Greetings All,
Metro-Liner Service
A Christmas gift of the book The Metro-Liners by Bruce Goldberg and David C. Warner from 1:1 Sir Neal presented a fact packed look at these trains from two authors who were participants in the projects that started high speed rail travel on the then Pennsylvania RRs Northeast Corridor between Washington DC Union Station and New York Penn Station. Lets take a look at this historical undertaking.
The High Speed Ground Transportation Act
In 1965 Senator Claiborne Pell (D. Rhode Island) championed the above legislation which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law on September 30th, 1965 with PRR Chairman Stuart Sanders in attendance. The HGTA was to be a joint venture sponsored by the US Department of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Railroad which would require upgrading the Northeast Corridor and taking bids for new equipment.
The Goal
The goal of the legislation was to introduce passenger trains that could run at speeds up to 160 miles per hour. A four car set of test cars were were re-geared Silver Liner cars that needed to reach speeds of 155 for the program to proceed.
Historical Speed Record Set
Under New Management
On April 1st, 1967 the newly formed United States Department of Transportation opened for business taking over the HGST program from the US Department of Commerce. On April 2nd, 1967 the test train reached the speed of 155 mph on the test track from Trenton to New Brunswick, NJ.
Teething Problems
The Budd Company was awarded the contract in 1966 to build 61 electrically powered passenger cars using overhead catenary and running in multiple unit operations. The High Speed Ground Transportation office decided that General Electric would power the 30 first class club cars and snack bar coaches and Westinghouse would power the 31 coach cars.
The use of the differing General Electric and Westinghouse power systems were the cause of many of the propulsion problems causing delay after delay as the new cars had to be removed from service time and again.
The Penn Central Enters
The Northeast Corridor was conveyed to Penn Central on February 1, 1968 with ex PRR C.E.O. Stuart Saunders named as C.E.O. of the new railroad. Under Saunders the PC continued its support of the High Speed Ground Transportation project.
After more than a year of delays the railroad announced that Metro-Liner would make its first revenue run on Thursday, January 16, 1969. A special invitation VIP run for dignitaries and media was held on January 15th, 1969.
Metro-Liner Train 2001 left NY Penn at 8:30 AM for a 2:59 trip to Washington DC. The train arrived eight minutes late. Not to shabby considering the 2:59 trip was 30 minutes faster that the afternoon PC Congressional and and hour faster than the typical 3:50 NY-Wash running time.
Moving Right Along in the
Penn Central Way
Metro-Liner carried its millionth customer in April, 1970. The new trains were winning praise from passengers but two major threats loomed. One was the PC's ability to keep the complex equipment running. During the middle of 1970 typically 40 % of the cars were out of service on any given day.
The bigger threat emerged when it was revealed that the railroad was losing more than one million dollars a day and would need millions more in federal loads to continue operations. The request for loans hinged on the removal of Stuart Saunders the PC C.E.O. and strategic partner in the Metro-Liner program.
As a result of the PC bankruptcy that followed the Budd Company was no longer being paid and the Northeast passenger and freight rail service looked doubtful as the PC operated under Section 77 while a reorganization plan was put together.
Amtrak Takes The Reins
On October 30th, 1970 President Richard Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act without fanfare or public statement. That same month the two year demonstration project for the MetroLiner project officially began though by this time it seemed just a formality. Metro-Liner ended up carrying 1.2 million passengers in the last year of operation under Penn Central.
Under Amtrak Metro-Liner saw a 33 percent increase in service to 12 daily round trips. The new schedules saw Metro-Liners departing New York on the half hour and Washington on the hour. On May 1st, 1972 the schedule was bumped up to 14 round trips daily.
All was not roses however as the NE Corridor was still owned and operated by the bankrupt Penn Central and deferred maintenance took its toll on all of the upgrades made in the 1960s. Instead of immediately fixing bad spots PC would place a slow order at the location. The increasing number of slow orders eroded on time reliability. All of the PC railroad infrastructure seemed to be crumbling away with no end in sight.
The Metro-Liners themselves continued to require regular intensive and costly maintenance to keep them rolling. Acceleration rates would later be reduced by approximately 35 percent to prevent severe overheating of the propulsion equipment.
Alternatives to MetroLiner
In 1976 Amtrak recommended to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a comprehensive modification program of the entire Metro-Liner fleet.
Budd Amfleet cars began to arrive in 1975. Based on the MetroLiner cars the Amfleet cars would be locomotive hauled The delivery of 492 new Amfleet cars was supposed to totally reequip the NEC trains, but there were still many other equipment needs.
In 1974 General Electric began delivery of 26 E60 electric locomotives as a potential high speed replacement for the GG1s. These locomotives were based on a freight design and were supposed to pull the passenger trains at speeds up to 120 miles per hour.
While they had the power they were very heavy and the three axle trucks played havoc with the track. After a high speed derailment it was determined that the lateral forces of the trucks was more than the track could bear. The E60s would then be restricted to 90 mph. The E60 was clearly not the replacement for the GG1.
There's a New Guy in Town
While searching for a replacement electric locomotive to haul the Amfleet passenger cars on the Northeast Corridor Amtrak tested a French CC-21000 which failed during testing. On the bright side however Amtrak tested a Swedish Rc-4 that performed very well up and down the corridor.
The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors would build the new locomotives that could reach top speeds of 125 mph in America under license from ASEA between 1978-1988, while Budd built the locomotive car bodies.
The locomotives were designated the AEM-7 but soon came to be known as the "Swedish Meatballs" or "Toasters". The AEM-7s would replace the signature self propelled m.u. cars as the new face of the Metro-Liner.
Meanwhile the Metro-Liner cars underwent rebuilding with some of the troublesome under body components moved to the top of the cars. The rebuilt cars would be tested and returned to lesser service.
The AEM-7 and Amfleet Metro-Liners were eventually replaced by the new Amtrak Acela Express Trains in the early 2000s.
On the Layout
The purchase of a used Atlas HO scale Amtrak AEM-7 in March, 2024 provided the power for five Bachmann Amfleet coaches that had been on the roster for well over 25 years.
Now that I know this is a plausible Metro-Liner Train AEM-7 #911 is ready to lead a Metro-Liner Service train out of East Bedford Station.
The Metro-Liner Service train arrives at Empire City Station.
A Metro-Liner Express in Action.
Final Thoughts and Comments
A big thank you to 1:1 Sir Neal for this excellent book that is now a featured tome in my railroad library. I enjoyed reading and learning many new facts about Metro-Liner service that I did not know before opening the book.
Additional Links
HO Scale AEM-7 Blogpost.
Wikipedia Metroliner.
Trainweb USA Metroliner.
Trains Magazine Metroliner article.
Passenger Train Journal Metroliner article.
Thanks for reading and watching!!!
See you soon!!!
