40th Anniversary Train

I'm currentlyat the Freeport stop. They've done a nice job with info booths from NNEPRA, Maine Eastern, TR/NE, plus PanAm has a booth set up selling their retro goodies (plus B&M and MEC merch). The big surprise, though, is that the PanAm OCS cars are coupled to the Amtrak set and are open for walkthroughs! They also brought down ST 77 in its new maroon B&M livery... very nicely done!

I really enjoyed touring the exhibit train yesterday in Freeport. My favorite part was, without a doubt, the locomotive horn display. That was such a great idea -- kudos to whoever came up with it!

The people who staffed the train were friendly, helpful, and very knowledgeable. They did a great job.

Not only was it a fun experience for railfans, there were also a lot of "regular folks" who seemed to really enjoy it, and I think Amtrak is going to get a lot of new customers as a result.

Pan Am Railways sort of stole the show with their private business cars, which were opened to the public for the first time in the 30-year history of the company, but the Amtrak train was wonderful and definitely worth the trip. Thank you, Amtrak!

Does anyone know the route or schedule that the anniversary train will take from Freeprort to the next planned stop in Vermont?

Thanks

The Anniversary train followed #682 to Boston this morning.
Presumably, it went over the Grand Junction Branch to the
Amtrak maintenance facility at Southhampton St.

Pure speculation on my part, but I would think it will take
the CSX Boston line to Palmer and the NECR up to Burlington.
Because of daytime trackwork on the NECR, this will probably
be a night-time move. I do not know if the #822 has cab
signals or not, that may be required on the Boston Line.
For the return trip, when they get to Palmer, they will likely
head to Albany for the 8/27-28 display there. Due to the track
configuration at Palmer, they probably will have to add an
Amtrak loco at Palmer to head west, at least to Springfield.

Yes, the 822 does have cab signals. The train will head west Boston to Palmer via CSXT and north on the NECR "later this week". I haven't heard when this move will be whether Weds/Thursday but I am assuming that it will leave Boston after 449.

The Anniversary train is supposed to depart Boston today around 130pm to Palmer via the B&A.

According to this post on the TrainRiders/NorthEast site, "Amtrak officials announced that the 2,100 folks who visited the exhibit in Freeport had set a new attendance record for the train as it tours America." On the one hand, good for Freeport and Maine! On the other, though, if the post is correct, after visiting Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston, 2,100 is the best they've done?

I think a lot of people in Maine are genuinely enthusiastic about Amtrak, due to the high quality of service we receive via the Downeaster and NNEPRA.

I also think that the turnout received a slight boost due to Pan Am's presence. Some railfans came from as far away as western Massachusetts to see Pan Am's business cars, which had never before been opened up for public viewing.

One other thing that occurred to me about the attendance they've apparently been getting. Most of their stops (with Strasburg being a major exception) have indeed been at city-center stations, on weekends. This means that a) the crowds would presumably be lighter than during the week, and b) anyone going to see the train would probably have to make a special trip into town to do so. In Freeport, on the other hand, the crowds were already out of their cars to go shopping, and the train was very close to several parking areas (and not far from the new garage). It would have been easy to see the balloons and wonder what was going on, and not inconvenient to go find out.

But still, they apparently didn't pull more than 2,100 in either of their weekends at Strasburg, with Thomas in town at the same time? That's either wrong or tragic.

But still, they apparently didn't pull more than 2,100 in either of their weekends at Strasburg, with Thomas in town at the same time? That's either wrong or tragic.


With Thomas in town and they only drew 2,100....That's SAD.

Here's something a little different: a 3D photo of the train in Burlington, VT (red/blue glasses required for viewing).

I thought the train was very nicely done. The only thing that I found a little "odd" was the high number of mannequins.

The paint job on the locomotives and the cars was a great throwback to the 1980s and early 1990s. Beech Grove and everyone at Amtrak really did a great job putting this all together.

I was in Burlington on Sunday. Here's a write-up on my blog:
http://www.shadyjay.com

And a direct link to the photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/shadyjayvt ... hibitTrain

Also I heard that when it left for Albany, the "F40PH" was leading! Most likely they brought the train into the VRS yard and ran the power around to head back up the branch to the NECR main. Haven't seen a photo of it yet as it most likely was under the cover of darkness.

Before Freeport, New Haven was the record. With all those NYC visitors, it's somewhat expected.

Re: the mannequins. I neglected to mention this after Freeport, but I think of all the memorabilia they had aboard, the thing I was most surprised by was the 70's-era dining car passenger in what I think was an authentic leisure suit! No idea who still had that in their closet, but it was a great touch; it's shown in one of shadyjay's photos. The second-most surprising thing was the Carter-era Amtrak uniform sweater.

The Amtrak-40 blog entry for Freeport had initially said (Google still has the cached phrasing), "Freeport proved to be one of our busiest stops yet with almost 2000 visitors," but that's gone now for some reason (my hunch is that Amtrak Marketing didn't want to publicize "almost 2,000" as being one of their busiest weekends, but of course I could be wrong).

I see the train is going to Scranton, Pa! I hope sometime in my lifetime Amtrak will have regular service to Scranton, but I'm not holding my breath. Should be interesting over the labor day weekend!