Passenger Trains > Whatever happened to the Amtrak Flexliner?

Fullerton, CA. July, 1996. I think this was the train that was supposed to separate into two sections while on the move.

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Amtrak sent them back over Seas where they came from.

railcity Wrote:
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> Amtrak sent them back over Seas where they came
> from.


Denmark, I think....

Too bad..... :(

Was it regauged and sold to the Israeli State Railway?

LenKratz Wrote:
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> I think this was the
> train that was supposed to separate into two
> sections while on the move.


...Why? and how?

bisbeekid Wrote:
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> Was it regauged and sold to the Israeli State
> Railway?

That IC3 Flexliner was ALWAYS intended to be delivered to Israel after its North American tour. In fact one of the cabs had some of the instrumentation labeled in Hebrew. I know...I rode there for part of the Flexliner's trip between Oakland and Reno.

That was a remarkable excursion. Going up to Reno the train was full of invited guests and VIPs. A demonstration of its uncouple/couple capability was done at Sacramento. SP employees remarked on its rubber-donut nose, "It looks like a lamprey!" The Flexliner stalled once, at Fulda, the steepest point on the climb, as its engine control computer shut down the underfloor-mounted diesel engines to idle after they overheated. Behind us was Amtrak #6; the schedule called for us to operate 15 minutes ahead of him, essentially in the same slot. Train #6 was almost up to the yellow block behind us when the Flexliner's diesels had cooled enough for us to take another try at The Hill.

The Danish technicians shrugged. "We have no hills in Denmark!" was their only comment.

Going back west out of Sparks the next morning, the Flexliner was again supposed to run 15 minutes ahead of a regularly scheduled Amtrak train, this time Amtrak #5. But that train was delayed somewhere enroute and was already six hours late. There weren't a lot of Flexliner riders left; most of the invited guests took chartered buses back to Sacramento and the Bay Area, arriving the same night the train went up Donner Pass. Only twenty-five or so showed up at the Reno station to board. But there were several dozen revenue passengers waiting for Train 5. Instead of a six-hour late Zephyr, Amtrak West President Gil Mallery offered them a ride on the Flexliner, complete with complimentary VIP lunch and beverages, served enroute. I don't know that anybody turned him down, unless it was somebody who thought his luck at the slots might have held out while waiting for the tardy Zephyr!

Here's a couple of low-res pics taken of it at Eugene when I was running it on the SP. My daughter went along and she thought it was pretty neat. I liked it except for the horrible alertor which was discussed in the last two entries on the TO.com page at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,248173,248620#msg-248620.

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that is great that revenue passengers were able to ride! I think I saw it in Denver on display.

The Flexliners may have been good for the short corridors -- Chicago-Milwaukee, St Louis- Kansas City, Chicago-Indianapolis, etc. Like the old RDC's.

bisbeekid Wrote:
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> Was it regauged and sold to the Israeli State
> Railway?


Israeli Railways use the same 1435mm gauge that U.S. and European railroads do....

GenePoon Wrote:
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>
> The Danish technicians shrugged. "We have no
> hills in Denmark!" was their only comment.
>

Hmm....interesting....especially since, I think, Israel uses these on a pretty-hilly Tel Aviv - Jerusalem line....in a hot desert environment....

The Israelis probably modified the cooling system.

The Israelis probably added armor plating.......

I thought that at one time, these were considered for the Philadelphia - Harrisburg corridor.

Dave

I rode this thing a few times in 1996 when it was touring on Amtrak.

On one trip returning from San Diego, a bag tore off some kind of sensor and disabled the train just north of Santa Ana. Don't ask me how, I suspect the bag got caught in a switch point or at a grade crossing and with a blink of an eye, the damage was done.

We limped into the Orange Metrolink station where the technician tried to fix the problem. Since this Flexliner train was really two 3-car sets coupled together, they crammed all of the passengers into the rear section, hoping to ditch the other half and proceed to Los Angeles. That didn't work either. So, after about 3 hours, the next northbound San Diegan stopped at Orange and picked up everybody for a standing room only ride home.

RuleG Wrote:
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> I thought that at one time, these were considered for the Philadelphia - Harrisburg corridor.
> Dave
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I think you are correct, although I recall that Rohr was set up in Harrisburg station for a while, promoting the turbo we have come to know and love. I think I was even naive enough to ask what good a diesel powered system was going to be when I understood that the commitment was already made to get the catenary in working order. The promise of more frequent trains to Pittsburgh was made, naturally, to this gaping yaw of an FTN.

CivE

ChS7-321 Wrote:
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> bisbeekid Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Was it regauged and sold to the Israeli State
> > Railway?
>
>
> Israeli Railways use the same 1435mm gauge that
> U.S. and European railroads do....

Right you are. I guess the system has been rebuilt sense I was there in 1971. I took the train from Hiafa to Tel Aviv and remember it looking like meter gauge.
Thanks for the correction!

It has been 1435mm since world war two, route lenght 573 km of which only 230 route Km carry passengers

Via also ran the flexliners for a short time on the Windsor-Toronto CN line. I rode them a few times and in some of the cars it was quite a rough ride, yet smooth in other cars.

Look at current reports of the rocket attacks on Haifa and you will see Flexliner stock sitting in a shed that was attacked, apparently killing some railway employees.