Nostalgia & History > Thirty-one Thursday

Another one of my encounters with Amtrak's late (and great) National Limited. This one is shortly after my migration to St Louis, Missouri. More specifically April 1978 at suburban Kirkwood, Missouri.

1) Amtrak 439 has a gleaming fresh coat of platinum mist as it makes it's station stop at Kirkwood. It's an ex-RFP E8A that's acquired a new plow pilot. Looks like a pretty good crowd waiting on the platform as an eastound MoPac train slides by on the other main track.
2 & 3) The engineer and fireman would have the sun in their eyes for the balance of the day as #31 will soon be heading west to its final destination of Kansas City. The fireman decided that a clean windshield would be an asset and climbed out on the nose of 439 to make some adjustments. Good luck to him.

continued....

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/23 11:25 by King_Coal.

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4) Station stop's over, and twin E units accelerate #31 west.
5) A coach is carrying #31's marker as it picks up speed westbound into the spring evening.

How I miss the National!

Hope you enjoy.
Bob
Omaha

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Those are some nice shots!

texchief1
RC Lundgren

Well-thought-out photographic sequence.
Bob

Sr, Louis, MO based passenger trian  and engine crews worked to and from Jefferson City on th ex MP RR.

Remember that train well!   Rode it several times in and out of Columbus OH.   

Phil  

Thank you so much for posting this great set of pics.  I started working on the RF&P E8's in 1971 when I was a SCL passenger fireman / hostler.  The 439 was the RF&P 1007 back then, and it was in the later RF&P blue and gray band paint scheme.  The fresh Amtrak band scheme on the 439 is reminiscent to me of the later RF&P band scheme.  Originally the RF&P E8's had a nice boatwave scheme.  I noticed Amtrak never put a second headlight on the 439.  RF&P later put a second headlight on their last order of E8's for ACL run-through service.  The high shot of the 439's horns was nice.  A lot of times the SCL or RF&P engineers taped the two separate horn cords together so you had all six chimes blowing at once.  I smiled when I saw the fireman on the nose of the 439 cleaning the windschield.  I did that quite a few times.  Our problem was big nightime flying bugs smashing into our windschields on the Savannah Division berween Savannah GA and Hamlet NC.  The bug hits were plentiful and hard to get off.  "Trainhand" might remember that too.  He worked on another Savannah Division district.

Did you ever see the 439's brother engine - the 440 out there on No. 31?   I was behind the throttle of the future 440 one night when we hit 102 mph on the Silver Star.

I have a photo of Amtrak 440 on #41 Broadway Limited. I'll dig it out and post it.

Bob
Omaha

King_Coal Wrote:
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> I have a photo of Amtrak 440 on #41 Broadway
> Limited. I'll dig it out and post it.

Thank you so much.  I'd love seeing the old 1012 on the mighty Broadway.  I miss those E-units of my youth.