Amfleet Refresh

This popped up in my Google News feed this afternoon. Not so much a focus on the refresh as a look back on the old interiors. Interesting nonetheless.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2 ... 712594001/

This can't happen soon enough. As I write, I'm on perhaps my fifth Detroit run this year. The business/cafe amfleets are rough. It's like riding in a snare drum with all the rattles and squeaks, and the wheels aren't especially round. Perhaps they are sorta-square in honor of Detroit's famous Little Caesars.

The upholstery and cushions are fine and the chairs still recline, but the carpet is worn and the plastic trim is very loose. Time for some Delta-style magic on these interiors.

Hey whatever happened to that Talgo deal? I'm not the biggest Talgo fan, but there are what, two train sets with 400-ish miles on them not turning a wheel while I'm riding a "business class" car that rattles like snare drum?

Be interesting to see how quickly upholstery and interior fittings wear on Amtrak versus Delta (SWA, United, etc.) and Greyhound (Megabus, etc.) per seat-mile.

Tadman wrote:This can't happen soon enough. As I write, I'm on perhaps my fifth Detroit run this year. The business/cafe amfleets are rough. It's like riding in a snare drum with all the rattles and squeaks, and the wheels aren't especially round.

Mr. Dunville, I "gave up" on the Michigan Service during '12 - and I attend concerts in both Ann Arbor and Detroit.

I think the most humiliating experience I had riding that service was when getting near MP 224, I called my friend (former client) residing there (El Portal Dr.) saying "hear the train blow?; yes"; but must you listen to that?" "'Fraid so; and I'm in their premium class." "Sure wouldn't catch me there".

The equipment isn't getting any younger; as Mr. Lustig's surveys continue to report, it's "timekeeping; what's that?"

Yes, yes, yes, promises, promises. Makes me think of this, or this. Now I realize that Millennials are not my generation where it "was all about what you drive". There is a World Class university en route as well as several other "good schools". Detroit is "coming back", and these "Uber and Divvy Bike" youngsters like to have their "experiences" involving out of town travel. But you can only kick the faithful dog so many times - and before Amtrak and the MDOT know it, this young crowd will be crowding themselves on to those Blue vehicles with some goofy looking guy on their sides pitching "$1 fares".

I think we should give Mr. Anderson his time to try something. He was well known at Delta for buying second hand DC9 variants and making them look like new. Imagine my surprise one day when I looked up the MD88 I was on and found out it was a 20 year old China Southern plane with a very tight refurb.

Tadman wrote:Imagine my surprise one day when I looked up the MD88 I was on and found out it was a 20 year old China Southern plane with a very tight refurb.

So there is actually a site out there that if you know an aircraft's "N-number", you can trace it's ownership, year built, and whatever airfans want to know about it?

Yes - replied via PM to keep this on-topic.

I'm aboard the newly 'refreshed' business class car on train 148 from NYP as I write this.

It smells 'new', which is good. I'm thinking that after they removed all the seats and carpets, they must have steam cleaned the entire car. The usual scuffs and marks along the luggage rack and above-the-power-strip plastic side panels all look new or more likely well cleaned. Below the power strip, new-looking darker colored carpeting has been installed. It appears to be the same dark color as the new floor carpet, which has white 'highlights' running through it, the wall carpet does not. It's dark out, so I can't be 100 percent sure.

One of my biggest concerns was the switch to LED lighting. I think they got it right. The lighting above the luggage rack seems completely uniform, no 'hot spots', and is maybe just a little brighter than the bulbs they replaced. They've kept the same yellowish tint o the lighting, too...or is it the ceiling panels make them appear to be lit by yellowish lighting? And for the ceiling lights above the aisle.... They MAY be just a bit dimmer than those impossible to sleep under Amfleet-II ceiling lights! If it were up to me, I have a dimmer setting on all the lighting after 7pm or so. Some of us like to sleep after an hour or so!

