Where's the Baby Builder?

[Superliner Diner]

The Baby Builder is a section of the Empire Builder. Extra cars that run on the train from Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul are removed there, and return on the eastbound train back to Chicago leaving the next morning. It is ticketed as Train 807 westbound and Train 808 eastbound. Good idea, to run extra cars where they are needed, and short-turn them to cover the same city pair in the opposite direction. Any passenger booking a trip solely between Chicago and the Twin Cities, including intermediate points in Wisconsin, was booked on 807 or 808, not 7 or 8 or 27 or 28.

With this latest schedule change, I see that 807 and 808 are not a selectable option for the forseeable future. They are there, but the radio button to select them is gone. One can book space on the parent train 7 or 8.

Could it be that the short-turn cars are not running, possibly a victim of the equipment shortage brought on by the wrecks and not having them fixed?

The Texas Eagle also has (or had) a short-turn section between Chicago and St. Louis, known as 321 and 322, although the schedules and reservations process no longer reflect this. I wonder if those are still running as well?

 

[tp49]

Have these extra cars been on the Builder and Eagle in winter schedules past or is it something that is only done in for the summer high season?

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

It's possible that this equipment is no longer being used as short-turn equipment, but has become part of the long-haul consist. I think that's happened because one of the times that I rode the Empire Builder last summer, there was only one coach on the Portland section. It got a little cramped in coach until we reached Spokane and people could then be moved to the Seattle section. They may want to prevent that from happening again.

P.S.: I love the nickname "Baby Builder." :lol:

 

[Superliner Diner]

Have these extra cars been on the Builder and Eagle in winter schedules past or is it something that is only done in for the summer high season?

I believe 807/808 short-turn coaches have run year-round, for several years. People use the Empire Builder all year. If it's not a summer vacation, it's skiiing or a trip to Glacier Park.

 

[Superliner Diner]

P.S.: I love the nickname "Baby Builder." :lol:

Back in the days of the Pioneer, there was a period of time when the Empire Builder and the Pioneer were running on alternate days of the week (I think it was the Mercer-related cuts). The Pioneer ran three days a week west of Salt Lake City, and the Empire Builder ran four days a week, the 4 days that the Pioneer was not running, west of the Twin Cities. (Service east of SLC on the Pioneer's route was covered alternately by the California Zephyr and the Desert Wind, so that daily service still existed, just covered by a different combination of two of the three trains each day.) They maintained daily service CHI-MSP however, and that is where the Baby Builder name came from. Only that time, all cars turned around, overnighting in MSP.