#legacyequipment

[railwayhistorical]

SDP40F in Phase II Paint

I assume this unit is from the initial batch of SDP40Fs from La Grange—beyond its fairly low number, it has the more complicated sheet metal work on the nose. (Later ones had a simplified design, with a flat section where the access door is located.)

The reason this locomotive is looking so marvelous—in Phase II paint—is that it has just come out of the Illinois Central Paducah shops after being refurbished. Too bad that the entire fleet of this model would be taken out of service later this very year or early the next due to a mysterious problem that caused it to derail with enough regularity that it was untenable.

The problem *may* have been due to large water tanks which were needed for the steam generator. (This locomotive was designed to haul legacy equipment that still used steam heat.) There's also a question about a newly designed truck. In any event there's never been a definitive reason for the issue. The engines would be returned to EMD which recycled some components in the manufacture of the F40PH for Amtrak; some of the units were reworked into freight locos that ran for the ATSF.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken June 12, 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Legacy Equipment

Three Alco RS3s work the Amtrak facility in Chicago. Number 117 is ex-PC 5441, nee PRR 8441 (built November of 1953), number 125 is ex-PC 5502, nee NYC 8253 (built June of 1951), and number 122 is ex NH 523 (built August of 1950). The two SDP40Fs have recently had Phase II paint applied.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken February 27th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Meet at Harrodsburg

Here we see a southbound Amtrak Floridian passing a northbound Louisville & Nashville freight "in the hole" at the north end of Harrodsburg Siding. This is the former Monon, which had been absorbed by the L&N six years earlier.

The Amtrak train is powered by SDP40Fs (using steam to heat the cars) while the lead locomotive on the freight is a GP38-2 built for the L&N in 1972.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken December 3rd 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Vintage Dome

A couple of weeks ago I saw this dome in Hood River, Oregon. Given the flat window panels on the dome itself, being flat rather than gracefully curved and sculpted, I wondered if this was one of the very first dome cars.

After briefly poking around on-line, I felt this was ATSF 501 as the fluting seemed to jibe. To confirm I asked a group of knowledgeable people on Facebook. Alfred Lynch says,

That is definitely a Pullman Standard dome car that was originally part of the Santa Fe 500 class...built for the 1951 Super Chief. Most likely, that is the original number. Those cars contained the famous Turquoise Rooms, a private dining area...designed to be coupled the 600 class diners.

The car is part of equipment owned by the Mount Hood Railroad; the company does both revenue freight and tourist operations.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken March 20th 2023.

[railwayhistorical]

Florida Bound

This is a southbound Amtrak Floridian rolling down the former Monon at a spot called Ketchams, between Bloomington and Bedford, in southern Indiana. The line was owned by the Louisville & Nashville at the time.

The train is powered by two SDP40Fs, running elephant style as the train would be split in two once in Florida—the two terminals being Miami and St. Petersburg. I’m pretty sure this train always had at least one dome car in the consist.

Someone on FB tells me the Southern Pacific box baggage cars (at the rear of the train here), were leased by Amtrak for a Chicago to Jacksonville mail contract.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken January 5th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Harrodsburg Siding

Not a great sequence, as I'm too far away from the action, but there it is. A southbound Amtrak Floridian rolls by the south end of Harrodsburg Siding and its semaphores. We're on the former Monon, Louisville & Nashville at the time of shooting.

As per usual, the train ran with two SDP40Fs up front—elephant style so it could be split to two different destinations in Florida—along with legacy streamlined cars; the train was assigned one dome.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken November 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Auto-Train

This is a shot of the original Auto-Train, albeit the short-lived Louisville extension; as we see above, it’s teamed up with Amtrak. The location is somewhere just south of Louisville, Kentucky, along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

By the time of this photo, six or seven years in, Auto-Train was under some duress, while Amtrak’s Floridian was struggling as well. During a brief period then, the southbound Floridian would combine itself with the Louisville version of the Auto-Train for the trip to Florida. I believe this occurred beginning November 1st 1976 until September of 1977 when Auto-Train stopped service to Louisville. The Floridian itself was discontinued in October of 1979.

