Amtrak 50th Anniversary (May 1, 1971) memories: The first five years...

In 1975, rode the "rainbow consist" Empire Builder Chi-Sea. Great trip, I got a single bedroom in the dome lounge sleeper (ex NP) for the price of a roomette. Great meals in the diner, great views from the dome. Then took the Coast Starlight from Oakland to LA and got a day roomette for just a small upcharge over coach. Those were the days!!!

electricron wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:41 amThe only thing Amtrak excels at anymore is grand views of America - mostly of back yards of farms and ranches - that you can not get from a plane tens of thousands of feet above the ground. But here is the rub, you can get those same views driving you own car; even "grander" views where Amtrak dares not go. Las Vegas, Branson, Great Smokies, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Denali, etc.

The Cardinal in West Virginia has many miles of the New River Gorge, not seen by automobile.

My only childhood memory of Amtrak was the ice cream novelty vending machine at my neighborhood station. My friends and I had never seen one, nor have I since, and patronized it when we could afford it. This was at Lambert's Point, Norfolk, Virginia, where N&W had moved the station. It occupied the lower floor of modern two-story office building, next to the coal yards. Much better than an Amshack, but not exactly downtown either. Service ended in 1977.

When Amtrak returned to Norfolk in 2012 a new station was built downtown. Immediately on leaving the station it crosses a river and you're on your way, and then a smooth ride to Richmond with only one stop. From there north the traction gets more rambunctious. The new service has been popular. Driving a car to Washington in commuting hours, say for Pentagon employees and service members, is no easy task, on highways that have doubled and quadrupled in width.

Going back to the 1970's, a good patch of tangled, wooded land around the N&W, built on leftover fill-dirt and who knows whatever else, served as an unofficial playground for us. These days it's more controlled, as a nature park. People on that side of the neighborhood had to wash their houses every year of coal dust. I believe that situation has improved.

My first Amtrak ride was in 1972, I believe. With a college friend I rode from Philadelphia to Charleston, West Virginia. We also rode Amtrak to Boston, a bus to Montreal, and Amtrak from Montreal to New York. I remember eating in the diner on the way back from Charleston (my college buddy always had Coke at breakfast), and after our Canadian trip we got to New York with barely enough money for tickets to my parents' home on the North Jersey Coast. I remember a wide variety of railroads represented in Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor in those days and, around 1975, a ride in an overcrowded 3-car train from Boston to New York with seats that shifted with every lurch of the train. I also rode the United Aircraft turbo from New York to Boston and enjoyed that.

This is a question that fits in with the "first five years" of NRPC:

The other day, I came across a post on either FB or another site which showed a SDP40F on the Shore Line (NEC) near Route 128 Station. This is the first time I have seen a photo of an SDP40F on the Shore Line route. It does fill in some gaps of what would have provided Shore Line trains power between the E and F40 eras. How long did the big SDs run in varnish on the Shore Line east of New Haven to Boston? I've never come across a photo of one in New Haven and only that one photo ever of one on the entire line, so hence my curiosity....

As I recall there were two SDP-40F units assigned and operated between New Haven and Boston in 1974, augmenting the fleet of PC E-8 units. They were reassigned in about a year or so, as the Amfleet I equipment was introduced, reducing the need for boiler-equipped motive power in that service.

My first three trips were
- Los Angeles to Newton, KS, summer 1972 on the reincarnation of the Chief. We travelled slumbercoach. I now hate slumbercoaches.

- Los Angeles to San Jose and return, October 1972, for my 16th birthday.

-Kansas City to Los Angeles, summer 1973 on the then still Super Chief.

My first ride on Amtrak was in June of 1971 when I graduated from the 8th grade (Catholic School). I got to ride from Washington Union Station (I had relatives who lived in Southern Maryland who came to NJ to visit with us, and they drove me to Union Station) to the brand new station in Iselin, NJ (Metropark).

My most memorable ride on Amtrak was when I was in College / Music Conservatory around 1976 or so. My girlfriend and I went to Montreal during spring break to see the symphony there, and then took a thru sleeping car from Montreal to Miami spent a week there, and then returned back to NJ on one of the silver something or other trains (I forget which one it was). That's when I learned how romantic a trip on a sleeper could be. 8^)