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The Chase Train Collision (Patreon)
Content
In this video, I mention that one of the cars making up the Colonial was older than the others. This was, in fact, a “heritage” car – something that was a feature of some Amtrak train services until as recently as 2019.
Amtrak’s heritage fleet consisted of cars that it inherited when it took over passenger rail service from commercial railroads in the 1970s. It selected the best, most up-to-date rolling stock and used that on its network.
Because its stock had come from a multitude of different private railways, the cars generally didn’t match. For that reason the period after its formation is sometimes referred to as Amtrak’s “rainbow era”.
Soon enough, though, Amtrak began purchasing more uniform rail cars – like the Amfleets mentioned in the video. Heritage cars were updated with electrical heating and power, and often used as dining or baggage cars in trains that were otherwise totally modern.
The very last heritage car to go was a ex-Great Northern Railway dome car, which was retired just a few years ago in 2019.
