Passenger Trains > Slumbering Pacific Parlour Cars, Amtrak 8th St. Los Angeles, CA

Tucked away in the ready(?) tracks at Amtrak's 8th St. facility near Downtown Los Angeles early this Sunday morning. Four Pacific Parlour Hi-level lounges ready for their annual taking care of. Cars were (in left to right order); 39970 "Columbia Valley", 39975 "Willamette Valley", 39974 "Sonoma Valley", and 39972 "Napa Valley".

I truely hope to see them back rolling along the California coast again later this year, and for years to come. One of the few remaining standout operations by Amtrak, IMHO.

Mr. MRL - fan safely

---

At least they are being safely stored and it's not an old Mexico yard situation.
That sure looks sharp with them all connected up. 
Withe their extra fluting, Hi-levels definitely have great lines! 
I haven't been on one of the former El Cap lounges in many years. 
A 2017 trip on the Coast Starlight is on the bucket list.
Thanks for the peek!

The fifth car went north with 14 on Friday.

---

They cherry-picked their favorite to run on weekends ?

MrMRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tucked away in the ready(?) tracks at Amtrak's 8th
> St. facility near Downtown Los Angeles early this
> Sunday morning. Four Pacific Parlour Hi-level
> lounges ready for their annual taking care of.
> Cars were (in left to right order); 39970
> "Columbia Valley", 39975 "Willamette Valley",
> 39974 "Sonoma Valley", and 39972 "Napa Valley".
>
> I truely hope to see them back rolling along the
> California coast again later this year, and for
> years to come. One of the few remaining standout
> operations by Amtrak, IMHO.
>
> Mr. MRL - fan safely

Safely STORED while they get their yearly repairs!
Now that IS a joke.

Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

With them "all connected up" seems to be kinda hard for them to get their yearly repairs done, what do you think?

Ret. Navy Chief Bob Jensen
Manteno, IL

USNChief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With them "all connected up" seems to be kinda
> hard for them to get their yearly repairs done,
> what do you think?
It is very easy for the switch crews to pull those out and bring them in for servicing.  They do it all the time with PV's stored at 8th street and the Garden tracks at LAUPT.

USNChief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With them "all connected up" seems to be kinda
> hard for them to get their yearly repairs done,
> what do you think?

Depends on what's being done, if they are all laced up to 480 Ground power, thats good for many things that require power from Cleaning to Repairs or upgrades

This photo, clearly shows you/we can't judge what is going on, just by the photo

retcsxcfm wrote:
--------------------------------------------------------
>
> Safely STORED while they get their yearly
> repairs!
> Now that IS a joke.
>
> Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.



OK... You realize in the pic above it's midnight dark-thirty on a Sunday morning (holiday weekend) and these four ancient cars just gathered at this spot within the last few days. Give them a break dude... Just how quickly could you inspect, repair, and certify 4 two story passenger cars that have been roaming the rails for over 60 years each??

Mr. MRL - not sure if joking...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/17 13:42 by MrMRL.

480 isn't hooked up

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 480 isn't hooked up

How do you know?

I don't but cables are looped  here, no lights on or blue flags, they ain't freezing, why would power be hooked up, for nothing.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/17 14:07 by dan.

Other than the Pacific Parlour cars and a handful of ex-Metroliner cab cars, heritage diners and baggage cars, are there any other pre-Amtrak cars still running in Amtrak revenue service?

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 480 isn't hooked up
>
> How do you know?

The ground power box is at the other end of the string in that picture, so you can't see if it is hooked up or not.  I suspect not however, since none of the lights are on in the cars.  Still, it would only take the electrician a few minutes to have power to all those cars.

wzd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Other than the Pacific Parlour cars and a handful
> of ex-Metroliner cab cars, heritage diners and
> baggage cars, are there any other pre-Amtrak cars
> still running in Amtrak revenue service?

The Great Dome - Ocean View - gets action from time to time, but other than that, Amtrak took its great wealth in short and Great Domes to the scrap yard or auctioneer. We look at VIA Rail and admire their Skyline cars and Park Dome/Lounge cars, but in reality Amtrak had MUCH more than VIA to obtain if it wanted. Amtrak could have easily grouped the "like" short domes and "Great Domes" to hold onto and leave in service - tail-end cars too! They could have had what VIA had in terms of domes and lounge cars but even more so. And it could have been a uniform fleet. They could have gotten 30 short domes that were similiar in look, style, builder etc. When the bathroom issue came up, Amtrak could have blocked it off so they wouldn't have to add a retention tank. Leave the bathrooms in the coaches and sleepers only. That's basically how it is now anyway. They don't allow use of the bathroom in the lounge car or Superliner Sightseer Lounge anymore (health code reasons I believe). 

Great Northern and the North Coast Limited had a HUGE dome population - short domes and the equivalent of Great Domes. I know they were in competition with the private entity - Auto Train - to get "some" cars, but Amtrak could have picked up some of the Great Domes (and they did). 

Some of these "special cars" - domes and tail-end cas etc. received HEP. I know the Auto Train just before it went Superliner in the 1990s had descent selection of domes even then. But to think Amtrak had a MUCH LARGER selection of domes and tail-end observation cars to chose from than VIA, Amtrak didn't fair well with obtaining these cars for the long term. And yes, the domes largely would have been on the single level trainsets in the East (corridors and LD trains), Midwest (corridors and LD trains) and Western Corridors only. Then draw a semi circle from Washington DC to Harrisburg to ALbany/NYP where these trains couldn't operate (e.g. on the NEC). Ironically the Lake Shore, Crescent, and Capitol Limited did operate with domes at one point or another even into the 1990s.

The Superliner Sightseer Lounge Cars help to a degree, but there's no substitute for it on the single level trains. Hopefully we get to see Viewliner cafe/lounge cars that will replace the Amfleet II cars.


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/17 09:27 by jp1822.

Other T/O members please chime in here but I believe (as discussed in past yearly posts) that 1 of the 5 cars has not been out of the yard for at least 2 years now and is being used strickly for parts to keep the other 4 running?

Northridge Switcher

it went on fridays train to seattle i think people said

Yes, one PPC went north from LA on Friday.

I remember reading an Amtrak service advisory on their Web site that during the down time the PPCs would run only on Friday departures from both Seattle and LA. Not sure if I misunderstood or if things changed, but it doesn't seem to be working that way.

I looked today on the Web site but couldn't find any service advisories regarding the PPCs.

Posted from iPhone

Last Sunday, I only saw two of these.  Is it a good sign that there are four thrre now?


 

sure maybe some were getting attention or out on the road