Chicago Run-Throughs

[Ben]

Are there still any trains that run-through Chicago with the same consists? Thnx.

 

[Trogdor]

Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans

Capitol Limited and Southwest Chief

Blue Water and Illinois Zephyr

 

[AmtrakFan]

An Addation

State House/Illini

 

[railfangns]

I would like to see them use the portland section of the Empire Builder as a daily run through Cardinal to Washington DC.It would restore superliner service to the cardinal and we would have the the sightseer lounge through the new river gorge.The gorge is too pretty to not have a dome car to view it from.The 2 viewliner sleepers can be used on the overnight train between Washington and Boston.I recently rode the overnight to Boston its hard to sleep in the amfleet coaches.The 4 portland cars would work well on the cardinal and the equipment would have plenty of time to be serviced in DC. Chicago servicing might be tight if the cardinal was real late but have an extra set in chicago ready to pinch hit if needed.

 

[battalion51]

What you're talking about though gets complicated for a few reasons. First it would not be a true run through because the yard crew would have to switch the Builder once it got in. The definition of a run through is a train that comes in the yard and goes right back out with no changes to the consist excpet for the road power (and mail cars when they carried mail). Second because it would only happen three days a week that can lead to confusion if the crews have to break down and switch the train some days, but not others. With the number of moves these crews make consistency from day to day is important.

 

[Trogdor]

My impression was that he wanted the Cardinal to be made daily. I think the Cardinal's poor OTP, plus the inability to have time to service the train in Chicago, would be the deal breaker. If you have to keep a spare trainset on hand just in case, then you're not saving anything by having a run through in the first place.