Say bye bye to the leased Bombardier Cars

VRE updated it's equipment page today and I noticed the Bombardier cars that were on a Manassas train is no longer listed.

(The Bombardier cars are the ones with the blue wavy paint leased from Sound Transit in Seattle.)

VRE will replace them with new Gallery cars - 5 new cars arrive each month. The Bombardier cars will then be returned to Seatttle. This should take place by the end of the month or early March.

I saw two of them this morning on the rear of a VRE train(behind the locomotive) at Union Station heading to the yard. The setup placed the locomotive in the middle of the train (gallery cars in front, sounder cars behind). Later in the day I saw the cars in Amtrak's Ivy CIty yard.

From the VRE Update:
For the curious among you, the Sounder cars will be attached to an Amtrak freight train that goes to Seattle via Chicago. Because the Sounder cars will be treated as freight, they will be returned empty.

http://www.vre.org/service/commuterweek ... 8/feb6.pdf

That Amtrak train will be the Capitol Limited (#29), the only (direct) train from Washington D.C. to Chicago. At Chicago the cars will probably be coupled to the Empire Builder to Seattle. Here's a YouTube vid of a previous set of Sounder cars on the Cap. Ltd. at Gaithersburg, MD being sent back to Seattle last year:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BdhfxFloHSg

Here's a vid of new VRE Gallery Cars on the Cap. Ltd. from Chicago. (#30) at the same crossing in Gaithersburg:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dICBVXU1jVo

Service is being expanded here in Seattle, mostly between Seattle and Tacoma so those cars are needed back at home.

This afternoon I was in Strasburg, VA, at the NS interchange with CSX (ex-B&O) and noticed the following VRE cars stored there: V502, V501, 8739, 8742, 8740, V449, V442, V423, V430, V456, and V435. Does anyone know the status of these cars? Also, the CSX track was heavily overgrown with brush, indicating no passage by CSX trains at this point in years. How far south of Winchester do CSX trains operate these days?

VRE states the cars are in storage at this location because VRE had run out of room at its overnight yards as it received the new Gallery cars. Additionally, half the cars were sold in December 2007 but have not yet picked up by the buyer. Meanwhile, CSX still serves a customer just short of the interchange, but NS closed the interchange itself some years ago when a local group was interested in purchasing the line through the Shenandoah Valley for steam train excursions. This effectively ended any hopes of establishing steam train service.