Photos of the Week: BNSF Employee Appreciation Special

Maybe "photos and stories" would have been more accurate.  At any rate, the BNSF Employee Appreciation Special has been touring parts of the Twin Cities and Montana Divisions, including Glendive, among other locations.  The train was open to employees and their families, and tickets were free.  I got tickets as soon as they became available, because I knew they would probably disappear pretty quickly.  I got tickets for Tuesday afternoon.

We arrived at the Glendive depot a few minutes before the boarding time listed on our tickets.  There were already several other people there, nearly all of whom had small children along with them.  The train was already at the depot, and some people were preparing it for boarding.  I had been advised to ride in a full length dome car by a friend who had ridden on it a few days earlier, so we waited near the door to that car for boarding to begin.  After a few minutes, boarding began, and we found seats in the dome, near the center of the car.

When I got on the train, I was actually not exactly sure where it would be going.  I figured it would travel west, on the Forsyth Sub, but besides a bunch of rumors, no real information was available on the destination of the train.  Ultimately, where ever it went, it would return to Glendive at the end of the trip.  There had been dozens of rumors about it though.  Just before we departed, an announcement was made indicating that we would travel to Terry and back, a distance of about 40 miles, each way.  On a freight train, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Terry.

Shortly after the announcements were made and the doors were closed, we got under way.  We were travelling in BNSF #31, a Budd full length dome car, named Bay View.  It was one of the oldest cars on the train, having been built in the 1950's.  The car originally belonged to the Santa Fe, long before anyone had ever even thought of the BNSF.  If I had to guess, I would say it was probably the smoothest riding car on the train.  It felt like a different railroad to me!  It seemed like all the kids on the train were on that car, so it was probably also the loudest!

Once underway, some of the staff on the train came around with drinks and snacks.  Actually, they came by a few times, with a lot of food and drinks, and if any of us wanted more, they made it clear that we could go to the lower level and help ourselves.  No one left the train hungry, that is for sure!  We got up and walked around during the ride, to see what was in the other cars.  The other cars were gallery style cars, similar to those used as commuter cars in the Chicago area.  They did not ride as nicely as our dome car did!  One of them had a small gift shop in it, on the opposite end as the seating.  There were also other business cars on the train, which I would have liked to explore, but there were signs making it quite clear that passengers were not allowed in those cars.  We could peek in through the end door a little, but the view was not very good.  Overall it was a very nice ride.  It was nice to get on a train and have no responsibility!

This just proves I was there!  Sarah and I, with Bay View behind us.

Patches and Decals

Recently I discovered, or perhaps should say, rediscovered Microscale Decals. This led to a few unanticipated small projects. I had a little time to kill and was browsing their railroad products, mostly to see if they had anything interesting. A lot of times when I browse sites like that, just to kill some time, I find a lot of interesting things and add them to the shopping cart. Later when I finally look at the cart, I find I really do not have any use for most of the stuff in there, and need even less of it! But it is fun to cyber window shop sometimes.

Former BNSF 9290, patched to become 8190.

As I was browsing the selection of decals on the Microscale website, I actually found quite a few things I could use. For some time I have had engines on my roster that still have either BN or ATSF reporting marks. Since I model more or less current BNSF operations, I have been wanting to patch these units for a while. I also have had a few BNSF engines with the wrong number on them, which needed to be patched and renumbered. I discovered that Microscale made decals for just those purposes. They have decal sheets with colored patches, which are designed to closely match BN green, ATSF yellow, and BNSF orange. A close match is all that is needed since most patches do not exactly match the rest of the locomotive. They also have a sheet with various size and color BNSF stencils, which can be used over the colored patches. I bought a sheet of each.

Former BNSF 9223, now renumbered,
still needs new number boards.

