Passenger Trains > Amtrak Train 246 ID?

I've been listening to some old recordings, so old they are on cassette and I'm hearing a train the identity of which I can no longer remember. It is Amtrak 246 running east past Hundington, Lewistown and other spots. He's been talking to the Conrail Altoona East Dispatcher.

Could this be the Three Rivers or the Broadway?

Thanks.

DaleR

It's a mystery to me.

I thought it might have been the Fort Pitt, but according to this timetable page I found by Googling, even that stub train had a two-digit number. Definitely not the Broadway, which was always 40/41.

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19821031&item=0036

Do you know when this recording was made? Amtrak #246, as a train number rather than engine number, would be an Empire Service number for quite a while.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 17:50 by toledopatch.

I'm guessing a train led by F40 246

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's a mystery to me.
>
> I thought it might have been the Fort Pitt, but
> according to this timetable page I found by
> Googling, even that stub train had a two-digit
> number. Definitely not the Broadway, which was
> always 40/41.
>
> http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19821031&
> item=0036
>
> Do you know when this recording was made? Amtrak
> #246, as a train number rather than engine number,
> would be an Empire Service number for quite a
> while.
>  
Thanks for the quick reply. I now recall the Broadway's numbers and think it may have been the Three Rivers or perhaps an earlier version of what's now The Pennsylvanian. I remember the Capitol being a three digit train number and 246 sort of sounds similar to a three digit version of the Pennsylvanian. It is definitely the train number because the engine number was in one of the radio calls and it was a 300 series number. Unfortunately I don't have a date written on the cassette but you can imagine how many years ago it was made, at least 20 or even 30. To further help with the time frame, remember the line was still Conrail.

Further information as the tape continues to run I just heard "Amtrak 47" calling Greensburg, PA. That makes me think 246 is the Sunday version of 46. Amtrak used to run the eastbound later on Sundays leaving around noon or 1PM instead of something like 8AM the other days of the week. So the non-Sunday eastbound would likely have been "46."

DaleR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 18:09 by dbrcnw.

I remember many years ago during Conrail, Amtrak ran a round trip from Pittsburgh to Altoona and return.  Might this be that train number? 

NS4271 Wrote:
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> I remember many years ago during Conrail, Amtrak
> ran a round trip from Pittsburgh to Altoona and
> return.  Might this be that train number? 

That was the Fort Pitt, which according to the 1982 schedule was Nos. 37/39 and 38.

The theory that #246 was an alternative schedule for the Pennsylvanian seems most plausible to me. It would probably have been during the late 1970s, before the upstate New York trains were changed to mostly 230-240-280 series numbers.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 18:15 by toledopatch.

The Fort Pitt ran from Pgh west.
The Amtrak round trip from Pgh to Altoona did not last too long. Maybe 2 or 3 months.
I remember it.

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NS4271 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I remember many years ago during Conrail,
> Amtrak
> > ran a round trip from Pittsburgh to Altoona and
> > return.  Might this be that train number? 
>
> That was the Fort Pitt.
>
> The theory that #246 was an alternative schedule
> for the Pennsylvanian seems most plausible to me.
> It would probably have been during the late 1970s,
> before the upstate New York trains were changed to
> mostly 230-240-280 series numbers.

I think we've hit it, the Sunday Pennsylvanian. It couldn't have been the Fort Pitt because the radio traffic I recorded was all well east of Altoona, Hunington, and other points east. I was traveling east on US 22 and they got a hot axle alarm on one of the coaches closer to Harrisburg.

To make this discussion even a bit murkier, I remember when the Sunday Pennsylvanian had a different number than the weekday eastbound and at that time both were two digits, something like 42 on weekdays and 44 on Sundays and always 43 westbound.

Thanks for the replies.

DaleR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 18:27 by dbrcnw.

Yes, Toledopatch, you are correct on the Fort Pitt round trips from Pgh. to Altoona daily with the 30 something numbers..
I was thinking of the train  ( called the Fort Pitt if I remember correctly) which ran from Pgh. west to Crestline/Chicago when I worked out of Conway in 1966.  So the trains between Altoona and Pgh. did have the 30's numbers, like you said, and I do remember seeing them.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/16 19:27 by NS4271.

The train numbers for the Washington sections of the National Limited and Broadway limited were 441 and 440 (Broadway) and 331 and 330 (National).