Nostalgia & History > Amtraks "Pioneer" at Vancouver Wa.

Im finally getting around to scanning some of my medium format color negatives. Heres a couple I did today of the Pioneer at Vancouver, Washington sometime in the early 1980's I think.

Robert Morris Photography

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Nice!  When did that train begin combining with the Amtrak California Zephyr?

Cheers, Jim Fitch

Those are master photographer angles and composition!
Portland section of the Empire Builder maybe?

with the 10&6 sleeper it has to be the Pioneer, doesn't it?

Nice shot!  Old BN operating crews worked Portland, OR-Seattle, WA -Portland, OR.
 

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> Nice!  When did that train begin combining with
> the Amtrak California Zephyr?
>
> Cheers, Jim Fitch

The Pioneer was always combined with the Zephyr, at first at Salt Lake City and later, when it switched to a Wyoming route, at Denver.  West of the combining point, of course, it ran as a separate train.

Did the Pioneer run along the Oregon side of the Columbia River and then north to Seattle?  During this time, did the Empire Builder have a Portland sectio? 

Thanks for the info. 
 

Yes, and yes.

Ed

I forgot how close the Pioneer got to Portland, but continued on to Seattle.
I rode the 10-6 sleeper in the amfleet days, but I didn't realize it was also part of a Superliner consist.

think "transition dorm"

Interesting variation of Phase III on 225 there, with the black roofline extending all the way to the bottom of the radiators rather than just to the 135-degree bend. 

mp51w Wrote:
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> I forgot how close the Pioneer got to Portland,
> but continued on to Seattle.
> I rode the 10-6 sleeper in the amfleet days, but I
> didn't realize it was also part of a Superliner
> consist.

The 10-6 was utilized until enough Superliner Sleepers came on line that it could return back east.

 

Thanks Bob for these great photos!

Allow me to assist in answering some of the questions associated with the "Pioneer..."

These photos appear to have been taken during a brief period in late 1981 and early 1982 when the sleeper on the "Pioneer" was still an electrified 10-6 (a former Santa Fe "Pine" series car in this case) before the train went all Superliner in mid-1982. The first Superliners on the train were coaches and the sleeper came last. As soon as Superliner coaches were assigned to the train thru car service with the "San Francisco Zephyr" began, with the thru sleepers awaiting the assignment of double deck equipment. At this period the through cars were transferred in Ogden, which was the hub of mountain west rail passenger service for Amtrak. The renaming of the train to "California Zephyr" was in April of 1983, and full operations (i.e., the combining of all three trains at Salt Lake City did not commence until October of 1983 when the "CZ" was rerouted over the WP west from Salt Lake City.)

The "Pioneer" ran along the Oregon side of the Columbia River east from Portland on the Union Pacific, and the train always served both Vancouver, WA and Portland from its inauguration on June 7, 1977 until its discontinuance on May 10, 1987. It was in June of 1991 that Amtrak, at the urging of the UP who wanted the train gone, rerouted the train from a "CZ" connection at Salt Lake City to a route east from Ogden to the "CZ" at Denver via the UP. This reroute, more than anything else, is what gave Amtrak (read UP) justification for discontinuing the train. (Without the attractive route through the Rockies for the thru-car passengers, and FAR less population to serve on the Wyoming route, the train's ridership plummeted all the while UP continued to delay the train in Wyoming as it had been in Oregon and Idaho. SP management from the 1960's would have been proud...)

I hope this helps clear-up some of the questions regarding the "Pioneer," a train that did far better than Amtrak's own politically-driven management, and doctored ridership data, would ever admit to...

ShastaDaylight