Besides BNSF decals, Microscale has quite a large selection of other decals. I also found some Amtrak decals for Phase 3 locomotives. It was described as Phase 3 and heritage units, although I bought it too quickly, not realizing that it meant Phase 3 heritage units. As it turns out there is one for Phase 4 heritage units, too. I did find some useful decals on the Phase 3 sheet anyway, although a few days later I also went and bought the Phase 4 one. I have had a few old Athearn blue box units in Amtrak's Phase 4 scheme, one of which as unnumbered. With just decals, I figured I could make a close representation of the Phase 4 heritage unit, which as far as I can tell, was never commercially produced.

Former ATSF 650 has received a BNSF stencil below the
number.

Once all the decals arrived, I went to town working on my engines. I had a pair of BNSF SD60M's, which were once numbered in the 9200 series. When BNSF bought the SD70ACe's, they decided to number some of those in the 9200 series, and consequently the SD60M's were all renumbered into the 8100 series. I patched out the numbers on the models and put the proper 8100 numbers on them. Some other units required patching it all the Burlington Northern lettering, and replacing it with a BNSF stencil. Fortunately, with the green patches provided, that proved to be a fairly straightforward task too. On a couple of the Geeps, I decided to add stencil that says, "Remote Control Equipped" as well. Typically older Geeps can be found working yards, and many of them have been equipped to operate as a remote control locomotives, especially at larger yards.

BN 2522 has been stenciled for BNSF.

The ATSF units had were the easiest to patch. Many of them have kept their original paint scheme and some even still say, "Santa Fe" across the long hood. On those, usually a yellow BNSF stencil is found below the number on each side of the cab. A few of those were included on one of the decal sheets and I used them on my two Santa Fe units, that wear the red and grey "Warbonnet" paint scheme. Now all my BNSF "heritage" units have been updated to the current standard.

BNSF 2522 is a remote controlled unit.

On the Amtrak decal sheets, I found everything I would need to make a phase 4 heritage unit, even including the stripes. My unit had the stripes and everything, it just had no number. While the heritage scheme is not exactly the same as the phase 4 scheme was, it is very similar. I have thought about painting the unit to make it an exact match, and I probably will in the future, but for now I am going to settle for jut the decal work. I had a few things to add to that, such as the GE builders stickers and the American flags, but other than that, it was a simple matter of adding a number, 184 in this case, and putting the 1971 and 2011 stencils on either side of the locomotive body.

Amtrak #1 got a flag and a sign on the door.

Since I finished most of those projects, I have discovered that Microscale also carries all the small warning and data decals for GE locomotives. They probably have something similar for EMD units, although I did not look. I have a Dash 9-44CW that has no warning labels on it at all, and so it is getting dressed up now. It is interesting how the locomotive never really looked incomplete to me, but now that it is getting a lot of those decals, it looks considerably more complete. It is one of those things that I never noticed, but once I did, I could not help noticing it again every time I looked at the engine. Decals are easy to add to an engine, or any other rolling equipment, and they can add a lot to the overall appearance of a model.  Most of these projects can be finished in an hour or two, even at a leisurely pace.

History of the Southwest Chief

Today's Southwest Chief is a combination of two trains formerly operated by the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad; we'll call it Santa Fe or ATSF for short. The trains were known as Super Chief and El Capitan, and both made the same fast run from Chicago to Los Angeles on Santa Fe's main line, along with slower trains making the same route but with less fanfare, lower fares, and more stops. The route that Amtrak follows today is the same route Santa Fe used.

On May 12, 1936, Santa Fe inaugurated an all new train, the Super Chief. This was the first diesel powered, all-Pullman train in the United States. Many railroads did not dieselize until after World War 2. The Santa Fe only had one trainset at first, and operated it once a week on a 40 hour schedule between origin and destination. About a year later, Santa Fe re-equipped the train with lightweight cars and new diesels and more trainsets, and inaugurated it once again. The inaugural run was completed in 36 hours and 49 minutes, a record which stands to this day. Before the war, Santa Fe ran this train nonstop between Kansas City, MO and Barstow, CA, with the exception of crew change points and servicing stops. During the war, the schedule was relaxed and passengers could get on or off at some of the bigger cities along the route, and after the war the schedule was relaxed again to allow passengers to get on and off at all the stops. The train was designed for celebrities traveling to Los Angeles, and earned the nickname "Train of the Stars."

