Model Railroading > Amtak's Rainbow Era Expo

50yrs ago this Summer Amtrak put together a nice little pocket streamliner, the Expo, that served the 1974 World's Fare in Spokane WA.  I rode the Expo that Summer (More about that on the Nostalgia Forum) and, as the train would be perfect to model, I did just that.
I joined TO member Jim (fivechime) at the RR Club layout in Crockett CA yesterday to take my barely-finished-in-time Expo out for a spin. 
I modeled the train I rode as best I could: 
Amtrak F7 A&B 102 & 154 in Amtrak Phase I.  Both were former NP units and I made the appropriate changes to a pair of Athearn Genesis locomotives.  The F7B still needs some roof detail.  The Dome Coach is pretty much a stock Walthers car.  I painted the interior and added a condenser aided rear light.  I don't know the exact heritage of the diner on the prototype train I rode. I used another Wathers car: a former NYC Grill Diner in Amtrak Phase I.  The SP Articulated Chair is a Broadway Limited model that I really had my way with.
I replaced the car sides with sides by Union Station Products.  Don't look too close at this car- it's actually being held together with masking tape- really!  It still needs fixed steps, decals, and various other details.
That same summer I rode the Pacific International (Seattle to Vancouver BC).  That train's make up was very similar to the Expo, but more random in the locomotives and cars used on any given day.  For this I've done a RAPIDO E9B in a rainbow appropriate guise: a former Milwaukee Road unit in patched Amtrak colors.  For the Pacific International set I'm probably going to drop the SP Articulated Chair and add a straight coach.  I'm thinking a coach in NP colors.
SR 

BTW:  My RAPIDO  E9A has a little history:   RAPIDO offered a kind of mystery-take-your-chances offer a while back.  A TO member, I can't remember who, took RAPIDO's offer.  His Mystery Bag included a UP E9B.  He complained here on TO that a B unit was a ridiculous "gift"-  what was he supposed to do with just a B Unit?!!  Another TO member, and good friend, PM'ed him and said, "Hey, if your're so unhappy, give it to me".  And he did!
Eventually, I ended up with it!  Here it is- that same RAPIDO "mystery gift" RAPIDO UP E9B- now a patched Milwaukee unit in Amrak service (I wanted the snow shields for an SP E9 I'm building- SP's one E9A that was fitted with the UP snow shields.   Small World, eh?


 

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Couple of cool looking trains there SR.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/24 12:30 by SP4360.

I was too young to remember seeing those trains, but man that looks great!

That was me.  WTF good is a B unit without a matching A, I thought, so I gave it away.

Well you found an answer to my dilemma, though I model the 1950's so an Amtrak combo
wouldn't do for me.  Glad it found a good home.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/24 20:06 by WrongWayMurphy.

Ah, it was you! The F7A was an orphan too. It was an SP unit Fivechime dropped hard a few years ago- busted pilot, bent axels, broken bolster, and whatnot. He never got around to repairing it and offered it to me as parts.
I mainly model transition era SP when I wander off topic from my fictitious Canadian Shortline- the Skeena River Railway. I like pocket size trains I can display on a shelf (Sac Daylight, Niland Turn, Del Monte, Redwood, etc).
Between Fivechime’s F and your E I decided I needed to come up with something a little different, as SP had no E9B’s… The Expo fit the bill.
SR