As for the seats, they have been re-upholstered with the new leather as expected. They've also replaced the underlying foam on the cushion and seatbacks with something more akin to what the Acelas had when new...a little too firm for my liking, but I'm sure it will soften up as they age. The frames have been completely repained in a matching grey shiny, but not smooth surface. The tray tables have been painted with the same paint as well. And yes, the recline button works just like it always has.

I haven't checked out the toilet yet...

My one complaint??? The somewhat atrocious run down cars with soiled carpets and stained/sticky seat cushions, looks like new! Looks mighty fine for a 40-something car! Now if they can only keep the PIGS out of it!!! When I boarded at NYP, the 2 seatbacks in front of me have a total of 2 large soda bottles, 1 beer bottle, and some folded paper! Most of the other seatbacks have a variety of trash as well. Unfortunately, semi-regularly riding this train to the 2nd last stop at WNL has proven to me that many of the passengers are too lazy to take their trash with them and put where it belongs. Perhaps Amtrak should follow the lead of SEPTA and NJT that I've recently seen...signs in every car to take their trash with them!

Allouette wrote:It's easy to forget that on "A-Day" all of those years ago all of the major carbuilders were still in business, still had drawings and in many cases specialized patterns to produce parts. Amfleet cars were the last Budd orders (except for the V-1 shells), Superliner 1's the last by Pullman, V-1s the only by Amerail, and Superliner 2s the last complete cars at Bombardier's Barre Vermont plant (Acelas were finished in Plattsburgh NY). All of the companies survived a while after the last big order, but none of them thrived - at least not on long-haul cars.

ACF and Brill were long out of the passenger business by the early 1970s. St. Louis Car was winding down by 1971 (just the Highliners and NYCT/SIRT R44s to go). In fact Pullman and St. Louis completed their last Class I passenger car deliveries in early '65 (KCS and UP respectively). The last Amfleet II coach delivered in 1983 was the end of long-distance/intercity car production at Budd. The Viewliner sleepers (1996) had their shells built at the Pullman shops in Chicago, MK/Amerail using the now demolished Pullman site.

The Acela Express and HHP8s were both assembled and completed at Barre, not Plattsburgh. The Acela trainsets were the last new equipment from Barre, which closed when Acela delivery was complete in late 2002.

bratkinson wrote:I'm aboard the newly 'refreshed' business class car ...

... I boarded at NYP, the 2 seatbacks in front of me have a total of 2 large soda bottles, 1 beer bottle, and some folded paper! Most of the other seatbacks have a variety of trash as well. Unfortunately, ... many of the passengers are too lazy to take their trash with them ... Perhaps Amtrak should follow the lead of SEPTA and NJT that I've recently seen...signs in every car to take their trash with them!

Good luck with signage. The airlines send the crew thru gathering up the trash -- and the recyclables separately! That must save a lot on turnaround time. Not sure it would save enuff on the trains since you'd probably need another crew member ... Or maybe have some crew in Penn Station, 30th Street, etc. run thru gathering up the trash before new passengers can board.

It's not any easy problem, but it sure is a problem.

I recall once about 5-6 years ago aboard an Empire Corridor train where coach attendants came around asking for trash, airplane style. It seemed very out of place, but the car was certainly trash-free. Maybe they experimented with it for a bit?

Amtrak seems to be addressing the trash problem to a limited degree on the NEC these days. In the past 5-6 months, my trips on train 141 have all had an enroute cleanup man that makes the rounds not long after leaving Newark. He first comes through asking everyone for trash and then comes back and cleans the rest rooms. They are actively hiring more enroute coach cleaners as found on their website: https://jobs.amtrak.com/job/New-York-En ... 425311600/ Hopefully, I'll encounter more of them enroute in future months & years.

That position could be very important during high peak travel times. Can you imagine if Amtrak could quick turn their Thanksgiving trains at WASH how much capacity would be added ?

Looks nice, though I'm not sure I would have picked such a light color for the seats. I wonder how clean they'll look after a few months, let alone a few years of service.

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