Nostalgia & History > Brand New F40's on the Starlight

The F40's got here before the Superliners--- Brand new F40 #203 leading another F40 and an SDP40F with the Starlight still made up of steam heated equipment at Alviso, CA one sunny July Sunday in 1978.

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3 units, 16 cars, plus a dome added, nice consist! Be great if Amtrak stayed that way!

When you look at it..that was a pretty cool looking train!

Kent

DynamicBrake Wrote:
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> When you look at it..that was a pretty cool
> looking train!
>
> Kent

The Starlight consists ended up on the Sunset after Superliners arrived. Most trains were 17 to 19 cars.

I love the SP style icicle breakers on the roof. I wonder how long those lasted. I don't remember seeing them on Amtrak F40's before.

I am not sure how long they lasted--the early 80's were not very productive for me in terms of photography.I don't find them on any photos from the 1985 time frame with them on the F40's.

And we still use the bodies as cabbage cars. Thats getting your $ worth.

       Apparently there was enough business for that many cars too. Wonder what the head people at Amtrak did that ruined that? . . . . . . .

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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>        Apparently there was enough business
> for that many cars too. Wonder what the head
> people at Amtrak did that ruined that? . . . . . .
> .

Don't both the Sleepers and Coaches on Superliners carry more passengers in each car than the older "flat cars" ever did?  Usually, you'd have at least 20-25 feet of car dedicated to restroom and lounges, reducing the capacity, resulting in longer trainsets back in the day.

In round figures, two superliner coaches replaced three low level coaches
In the era of the Starlight, coach seating varied between  44 and 56 seats per car.

Same with sleepers, two superliners sleepers replaced three low level.
Low level sleepers would handle 21-24 passengers per car.
Amtrak promotes a superliner with 42 beds, but that's on the basis of all the roomettes sold double and four in the family room.
A closer count would be around 29 folks, could be less if only one person in a bedroom or two in a family room.

In the early early years of the Starlight it was the only train  up the between Los Angeles and Seattle Seattle.  So it handled a lot of  local coach business
that is now handled on the Surfliners, Capitals and Cascades.    In the early 70's, peak holiday weekends would see a 2nd a separate Oakland - LA coach only train.  Southbound arrivals on Friday and Sunday's.  A batch of 56 seat coaches, couple of lunch counter diners and a SCL observation lounge car.

I would volunteer at the LAUPT station service on these arrival nights. Lots of transfers to the Sunset Limited.  Over a hundred going just LA-Arizona poiints alone.

Sleeper ridership has seen a increase of double compared with the early Amtrak days.

Ed

ProAmtrak Wrote:
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> 3 units, 16 cars, plus a dome added, nice consist!
> Be great if Amtrak stayed that way!

It almost looks as if there is a long dome way in the back of the train too, but hard to tell.

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> ProAmtrak Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 3 units, 16 cars, plus a dome added, nice
> consist!
> > Be great if Amtrak stayed that way!
>
> It almost looks as if there is a long dome way in
> the back of the train too, but hard to tell.

SP dome