Nostalgia & History > NS SW1500 & Amtrak Cresent, Birmingham, Alabama, Spring 1992

Spring 1992, near Sloss Furnace in Birmingham. 

Lite SW1500 and Amtrak Cresent, both with unusual horns. Old, out of tune Nathan M3 on the NS switcher,
and Nathan P5A horn on Amtrak unit. The early 200 class Amtrak F40s originally had these horns, before the
current K5LA horns became standard.

Regards, Jim Evans

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Great video!  The ex-CN GP40-TC was a great catch!

Great video! Thanks for the memories.

My first train ride was the Gulf Breeze (Mobile to Washington DC) in 1994. I believe the last two coaches and lounge car in your video were the Brimingham to Mobile cut off section that formed the Gulf Breeze. Those heritage coaches were in bad shape and, true to the Amtrak experience, we broke down in the middle of the night and were without power for a few hours in the July heat. 

Also, I only saw one sleeper in that entire consist. I remember a string of sleepers being added in Atlanta for the overnight portion when I rode it in 1994. I assume that was still the practice at the time of your video. 

RFandPFan Wrote:
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> Great video!  The ex-CN GP40-TC was a great
> catch!

It's actually a GP40 that Amtrak leased for a time, with pass-through HEP,  They weren't in service for that long and on very few routes. Nice catch, indeed!