Southern Comfort (Part I)

After Christmas, my family made its way to Florida for a family vacation. I made sure to carve out some time to sit trackside and capture some images of railway action outside my customary haunts in Ottawa. On Dec. 29, when my family was relaxing poolside, I made my way to the Lakeland Amtrak station to get some shots of Amtrak's long distance train, the Silver Star. This train connects Miami with New York alongside its sister train, the Silver Meteor. The Star serves Lakeland twice daily, once on its way northbound and once on its way south to Miami.

I arrived a little early because I was curious about the Lakeland Amtrak station, which has an unconventional design, but is still quite pleasing to the eye. It's not a terribly old station, but it has some nice classic touches, like the arched windows. Here's a shot from Lakeland's Main Street. For those interested in Lakeland's geography, it is located roughly halfway between Orlando (to its east) and Tampa (to its west).

I couldn't help but think of some comparisons between Amtrak and Via Rail Canada, while I stood on the platform, waiting for the northbound Star to make its way to the platform. My first observation was how impossibly long the platform was (look carefully at the image below and you will see just how far into the distance those arches recede).

My first thought was how many more long distance trains Amtrak has in its schedule compared to Via Rail. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison by any means, since Amtrak relies much more heavily on regional subsidies for many of its longer distance regional trains, but the fact remains that its long-distance trains that fall under the Amtrak National umbrella outnumber Via's Canadian and Ocean by a wide margin.

Here's a shot of the Star crossing Massachusetts Avenue in Lakeland's downtown. The consist of this train might appear odd to some, but it does make sense. The train was led by two P42s, as all Amtraks seem to be. The P42s are arranged elephant style. I have read in a few places (including Trains Magazine) that this arrangement is used when a train breaks up into two pieces, like the Empire Builder does on its western fringes. In this case, the Star doesn't do this, but I have also read that the engines are often arranged this way, rather than back-to-back, as a redundancy in case one of the units breaks down. The other will then be able to take over without having to wye somewhere.

I was not able to get a great angle, since I was so close to the tracks, but I did manage to get a shot of some of the Amfleet equipment. This design seems to be timeless. I don't know if there was ever a time when Amtrak didn't have some generation of this type of coach in its fleet. I was reading not too long ago that this design was a carryover from the old Penn Central Metroliners, which Amtrak inherited when it took over much of the American passenger railway services in the 1970s. Apparently, despite the initial problems with the rough ride, Amtrak liked the fuselage style design of the cars and stuck with it.

The end of these trains are always lined with newer equipment, with wider windows. You can even see the baggage car, which is at the end of the train. If you look closely, you can faintly see the light from the Amtrak station agent's scooter, which is used to carry bags to the back of the train.

Here's a new baggage car, much newer than the baggage car I saw the last time I caught this train in Kissimmee, Florida a few years back. I am told that Amtrak leaves the baggage car at the back of the train on the northbound Star because it means one less car to turn when the train is readied to head back south to Florida. I'm not sure if that's the reason, but it does make for an interesting consist when this car is on the end. Notice, too, how the traditional Amtrak striping has been applied to this car. I'm often baffled by Amtrak's various paint liveries. There's always some form of red, white and blue but look at the difference between this car and the coaches.

Now look at the blue and grey livery of its P42s. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but neither does the various shades of green, turquoise and yellow that Via Rail uses. I was actually hoping to catch one of Amtrak's heritage painted units, but this was all that was on display that day. 

One last going-away shot and that was a wrap for this brief trackside meet with a long-distance passenger train. If you click the link above to the post where I met this train in Kissimmee, you'll notice quite a difference in its length.

I tried to catch this train one more time, but there must have been some serious congestion on CSX's Florida lines because the train was ridiculously late the next time I was at the station and I ended up giving up. The A Line, which this train uses for the stretch through Lakeland, is lightly used by most indications, but the lines further south, which include CSX's S line (former Seaboard) has heavier traffic. In any case, this was my only meet with the Star. I did manage to make it out to a railway museum at Plant City and saw some interesting stuff. I will share that soon.

Have iPhone, will travel

My brother often has to travel around the United States for business. Since his son has shown an interest in trains, Marc has made sure to take shots of trains when he comes across them. We here at the Beachburg Sub are the beneficiaries, as my brother always passes along the shots to me. Recently, he was in Tuscon, Arizona on his way from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base when he stopped for gas. Luckily, he came across a Union Pacific autorack train headed north from the auto plants in Mexico. You can see one of the units is a newer unit with the American flag sheme while the other is an older unit with the old paint scheme. I prefer the older scheme. I think the flag confuses the railway's identity, just like the Canada wordmark and old flag logos did on older Via LRC coaches. I always prefer a cleaner look.

Also recently, my brother was in Kissimmee, Florida, for business when he had a meeting close to the old Kissimmee Amtrak station. You will recall that I caught the northbound Amtrak silver service train en route to New York in this post. My brother also caught the same northbound train, although the consist was significantly different than the one I saw. As you will see from the video he shot (below the image of the P42), the consist featured quite a few newly repainted Amfleet coaches and bilevels.

Here's the video from my brother's iPhone. I like the baggage car scheme. Old school! One thing you will find with Amtrak is that the railway still rosters a fairly wide variety of rolling stock with different paint schemes, when you compare it to Via Rail.

