Amtrak Gallery Cars?

[Green Maned Lion]

I think this picture may have been photoshopped. The Amtrak gallery cars as people noted were ex-CNW built by Pullman Standard and were smooth sided, not stainless steel fluted sides as in the pic. The fluted galleries were built by Budd but I don't recall Amtrak ever having fluted Budd gallery cars.

I don’t have any evidence of Budd gallery cars; my library Indicates only ex-CNW Pullman gallery cars. However, while during the Rainbow era and pre-heritage era Amtrak never had more than 2000 cars in active service, over 10,000 cars passed through their paper roster between 5/1/71 and the delivery of the first Amfleet cars. A lot of those cars never turned a wheel while on their roster, and the vast majority of those cars were not in any reasonable shape to do so- rusted out, leaky, wrecked hulks or worse.

That being said, while I’m aware the total number contains five figures, I am not aware of what five figures it contains. There could well have been Budd gallery cars rostered for Amtrak; it is also possible that some commuter line discontinued service, Amtrak proposed operation of a train on that line, arranged for the original operator to keep operating it, and arranged for that operators cars to be repainted in Amtrak colors without actually rostering the cars. The early days of Amtrak were a messy affair.

The condition of a lot of the cars Amtrak did roster and intend to use was often terrible, and the way Amtrak set up schedules on shorter routes, it was such that they could run Ex-Santa Fe high levels on it on Monday, a CNW gallery set on tuesday, a CBQ dome coach set on Wednesday, a ex-Pennsylvania set on Thursday, and one car from each of these on Friday because that’s what they could successfully send out. I’m a touch hyperbolic, but it was called the rainbow era for a reason.

 

[toddinde]

I think this picture may have been photoshopped. The Amtrak gallery cars as people noted were ex-CNW built by Pullman Standard and were smooth sided, not stainless steel fluted sides as in the pic. The fluted galleries were built by Budd but I don't recall Amtrak ever having fluted Budd gallery cars.

The Burlington cars were built by Budd not Pullman. The reason for them was because CUS charged railroads by axle count. The gallery cars increased each cars capacity thus reduced axle count.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Many of the gallery cars were also built by St. Louis Car Company - not sure if any of them were on the Amtrak roster or not but I know the original CNW bi-levels were built by them.

 

[jis]

Many of the gallery cars were also built by St. Louis Car Company - not sure if any of them were on the Amtrak roster or not but I know the original CNW bi-levels were built by them.

Gallery Cars were apparently built by five different companies in addition to Pullman-Standard. They were Budd, St. Louis Car Company, Amerail, Nippon Sharyo (EMU) and Canadian Vickers (9 cars for CP for Montreal suburban service).

Amtrak acquired the Pullman built so called long distance cars from C&NW and used them on Midwest trains. There is a nice page on them:

https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Amtrak_Gallery_cars

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Gallery Cars were apparently built by five different companies in addition to Pullman-Standard. They were Budd, St. Louis Car Company, Amerail, Nippon Sharyo (EMU) and Canadian Vickers (9 cars for CP for Montreal suburban service).

Amtrak acquired the Pullman built so called long distance cars from C&NW and used them on Midwest trains. There is a nice page on them:

https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Amtrak_Gallery_cars

Very cool. Until this thread, I wasn't aware any long-distance gallery coaches were built, and certainly not any parlor / lounge configurations. I'll have to snoop around online and see if I can find any photos.

 

[jis]

Very cool. Until this thread, I wasn't aware any long-distance gallery coaches were built, and certainly not any parlor / lounge configurations. I'll have to snoop around online and see if I can find any photos.

Frankly, I did not know anything about them until this thread came along. This thread got me started on researching it a bit and I just did a dump of everything I found so far in the previous post.

 

[railiner]

Very cool. Until this thread, I wasn't aware any long-distance gallery coaches were built, and certainly not any parlor / lounge configurations. I'll have to snoop around online and see if I can find any photos.

