Heritage bagage cars

[GregL]

Everytime I see a long distance, I always wonder how many millions of miles the heritage bagage cars have on them. Most of them were built in the forties or fifties. They have the potential of one round trip a week from Chicago to the west coast. Anyway you figure, it's a ton of miles. Does Amtrak keep track of mileage, or do they check brakes,wheels,and suspension parts and send them back out?

GregL

 

[MikeM]

I'm sure they know how many miles they put on a given car, but they probably have no idea how many miles it had before they got it. I know when they had the Trains summit with Boardman in Chicago, they went through the average miles per car; all of the Amtrak purchased cars had that info but heritage fleet cars had no mileage, just blanks as I recall. On a side tangent, I heard somewhere that some of the baggage cars that were made out of retired coaches have structural problems due to how the doors were installed - does anyone know anything if that's true or not?

 

[PRR 60]

...On a side tangent, I heard somewhere that some of the baggage cars that were made out of retired coaches have structural problems due to how the doors were installed - does anyone know anything if that's true or not?

Yes, that is true. The 1700-series baggage cars are former coaches that had the windows blanked and a door cut into the each side. That particular modification was not recommended by the original car manufacturer (Budd). Coach car structures were not designed for the high, concentrated loads that are typical with baggage and other cargo, and doors made matters worse. When used for express and mail, the cars suffered serious deflection. When used now, the cars have to be limited to passenger baggage only to limit the stress on the structure.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Figure 60,000 miles a year under the freights (thats running the CZ route about 120 times a year), then about 100,000 miles a year on Amtrak until 1982, then a function of an increase of about 3000 miles a year thereafter.

So... For a 1948 car...

1948: 60,000 1949: 120,000

1950: 180,000 1951: 240,000 1952: 300,000 1953: 360,000 1954: 420,000

1955: 480,000 1956: 540,000 1957: 600,000 1958: 660,000 1959: 720,000

1960: 780,000 1961: 840,000 1962: 900,000 1963: 960,000 1964: 1,020,000

1965: 1,180,000 1966: 1,240,000 1967: 1,300,000 1968: 1,360,000 1969: 1,420,000

1970: 1,480,000 1971: 1,580,000 1972: 1,680,000 1973: 1,780,000 1974: 1,880,000

1975: 1,980,000 1976: 2,080,000 1977: 2,180,000 1978: 2,280,000 1979: 2,380,000

1980: 2,480,000 1981: 2,580,000 1982: 2,683,000 1983: 2,789,000 1984: 2,898,000

1985: 3,010,000 1986: 3,125,000 1987: 3,243,000 1988: 3,364,000 1989: 3,488,000

1990: 3,615,000 1991: 3,745,000 1992: 3,878,000 1993: 4,014,000 1994: 4,153,000

1995: 4,295,000 1996: 4,440,000 1997: 4,588,000 1998: 4,739,000 1999: 4,893,000

2000: 5,050,000 2001: 5,210,000 2002: 5,373,000 2003: 5,539,000 2004: 5,708,000

2005: 5,880,000 2006: 6,055,000 2007: 6,233,000 2008: 6,414,000 2009: 6,598,000

Today: 6,661,333