Meteor. I also plan to add an Acela this summer.

My layout is currently a fairly modern setup, but as you can see I'll be pulling in a couple of consists from the Phase III era (Metroliner, eventually the Broadway), and adding my own futuristic/dream twist (Silver Meteor). Right now I guess you could call it a 97-99ish setup, saying that its where not everything was in Phase IV, but a fair part of it was.
 
[ for the Three Rivers, I'll run the Broadway Limited eventually, in an all Heritage Consist, maybe adding a Dome Coach in Philly (or pretending its the Capitol Limited). Temporarily, I could Run the Phase IV Sleeper, but the Consist will be all Phase III, as will the Silver Meteor. I also plan to add an Acela this summer.

LONG LIVE THE BROADWAY!!!
 
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