Passenger Trains > Then and now - a helping hand

1. It's June 13, 1991, and Amtrak's eastbound Southwest Chief has just staggered into Albuquerque, NM a few hours off the advertised. Assisting the two F40's is an older and bigger (and wiser?) EMD cowl, Santa Fe F45 5980.

2. It's August 9, 2009, and Amtrak's eastbound Southwest Chief has just staggered into Albuquerque, NM a few hours off the advertised. Assisting the two P42's is a newer and bigger (and hopefully retrofitted) GE product, BNSF ES44DC 7459. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In the change department, the old Albuquerque depot burned down in 1993, and Amtrak moved into "temporary" quarters nearby. A new depot was built for both Greyhound and Amtrak in 2006, but Amtrak didn't actually move in until early 2008. The depot was built "backwards" of the old building, such that the decorative tower faces 1st St. rather than the tracks. In 1991, the SWChief paused in Albuquerque for 20 minutes, during which time the locomotives were refueled at on-platform pumps fed by that big black tank in the left background, and containers of mail were shuffled between the MHC's on the head end and a USPS truck waiting on the platform behind us. In 2009, the SWChief was scheduled to spend 43 minutes in Albuquerque. The mail contract and fuel tank are gone, and the truck waiting on the platform behind us is a fuel tanker waiting to top off the locomotives. Unlike 1991, in 2009, Amtrak actually has a spare engine on hand at Albuquerque, and it too is staged just out of the frame to the left. After Tr.4's power is fueled, it will be cut off, and the spare engine will be spliced in behind it.

And, of course, BNSF 7459 was built and ATSF 5980 was scrapped in the 18 years between the photos.

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Nice Photos!!! I remember the "temporary" station in 2002 when I took my first ride on #3. I also remember a distinctly delicious burrito I bought from the back of some dude's pickup truck by the platform, delicious!!!