Memories of Amtrak past

[Twin Star Rocket]

Garish 70s interior colors, electric pianos in the new Superliner lounges, complimentary wine,cheese & cracker baskets in sleeping car roomettes (rooms), Amtrak stationery/pen packets, slumbercoaches, the pointless arrow, domes on nearly every long-distance train, ticket stock from the pre-Amtrak railroads, tickets stamped with old ticket daters, luggage tags that still showed a Santa Fe Hi-level car , the early Amtrak timetables issued by the contracting railroads , steam for heat and air conditioning, mixed equipment from various railroads, a GG-1 pictured (sans pantograph) as the locomotive of the future, and many more...

Add yours!

 

[crescent2]

Looks like I'm the first reply, and it's a little OT because it was slightly pre-Amtrak. I'd guess Amtrak inherited the equipment.

I've always liked trains. Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides. If I recall correctly, the cars were stainless steel or silver colored. My friend Paulette and I insisted on having our picture made with the conductor, and he cheerfully obliged. It was my first train ride and the only one for decades to come. We were amazed that the toilets dumped onto the tracks! No restroom use while at stations, of course. That's been a while ago; we loved it!

 

[Bob Dylan]

The Rainbow Trains, a mix of all the various Colors and Types of Equipment from the various Railroads that basically just turned over their Rolling Stock to Amtrak on A Day! And of course the Staff Aboard the Trains, especially the Old Timers that had such Colorful Stories from the Old Days when Steam Ruled the Rail!s! :wub:

 

[PaulM]

Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides.

Did the Southern Crescent, or the Southerner or Crescent for that matter, ever run to Chattanooga? I thought they all ran NY or WAS to NO via Birmingham or Mobile.

 

[Carolyn Jane]

Remembering those toilets that emptied onto the tracks...And the conductor punching your ticket and sticking it on the corner of the seat...The cart that came through selling (expensive) sandwiches. the smell of steam heat and stale cigarets.CJ

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Looks like I'm the first reply, and it's a little OT because it was slightly pre-Amtrak. I'd guess Amtrak inherited the equipment.

I've always liked trains. Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides. If I recall correctly, the cars were stainless steel or silver colored. My friend Paulette and I insisted on having our picture made with the conductor, and he cheerfully obliged. It was my first train ride and the only one for decades to come. We were amazed that the toilets dumped onto the tracks! No restroom use while at stations, of course. That's been a while ago; we loved it!

The Crescent never ran through Chattanooga. You probably took the Royal Palm. There used to be other trains on that route but I think they were cancelled by "slightly pre-Amtrak."

 

[Big Iron]

I miss the Heritage lounge cars, slumbecoaches and domes.

 

[NE933]

I miss the Heritage lounge cars

Remember the open-it-yourself refrigerator cooler that we would take out a beverage or yogurt snack to put on cardboard tray, slide it on the slide to the cashier? And brown carpeting, orange seating that enabled strangers to face one another for games and conversations? My parents would hang out until 3 in the morning, laughing and having fun, even with the sales counter closed!!!!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Looks like I'm the first reply, and it's a little OT because it was slightly pre-Amtrak. I'd guess Amtrak inherited the equipment.

I've always liked trains. Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides. If I recall correctly, the cars were stainless steel or silver colored. My friend Paulette and I insisted on having our picture made with the conductor, and he cheerfully obliged. It was my first train ride and the only one for decades to come. We were amazed that the toilets dumped onto the tracks! No restroom use while at stations, of course. That's been a while ago; we loved it!

The Crescent never ran through Chattanooga. You probably took the Royal Palm. There used to be other train on that route but I think they were cancelled by "slightly pre-Amtrak."

As a native Chattanoogan, later moved to Atlanta. I can assure that this post is correct. about the Crescent never going thru Chatta.. And yes,they probably rode the Royal Palm.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Looks like I'm the first reply, and it's a little OT because it was slightly pre-Amtrak. I'd guess Amtrak inherited the equipment.

I've always liked trains. Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides. If I recall correctly, the cars were stainless steel or silver colored. My friend Paulette and I insisted on having our picture made with the conductor, and he cheerfully obliged. It was my first train ride and the only one for decades to come. We were amazed that the toilets dumped onto the tracks! No restroom use while at stations, of course. That's been a while ago; we loved it!

The Crescent never ran through Chattanooga. You probably took the Royal Palm. There used to be other trains on that route but I think they were cancelled by "slightly pre-Amtrak."