Also recently, my brother found himself watching some trains with his son at the Sarnia Via Rail station. He passed this one along to me. I have to give him credit. He has a sharp eye for interesting rolling stock.

In this case, he caught a former Southern Pacific/CottonBelt/Denver and Rio Grande Golden West Service branded boxcar. The cars were in need of repair at a point in the 1990s, when SP and its subsidiaries were in financial trouble. A deal was struck for Greenbrier to buy the cars and have them repaired. The fleet would then be leased back to SP. Since Greenbrier had to use railway reporting marks, the company secured a number of other railway marks, which meant most of these cars lost their original SP reporting marks over time.

On a trip to Seattle, my brother came across a number of streetcars, some of which sported some interesting advertising wraps. This one, sponsored by Amazon, was my nephew's favourite. He told my brother that this was the smiling train. I like to see the seamless integration of street cars with regular traffic in big cities. Also, the design of this car makes its wheels invisible. It's almost as if the streetcar is floating.

Speaking of street cars, here's a shot I snagged of some new and old streetcars on Spadina Avenue in Toronto in March.

Final shot is a Sound Transit light rail train that my brother hopped aboard to get out to the SEATAC airport. My brother told me he was impressed with the service, which only cost $2.50 to get from the city centre out to the airport. The light rail line enters the downtown through a 1.5 mile tunnel, which has several stops underground. My brother also mentioned that the suburban buses fed into the tunnel as well. You can see from this shot that you can take your bike onto the train.

Marc mentioned that the Sound Transit line parallels freight railway lines, which is great for a rail fan. Sadly, the train was a little too packed for my brother to take shots.

Thanks for my brother for keeping his eyes peeled wherever he goes and sharing some great shots.

Lessons learned in Kissimmee

A little breath of fresh air in Kissimmee, Florida really did me good. I made sure to take time away from the typical family outings to break away for a few moments of photographs at the Kissimmee Amtrak Station.

I had targeted this as my spot for photos before my family even went to Florida for a few reasons. The first was the station was photogenic, having been built in 1910. Second was that the trackage through the city is somewhat famous and is still known as the A Line, which was formerly a very busy and important route for the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Coast Line and Seaboard System railways. It is currently under CSX control, although the line sees light traffic. But, true to its name, it is poised to be an important line once again.

In the above photo, you will notice batches of new rail ties ready for placement on the A Line, as Amtrak Train 98, the northbound Silver Meteor approaches the Monument Street crossing (Check out the old Amfeet coaches!). The reason for the upgrade is that this section of the subdivision is slated to house the state's Sunrail commuter operations, which will link the city of DeLand, via Orlando, with the Poinciana region in Osceola County. Kissimmee will be the second last westbound stop on this route, or the first eastbound stop, depending on the train. This commuter link will serve an incredibly congested part of the state where the roads are at capacity, to say the least.

When I arrived at the station last Thursday, I made sure to keep my distance, since I was warned that security is tight at this station. I loved the look of the old building, which still sports old signal equipment on its roof (right of photo) and a steam engine weather vane. The inside of the station had beautiful, creaky old floors and a number of other period flourishes. I decided not to take photos, just to be safe.

While waiting for the predictably late Train 98, I decided to take some shots at a number of pieces of maintenance-of-way and track-laying equipment that were parked on a spur next to the main line. Clearly, this track is just about ready for its makeover.

Shortly after hearing an announcement warning passengers that the Silver Meteor would be "15 or 20 minutes late," P42DC 75 roared into the station about 25 minutes late, much to the relief of the passengers who were baking in the mid-afternoon sun. I brought some heat rashes back to the Great White North as a souvenir.

The train didn't stay long and geared up pretty fast as it crossed East Drury Avenue, which was where I was perched at this point. I haven't seen an Amtrak train since my teenage years in Sarnia, so the site of these old Amfleet coaches was a treat. In fact, it was nice to see a passenger train with a few different coaches in its consist. I was pleased with the shot below, as it captures the acceleration of the locomotive, which is spewing out smoke as it picks up speed.

This (below) was the true gem of the lot, an old heavyweight baggage car at the end of Train 98, coupled behind a few Viewliner sleepers. It's been a while since I've seen Amtrak rolling stock, so correct me if I'm wrong about the Viewliners.

I came away from this encounter with a few thoughts.

1. Commuter rail in the U.S. is faring somewhat better than it is in Canada. The co-operation between municipalities, states and the federal government is getting a number of commuter lines going, which should serve as a reminder to us here in Canada that intercity rail travel isn't just important in the busiest eastern corridors.

2. Amtrak has a much more extensive roster of long-haul trains, which is a product of a system in the U.S. where states subsidize trains that they feel serve an important purpose. This train, for example, was bound for New York City. It runs daily in both directions between the Big Apple and Miami. I wonder how different Via Rail would be if provinces were allowed more leeway in deciding where passenger services would be useful. I would think Western Canada might be better served, at the very least.

3. Despite these positive points, Amtrak is still at the mercy of government whims, not to mention the timetables of its railway hosts like CSX. You can't help but wonder how passenger rail manages to survive in North America in spite of these two massive obstacles.

4. I really miss the old Amtrak logo and red, white and blue scheme. The latest one is boring.