For many years, the Adirondack was truly a train of contrasts. The first & third cars shown here are D&H cars which were VERY nicely rebuilt using funds from NY State. The lead car is either the "Adirondack Lodge" or the "Sratoga Inn", diner-lounges that served excellent, freshly-cooked lunches and breakfasts between Albany & Montreal. D&H maintained those 2 cars to a very high standard and did NOT ALLOW them to run south of Albany. The second car back is one of the Metro-North ex-New York Central coaches which often plagued this train. The TOTAL OPPOSITE of the D&H cars, these coaches were usually poorly maintained, often dirty, rough riding either too hot or too cold, and had scratched, tinted Lexan windows that were virtually impossible to see through. The trailing Amtrak car would have been recently refurbished and typical for the pre-Amfleet years. Its hard to tell from this angle, but IF you were lucky, it COULD be an Amtrak Budd dome coach, though they were seldom operated on the rear end.
|
Sometimes the D&H grill cars did seep south of Albany-Rensselaer...
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=15909
|
Actually, the MTA car is a former Santa Fe Pullman-Standard coach, possibly rebuilt from a pre-war sleeper due to its odd window arrangement. Many Santa Fe lightweights, both Budd and Pullman built, found their way into eastern commuter services for both NYMTA and NJDOT (assigned to ex-EL, CNJ and PRR lines,) as well as other lightweights from Rock Island, Frisco, C&O (Pere Marquette,) EL, MoPac, KCS and L&N. The last car however, is a former NYC P-S Amtrak coach, betrayed by its NYC-specific roof ventilator, showing prominently. The locomotive is a Union Pacific original, its fuel fill relocated to the carbody behind the engine room door being the identifier. Nice memory Don.
|
|