Nostalgia & History > Amtrak equipment in Houston SP yard

Oct 79

This was at the SP downtown yard in Houston (now abandoned) next to the Amtrak station.
It was originally part of the coach yard at the SP Grand Central Station.
The Amtrak mechanical group used these buildings.

1-3) Except for ex-UP sleeper National Border, the Amtrak equipment was for the Houston-Temple section of the Inter-American which had begun soon after the demise of the Lone Star.
The Houston section would combine with the main Laredo section at Temple.
The National Border was built in 1956 with 6 roomettes, 4 bedrooms, and 6 sections.

Now, as to what the Amtrak equipment was doing in the yard I'm not sure.
This was either right before the startup of the service or there was a railway strike at this time ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/20 09:30 by gcm.

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4) This was the way the consist looked like at the beginning, along with the Amfleet cars, a sleeper and baggage car.
Later the sleeper and baggage car would be dropped and before the train was discontinued (just two years later) it was a Superliner train.

5-6) 318 was barely two months old and along with 258 was a F40PHR (built with SDP40F parts).
At this point I was finishing up the photography real fast.
The man talking to the other railfan was an SP special agent - gave us a warning.

Gary

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Another of your interesting and professional photo documentaries.
Your photos provide a unique prespective into yourchosen subjects.
Thanks for the great documentary posting. Feel like I was there.
ALLEN

Superior coverage.
Bob

National Border looks great!  Topfuel may know the disposition?  I hope not Mexico!

A great variety of equipment in these photos.

Rich

mp51w Wrote:
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> National Border looks great!  Topfuel may know
> the disposition?  I hope not Mexico!

That's a real interesting group of shots.  Not sure what the Border would have been doing there but likely it was in conjunction with a PV trip of some kind.  The Border has been privately owned by several different owners since sold by the UP circa 1972, and has always been based in Los Angeles.  It is currently stored on the Los Angeles Junction Ry in City of Commerce, CA.  It needs new paint so doesn't look as good now as it did then, but still is in good shape overall.

This would be nice to match up with the Pacific Railroad Society's 'National Forum' stored at AMTRAK's Redondo Jct. and used in Excursion service when times allow.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

> Now, as to what the Amtrak equipment was doing in
> the yard I'm not sure.

OK, I am going to take a stab.  Not based on my first hand knowledge, but based on conjecture.

Is it possible that the R&B circus train was in town?  If yes, that would explain, other than a strike, why those tracks were being occupied by Amtrak.  I do remember that the Mechanical Dept. wanted to expand the work they did beyond simple servicing of run through trains.  So they may have decided to position the smaller consist where you found it until the #1 track was available for use.  The Amtrak guys like Jack Pearson, Woody Latham & Robert Sherwood would have all encouraged using these old tracks to make their jobs and the work site more valuable and viable.

In any case, you captured my old haunt well.  That brick building was the old SP power house / steam house.  There was an active utility tunnel from it to the old SP Grand Central depot back in the 1950s.  As I remember in 1976 it was full of water and all sorts of things. During a dry period one summer night Jack Pearson tried to crawl through it but for some reason he got called away.  

Thanks Gary for stoking my memory banks!!!