The Royal Palm made its last runs in 1968 as Cincinnati - Danville, KY and Ringold, GA - Atlanta. The good old Southern Railway had an interesting way of killing passenger trains. They got the State of Tennessee to approve discontinuing the Royal Palm which by that time way a Cincinnati - Atlanta coach only train at Stops within TN so it ran Cincinnati to Danville and Ringold to Atlanta. Those short runs did not do well and within months they were gone. Southern had already done something like that on the south end of both the Royal Palm and the other train from Cincinnati to Jacksonville, FL. When a train had only 1 stop in a state, the railroad could discontinue service without petitioning any agency. In 1965 or 1966, both Cincinnati - Jacksonville trains were abruptly cut back to Cincinnati to Valdosta, GA trains. Within a year, they were cut back to Cincinnati to Atlanta trains and within the next year, the Ponce De Leon was discontinued altogether. The Southern also killed the Pelican, the Tennessean, the Birmingham Special, Augusta Special and other trains using the same tactics. So the Royal Palm died a slow death from 1965 to 1968 about 3 years prior to Amtrak and the Southern didn't join Amtrak in the beginning in 1971.

 

[Big Iron]

I miss the Heritage lounge cars

Remember the open-it-yourself refrigerator cooler that we would take out a beverage or yogurt snack to put on cardboard tray, slide it on the slide to the cashier? And brown carpeting, orange seating that enabled strangers to face one another for games and conversations? My parents would hang out until 3 in the morning, laughing and having fun, even with the sales counter closed!!!!

I sure do. I liked the dim lighting as well, made for a better atmosphere at 3 AM. I don't know if the carpet was meant to be brown or if it was from all the nicotene :giggle:

 

[Big Iron]

Speaking rainbow era, I rode the Illinois Zephyr during that time. It was always a mix of equipment from silver CB&Q E-Units and GN Big Sky blue coaches to CNW F-Units and bi-level coaches.

I can recall, as a youth of 11, playing poker with two nuns at the table in a snack bar coach. We were betting coffee stirrers.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Looks like I'm the first reply, and it's a little OT because it was slightly pre-Amtrak. I'd guess Amtrak inherited the equipment.

I've always liked trains. Years ago four of us took the Southern Crescent (Southern Railway) from Atlanta to Chattanooga and back, just for the train rides. If I recall correctly, the cars were stainless steel or silver colored. My friend Paulette and I insisted on having our picture made with the conductor, and he cheerfully obliged. It was my first train ride and the only one for decades to come. We were amazed that the toilets dumped onto the tracks! No restroom use while at stations, of course. That's been a while ago; we loved it!

I am glad you have this memory to cherish. Several of us have pointed out, though, that neither the Crescent or the Southern Crescent served Chattanooga. So here are some thoughts...

1.The Royal Palm ran through part of 1968 and it was mostly stainless steel though not so much at the end.

2 Do you have any way of tracking down the year at this late date?

3, Is if possible you took some kind of steam engine excursion? They did exist from time to time back then and they were on the Southern or Norfolk Southern RR.

4. This is a stretch but is it possible you took the remnant of the once famed Georgian on the L&N (CSX today)? It was the last train out of Chattanooga, and I was on it, of course. That was May 1, 1971 The last coaches to run on that train were stainless steel.

5 Do you remember whether you left ATL from one of the big downtown stations or was it the small station we have today?

6. Is it possibleo you went to BIrmingham instead of Chattanooga? That would have been the Crescent or Southern Crescent.and an easy way to make a one day turn around.

In my estimation,, I think you took the Royal Palm, as already noted. If you could just zero in on the year we could be more sure.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Of Amtrak past... I rode coach cross-country in June 1974 alone when I was 14. I've always loved dome cars and riding the San Francisco Zephyr was like being in heaven. The crew was great to me... except for one incident. I was broke and had to watch every cent I spent, but I went to the diner for lunch on the second day as I needed a decent meal and it seemed to be the best deal.

I was sitting facing the direction of travel on the outside of a foursome table with the kitchen behind me. While eating my sandwich, one of the service attendants came out of the kitchen with a tray of food, including soup... Yep, we hit a bad bump in the road as he was passing our table. Except it was not on us he spilled the soup, but the people at the table across the aisle from us. Without missing a beat, he pointed at me and said "He tripped me!" Which was a complete lie. I just looked at him in disbelief and said in a shocked tone "I did not!" That was the end of it for me. The unlucky folks across the way were a mess, but did not believe him for a moment.

Moral of the story: Uneven service on Amtrak is nothing new!

 

[NETrainfan]

Miss the Desert Wind.

Liked the huge restrooms (women's lounges) of the past. Some of the new restrooms are just tooooo small.

Don't miss the smoking.

