Weekend Trains - October 6, 2024

Hello again folks!

Today I'm back with another 5 pack of railroad shots, with a good variety and some interesting history as well.

So without further ado, let's get going!

First today, a beautiful classic.

This is Aberdeen Carolina & Western ACWR 103, an EMD E9A.

This one has really been around, coast to coast and even on a ship!

It was originally built for Union Pacific as UP 957 in September of 1955.

After its passenger hauling career on UP was done it went to Amtrak as AMTK 430.

Amtrak would eventually upgrade and update their motive power and sell 430 to Alaska Railroad, where it became ARR 2401. As eluded to above, it would be shipped to Alaska aboard a rail equipped ferry.

It would once again set sail and depart Alaska bound for the Midwest, specifically the Wisconsin & Southern as WSOR 10A.

It would move on to another owner, this time San Luis & Rio Grande as their SLRG 103.

Finally, after SLRG went through some financial difficulties and their equipment was sold off, 103 ended up on the ACWR.

ACWR is headquartered in Candor, NC.

Also on the ACWR, and also purchased from the SLRG collapse, we have "Summit View".

This one has a very extensive history...

It was originally built for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe in 1954 by the Budd Company as one of ATSF's "Big Dome" cars. Also, at this time, as far as I can tell, the car carried no name, and possibly not even a number.

The upper level is divided into coach seating and a lounge area with sofas and booths.

The lower level houses a cocktail lounge and a nurses station.

During its time on ATSF it would operate on the El Capitan, Chicagoan, and the Kansas Cityan.

In 1971 Amtrak took over almost all long distance passenger trains, but this car would be sold to Auto-Train, which operated 2 passenger routes independent from Amtrak.

Auto-Train itself had a very interesting history, but I'll skip it here, though I'll elaborate on their name - as well as passengers they'd haul folks' vehicles as well.

Anyway, our subject would operate on AT's Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL route for about 10 years. In 1981 AT would fail, though Amtrak would pick up where they left off on the VA to FL run. Our still unnamed passenger car would then be sold to a private party. It was then either sold or leased to either Alaska Railroad or Holland America Steamship Lines, shipped to Alaska, named "Eklutna", and used on ARR/HASL's land cruise program.

In 2007 it was bought by Iowa Pacific Holdings, returned to the lower 48 states, and renamed "Summit View".

IP would use it first in excursion service then on the Hoosier State between Indianapolis and Chicago from 2015 until that service ceased on January 30, 2017.

ACWR bought it circa 2021.

The ACWR equipment and this one were all in Pinehurst, NC for the U.S. Open Golf Championship. I couldn't care less about the golf, but I sure made a point to catch the trains!😃

Here's RNCX 1755 "City of Salisbury", which is an EMD F59PHI built in 1998 for the NCDOT, who're headquartered in Raleigh, NC.

It was the power for the NCDOT's "Open Express".

Back to somewhat more mundane freight power, we have a couple RJ Corman EMDs.

RJC is headquartered in Nicholasville, KY.

Here's RJCC 8569, an EMD SD40T-2 built in February of 1979 for Southern Pacific as SP 8569.

It's a "tunnel motor" so called for it's unusual air intake arrangement - the intakes were moved to just above the rear walkway so that when in long tunnels the intakes had access to the cleanest and coolest air possible. The two types of tunnel motors, SD40T-2 and SD45T-2, were built specifically for SP and DRGW, both of which had issues with locomotives overheating in their long tunnels.

And lastly, a normal SD40-2, RJCC 7107.

It was built for Burlington Northern in December of 1978 as BN 7107, then, after the BN/ATSF merger became BNSF 7107.

BNSF sold it off to CIT Group/Capital Finance, Inc, where it became CEFX 7107.

CIT would then sell it to RJC.

That's all for today - as always, thanks for looking!