In 1938, El Capitan started running once a week in each direction as an all-coach version of the Super Chief. El Capitan ran the same 40 hour schedule as the Chief, but made more stops because it was a coach train. Because of the extra speed and the Super Chief-style luxury, the fare was higher than any other train on the route, with the exception of the Super Chief itself. Also in 1938, the Super Chief began running twice a week. El Capitan followed suit in 1946, and the Super Chief was upgraded to daily operation the same year.

Photo from www.bcoolidge.com.

In 1952, Santa Fe announced plans to upgrade the Super Chief with bilevel cars from the Budd Company, as well as full length domes for El Capitan. Upon delivery of these cars in 1955, they switched trains, and the bilevel coaches went on El Capitan and the Chief got the dome cars. In 1958, the two trains started running as a combined train during off-peak seasons, they ran under the Super Chief name, number, and schedule. Both trains, however, continued to receive the same hype and luxury they always had right up until May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took over passenger service on the line.

Amtrak acquired the Super Chief and El Capitan equipment and ran both trains under their original names. In 1973, Amtrak dropped El Capitan, and in 1974 Santa Fe asked Amtrak to stop using the names Super Chief and Texas Chief, another former Santa Fe train that Amtrak took over, because Santa Fe felt that the Amtrak trains didn't live up to their original names, and the trains didn't deserve the names anymore. Super Chief and Texas Chief were renamed Southwest Limited and Lone Star. In 1984, Santa Fe allowed Amtrak to use the Chief name again, and the Southwest Limited became the Southwest Chief, and it runs under that name to this day.

Photo by Steven Welch.

El Capitan may have been discontinued in 1973, but its legacy lives on. The bilevel cars originally used on that train were used by Amtrak on many western routes, and when Amtrak needed new cars for their western routes they designed the Superliners, which were based on El Capitan's bilevel design. The original bilevels were slowly phased out of service, and today the only ones still running can be found on Amtrak's Coast Starlight. The Coast Starlight operates between Seattle and Los Angeles, and features a "Pacific Parlour" car, originally an El Capitan lounge car.  One of these cars even made an appearance in the popular 2003 film The Italian Job.

Photo of the Week: 7/29/2011

Today's photo comes from last week in Sacramento. I woke up in the train station at about 5:30 in the morning. Funny thing is, the train isn't due into Sacramento until 6:35am. So the train had some time to kill, and some other trains came and went during that time. I took the time to step off the train, get a few photos, and stretch my legs. Here is this weeks photo:

This is my train, the Coast Starlight, train 11, in Sacramento. This is about the halfway point on the train's trip from Seattle to Los Angeles. I was not riding the train the whole way, I got on in Portland and got off in Davis, one stop past Sacramento.

The Coast Starlight is the only train on Amtrak's system that runs the ex-Santa Fe bilevel cars. These cars were built by Budd in the 1950s for Santa Fe's El Capitan, an all-coach version of the Super Chief (now operated by Amtrak as the Southwest Chief) from Chicago to Los Angeles. Budd built coaches, diners, and lounges with enormous windows for Santa Fe. Amtrak acquired the cars in 1971, and used them as the basis for today's Superliners. The Superliners, which include sleepers, run most of Amtrak's western routes. They are slightly taller than the old Santa Fe cars, most of which have been retired. However, Amtrak held on to the lounge cars, refurbished them, renamed them "Pacific Parlours" and put them in service on the Coast Starlight as first-class-only lounge cars. Features on these cars include free WiFi, wine tasting, and of course, exclusivity on a usually sold out train. I, however, rode coach and didn't have the opportunity of riding a Pacific Parlour. There is, however, a standard Superliner lounge car for the coach passengers, so I didn't miss out completely.