In the "back of the property" I was surprised to see as many Sightseer Lounge cars in such bad shape and "still around" or on the property at least. Amtrak stashed away the old Heritage Crew Cars back there since retiring them in 2007. They've been sitting there for nearly 10 years. Surprised on them too - that Amtrak hasn't tried to offload them prior to now. But Boardman was supposedly afraid to put them on the "market" fearing they would end up in private rail owner hands and Amtrak would never see the last of them.
Not sure what to think in terms of VIA's interest. It's a lot of money and work for them to restore anything "Amtrak" back into service at this point from Beech Grove. But they've done stranger things! They got a new order of cars for the corridor, but will they keep the Renaissance equipment on the long distance Maritime Ocean train (and presuming the Chaleur will not be returning)? OR, will operation of the Canadian twice a week year round allow the Budd fleet to return to the Maritimes (at the expense of the Canadian potentially), and still retire the Renaissance equipment? It's too bad the Renaissance equipment failed VIA so bad - both the Chaleur and Ocean were to be Renaissance based equipment. But forced early retirement seems to be coming for ALL Renaissance fleet. These open ended questions makes one think about how far VIA would consider the Heritage Diners and and even the Heritage Crew Cars for a total rebuild top to bottom (VIA's done it with the Prestige and other cars)! LOT of work, but does the remainder of VIA's long distance trains - Hudson Bay, Ocean, Canadian - rely on the stainless steel Heritage equipment with a rebuild of some sort. Then all new cars (with what's been announced) for the corridor trains. The White River train likely becomes an engine with two cars (like remote Quebec trains) so RDC's get retired. If VIA elects to continue operating the Renaissance LD equipment in just the Maritimes and for that service alone, then I think VIA will pass on buying anything from Amtrak - maybe three of the best Heritage Diners though. The Diner Fleet is the tightest.
Former Amtrak Pres. David Gunn was so peeved with the Viewliner sleepers he criticized Amtrak's former management for retiring the Heritage sleepers. He said he would have rather had them on the road (upgraded, rebuilt, etc. with retention tanks and modifications), than dealing with the Viewliners (that he thought was complete junk).