All I could find were exterior 'roster shots'... except for those two posted earlier, while still C&NW. If you find any more, please share them here...thanks!

I am guilty of not taking any interior photo's, as I have ridden them on a few Amtrak trains in the past...

 

[toddinde]

Many of the gallery cars were also built by St. Louis Car Company - not sure if any of them were on the Amtrak roster or not but I know the original CNW bi-levels were built by them.

The intercity bilevels were built by Pullman. As far as I know, St Louis Car only received that first order for CNW bilevels and never built for any other railroad. All future CNW orders were with Pullman.

 

[toddinde]

Very cool. Until this thread, I wasn't aware any long-distance gallery coaches were built, and certainly not any parlor / lounge configurations. I'll have to snoop around online and see if I can find any photos.

There are lots of pictures on the internet. They are also covered in Jim Scribbin’s excellent book, The 400 Story.

 

[toddinde]

I don’t have any evidence of Budd gallery cars; my library Indicates only ex-CNW Pullman gallery cars. However, while during the Rainbow era and pre-heritage era Amtrak never had more than 2000 cars in active service, over 10,000 cars passed through their paper roster between 5/1/71 and the delivery of the first Amfleet cars. A lot of those cars never turned a wheel while on their roster, and the vast majority of those cars were not in any reasonable shape to do so- rusted out, leaky, wrecked hulks or worse.

That being said, while I’m aware the total number contains five figures, I am not aware of what five figures it contains. There could well have been Budd gallery cars rostered for Amtrak; it is also possible that some commuter line discontinued service, Amtrak proposed operation of a train on that line, arranged for the original operator to keep operating it, and arranged for that operators cars to be repainted in Amtrak colors without actually rostering the cars. The early days of Amtrak were a messy affair.

The condition of a lot of the cars Amtrak did roster and intend to use was often terrible, and the way Amtrak set up schedules on shorter routes, it was such that they could run Ex-Santa Fe high levels on it on Monday, a CNW gallery set on tuesday, a CBQ dome coach set on Wednesday, a ex-Pennsylvania set on Thursday, and one car from each of these on Friday because that’s what they could successfully send out. I’m a touch hyperbolic, but it was called the rainbow era for a reason.

Amtrak did run Budd bilevels on occasion on the Hiawatha’s. They would lease them from Metra on weekends during the Christmas holidays when demand was high. I rode a Hiawatha in Metra bilevels in the late 1980’s at Christmas time. I’ve always liked the gallery cars. The fact that they were commuter cars was no problem in that hour and a half run from Chicago to Milwaukee which is shorter time wise than the Metra run to Harvard. I was with friends and it was a festive ride at holiday time. I won’t ever forget it.

 

[dlagrua]

IMO, the Gallery cars were not a good idea. The upper level had about half the number of seats than at the platform level. To maximize on passenger capacity, the bi-level design currently used by NJT with double row seating both sides of the aisles on two levels appears to be a far more efficient design. They also fit through all of the tunnels and use existing platform levels.

 

[cirdan]

IMO, the Gallery cars were not a good idea. The upper level had about half the number of seats than at the platform level. To maximize on passenger capacity, the bi-level design currently used by NJT with double row seating both sides of the aisles on two levels appears to be a far more efficient design. They also fit through all of the tunnels and use existing platform levels.

Especially on suburban commuter services, antisocial behavior and vandalism can sometimes be a problem, discouraging passengers and further weakening the viability of services. The perceived level of safety often depends on visibility. In this respect IMHO the Gallery cars are a good compromise. Of course nowadays that role is partially replaced by CCTV cameras, permitting more high-density designs.

 

[jis]

Especially on suburban commuter services, antisocial behavior and vandalism can sometimes be a problem, discouraging passengers and further weakening the viability of services. The perceived level of safety often depends on visibility. In this respect IMHO the Gallery cars are a good compromise. Of course nowadays that role is partially replaced by CCTV cameras, permitting more high-density designs.

Also checking/picking tickets appears to be much easier.