| Posted by on February 19, 2012 | |
Another great photo from Mexico Tower. Thanks for sharing this vintage photo
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| Posted by on February 19, 2012 | |
Ah yes....the ghost of the late, great National Limited. Very nice shot!
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Amtrak 400 is in familiar territory as it was built as Baltimore & Ohio 34, and later renumbered to 1454. Unfortunately, it ended its days configured internally to serve as a fuel tender for later Amtrak locomotives. The coaches are outlanders however, as the roof details indicate each is a former Penn Central, nee-New Haven, stainless steel sheathed American Flyer coach.
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Very cool subject and location! I recently discussed this location in a thread on the ObsCar Yahoo list and we discussed the changes at Mexico over the past few years.. One of your photos was the inspiration for doing that. Keep the good photos coming!
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How cool! Talk about a before and after. Just look at this photo and then look at Chase's recent picture from Mexico. Look at those CPLs!! Great shot!
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I have fond memories of riding this train out to Keyser, WV and back in 1972 or '73. Keyser was as far west as you could go and still catch the eastbound back in the same day. At least SOME of the former New Haven coaches in use on this service had been nicely refurbished with an experimental / prototype interior which included enclosed airline-style overhead luggage bins. I've always wondered if, perhaps, this interior configuration was a test-prototype for use in the coming Budd Amfleet cars. I recall the "Blue Ridge" at that time was a comfortable and friendly little train with WAY TOO FEW passengers. In later years it would evolve into essentially a "far outer suburbs" to Washington DC Commuter train, even though Amtrak was NOT supposed to be in the commuter business.
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| Posted by on October 2, 2012 | |
That train would later be cut back to a Martinsburg-DC run, and incorporated into the MARC Brunswick Line operations. It would remain a MARC commuter train funded by Amtrak. The name Blue Ridge actually carried through in the MARC timetables. It was one of the MARC express runs (P-280, later P-880), stopping only in Brunswick, Rocks, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Silver Springs, bypassing all the small stations and flag stops on the line. I'm sure it carried alot more customers during its commuter train stint.
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