Auto-Train used some interesting locomotives along with the legacy equipment bought from railroads (which were able to drop passenger service in 1971). The power for the upstart road were new GE U36Bs delivered with Blomberg trucks. Not sure if they had steam generators, but I think not: heat was supplied by a generator in a modified heavyweight car in the consist.

Auto-Train as a corporation lasted only ten or eleven years and succumbed to financial difficulties—due to this extension (beyond the original east coast run) and more than one derailment. Amtrak revived the idea in October of 1983, and it’s still popular to this day. I have another post on this interesting train, from the spring of 1976.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken March 26th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Greencastle

This is a southbound Amtrak Floridian powering through Greencastle, Indiana. The line here is the Louisville & Nashville, former Monon.

I’ve pored over older maps looking to see what the foundations are just north of the bridge on which I’m standing (which carries S. County Road 200W) but cannot find anything as of yet.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken January 8th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

National

It’s not the name of the Amtrak train, the National Limited, but the name of a place. National in this case is a spot along the former Monon—Louisville & Nashville at the time these images were made. I believe the spur runs off to a limestone quarry nearby.

The Floridian is northbound here; the EMD E9A locomotive was built for the Milwaukee Road in 1956, carrying numbers 31C and 201C. I’m not crazy about the telegraph pole directly behind the unit, but I do like the moodiness of the lighting—just before sunset.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken April Fools Day, 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Communication: Old School

The crew of a southbound Amtrak Floridian receive train orders at McDoel yard in Bloomington, Indiana. At the time this was of the Louisville & Nashville but I’ll always think of it as the Monon.

First we see the fireman in the cab of the SDP40F put his arm out to catch the loop of string holding the paper flimsies; then the conductor back in a legacy coach does the same. There were radios at the time of course, but I reckon they wanted to have hard copy if anything went wrong and trains came together.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken November 6th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Distant View

This is a northbound Amtrak Floridian at Harrodsburg Siding, which lies between Bloomington and Bedford, Indiana. The line at this time was the Louisville & Nashville, but, for locals, it was known by its former name, the Monon. Two SDP40Fs power the train made up of legacy equipment.

It’s really a shame I didn’t own better equipment at this time, as this distant view simply does not hold up under real scrutiny. For example: those are semaphores at the south end of the siding, but one can’t really tell.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken November 24th 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Peerless

Here we see a northbound Amtrak Floridian on the former Monon in southern Indiana. The Louisville & Nashville has been the owner of the line since 1971, but the distinctive semaphore signals of the Monon are still intact; one of these would be preserved upon retirement, I’m happy to report.

The Floridian was run with two SDP40Fs running elephant style as the train was split into two parts down in Florida for different destinations. This cars are all legacy equipment at this time as well, necessitating the steam generators on the big EMD units.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken December 14th 1976.

[railwayhistorical]

Alco Comes Home

Here we see a southbound Amtrak Floridian meeting a northbound freight on the former Monon (Louisville & Nashville). The location is Harrodsburg, which lies between Bloomington and Bedford, Indiana.

In the second image, we see the freight up the line at Clear Creek, just a bit south of McDoel Yard. It’s interesting to note: the lead unit on the freight train (an Alco C-420) is a former unit of the Monon—and the bell on the nose of this unit is a tell.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken October 30th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Rio Grande Zephyr

This is a westbound Rio Grande Zephyr at Colton, Utah. Just a bit further up the line is Soldier Summit. The second image was made at some point later I believe, but shows several of the domes which made up this fantastic train.

The Denver & Rio Grande Western was one of about three major railroads that eschewed joining Amtrak in 1971—along with the Southern Railway and Rock Island.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken July 30th 1979.

[railwayhistorical]

Hunter Switch

A northbound Amtrak Floridian is seen here on the L&N, former Monon, just north of Bloomington, Indiana. This spot was known as Hunter Switch; the single E8 powering the train was built in 1952 as PRR number 5705. One may note that we're 218 miles from Chicago.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken on June 5th 1977.

[railwayhistorical]

Nashville Union Station

This image shows a northbound Amtrak Floridian making its stop at Nashville Union Station. The building was designed by Louisville & Nashville’s chief engineer, Richard Montfort and built in 1900 and served several railroads including the L&N and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. As with several of these fine old structures around the country, this one was repurposed as a hotel.

One image by Richard Koenig; taken on August 1st 1976.