 

[zepherdude]

St. Louis Union Station, tail end Observation cars, skillet fried chicken with homemade mashed taters with biscuits and strawberry shortcake included. I miss the good ole boyz chat and familiarity with the porters and attendants and the frequency of trains as we sat by the tracks and waiting for trains to roar by at what seemed like 150 mph. I miss Lucy and the gang in the motel with the trains passing and bent over with laughter. This all comes with bein a kid and growing up in the 1950s and Ike as the President and no worries at all. We did like Ike!

 

[Twin Star Rocket]

I think there were still a few heavyweight passenger cars used on the former Chicago-St. Louis GM&O route.

You could still find Pullman blankets in some sleeping cars.

Dining car chimes? I never heard them used on any Amtrak train I ever rode, but some have told me they were still in use on some Midwest trains. I did hear them used on a pre-Amtrak Rock Island train.

Some regional reservation centers still used the "big wheel" for making reservations before computers took over.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I think there were still a few heavyweight passenger cars used on the former Chicago-St. Louis GM&O route.

You could still find Pullman blankets in some sleeping cars.

Dining car chimes? I never heard them used on any Amtrak train I ever rode, but some have told me they were still in use on some Midwest trains. I did hear them used on a pre-Amtrak Rock Island train.

Some regional reservation centers still used the "big wheel" for making reservations before computers took over.

rThe only clear memory I have of dining car chimes was on the Union Pacific, such as the City of Los Angeles and the City of San Francisco, pre Amtrak. They probably were around, just not consistently used in a lot of cases.

 

[Steve4031]

I remember walking through the broadway limited in 1978 checking out the consist. It seemed no two cars were the same. In one of them, several African Americans were listening to Donna summers on a boom box. I don't know about the passengers in that car, but I always remember that trip with fondness. Whenever I here bad girls by Donna summers I think of that trip and the guys with the boom box. That trip was also my first detour because of a freight derailment east of valporaiso. We were detoured over the LSL route. Arrive Pittsburg 6 hours late in daylight. Which meant a daylight ride over horseshoe curve.

 

[xyzzy]

On Amtrak Eve, Southern (technically the Central of Georgia subsidiary) was still running the Nancy Hanks II between Atlanta and Savannah. The Man O' War between Atlanta and Columbus was discontinued in 1970, as was the New Orleans - Montgomery - Atlanta segment of the Crescent. Other than trains on the New Orleans-Atlanta-Washington route and the aforementioned Royal Palm, these were the only Southern passenger trains in Atlanta in the three years prior to Amtrak.

The Atlanta NRHS Chapter and Southern ran numerous steam excursions Atlanta-Chattanooga in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

 

[pebbleworm]

To flog a dead horse, as a college student I loved the slumbercoaches. Weird, isolated and spartan they were, but a great way to overnight between Chicago and NYC. I can see why they were expensive to operate and are now gone.

 

[crescent2]

Hi guys,

Sorry about the "Crescent" mistake. I thought it was the Crescent but I'm obviously mistaken. I am sure it was Atlanta to Chattanooga and back (we stayed in Chattanooga at least one night), and it was not an excursion train. I'm almost certain it had a diesel locomotive. This would have been sometime after 1966, not sure if it could have been as late as 1970 or not. I don't remember which Atlanta station we used. I think it was the Southern Railway but I suppose it could have been Central of Ga. Sorry my memory of the details is so sketchy, and thanks for the info.

I probably still have a few pictures stashed away somewhere but I haven't seen them in years.

 

[creddick]

Remembering those toilets that emptied onto the tracks...And the conductor punching your ticket and sticking it on the corner of the seat...The cart that came through selling (expensive) sandwiches. the smell of steam heat and stale cigarets.CJ

Took the City of New Orleans in the late 80's and the toilets still emptied onto the tracks.

 

[xyzzy]

Atlanta-Chattanooga trains on Southern used Terminal Station in downtown Atlanta, which was also used by the Central of Ga. Only passenger trains on the New Orleans-Atlanta-Washington route used what is today's Amtrak station in Atlanta, technically known as Peachtree Station but widely called Brookwood Station by locals. Southern was all-diesel (except for excursions) after 1953.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I remember a run from Chicago to NOL a couple years before the City went Superliner and we had a Dome in consist. As soon as I settled in my Amfleet seat, I hightailed to the Dome and the Conductor politely asked me if I could "hold off" until after Carbondale as he was shoving all of the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University college students in the Dome to keep them from disturbing the longer run pax. I spent most the night in the Dome, enough to get words of relief from the Coach Attendant who was glad to see me in the morning fearing I had fallen off or gotten off and left my luggage behind.

Now to get to Chicago I drove late night to Newton KS to pick up the Southwest Chief and spent an hour chatting with the Brakeman in the Superliner Diner which still had recorded music; the tape was dragging and hanging up, sounding like a screeching cat and no one could figure out how to fix it.