Eastbound Empire Builder at Midway Station

On July 25, 1999, I was riding Amtrak's eastbound Empire Builder to Milwaukee. That morning the train made its scheduled service stop at Midway Station, serving the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Parked on one of the tracks was the private car Caritas. The Caritas was built in 1948 by Pullman as a 4-Bedroom, 14-Roomette Sleeping Car for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, or Frisco for short. The car was originally named Pierre Laclede after the founder of St. Louis. The car was originally assigned to the Texas Special, which ran between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Antonio, Texas. over the Frisco and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas. The Frisco discontinued its portion of the Texas Special (the northern portion) in 1959. In 1964, this car was sold to the Canadian National and named Churchill Falls. High Iron Travel bought the car in 1983 and rebuilt it to its current configuration, with 3 double bedrooms and a master room, dining area, galley, wine cellar, and lounge.

Part of this eastbound Empire Builder's Superliner consist included a Smoking Coach in the Seattle section. In 1996 and 1997, Amtrak converted 34 of its 48 Superliner I Coach Baggage cars into Smoking Coaches by converting the baggage room on the lower level to a smoking room. This was to give coach passengers a place on the train to smoke without disturbing non-smoking passengers. The Smoking Coaches were converted back to Coach Baggage cars in 2004.

Here are the Empire Builder's locomotives at Midway. Amtrak #817 & #800 are 4,000-horsepower Dash 8-40BPs that were built by General Electric in July & April 1993.

The Empire Builder featured a Heritage Fleet Baggage Car for passenger baggage (except the Portland section, which had Superliner Coach Baggage). On this run was Amtrak #1208, still wearing its Phase III stripes. It was originally built by Budd in 1953 as Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe #3521. After the formation of Amtrak in 1971 it became Amtrak #1037, and in June 1978 it was converted for Head-End Power and renumbered to #1208.

The Empire Builder carries significantly more coach passengers between the Twin Cities and Chicago than it does on the rest of its route, so an additional coach is often added to the eastbound train at Midway, and removed here on the westbound run. On this run, Superliner I Coach Baggage #31007 was added to the end of the train, behind the sleeping car from Portland. It was built by Pullman-Standard in 1980.

NRM Observation Car #2955 "James J. Gilmore"

Pictured in Wishram, Washington, in the consist of an excursion train with Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4 #4449, Southern Pacific streamlined Parlor/Lounge Observation Car #2955 was built by the Pullman-Standard Company in July 1941 for use on the Morning Daylight between Los Angeles & San Francisco, the same service #4449 was used in, and #4449 almost certainly pulled #2955 at some point in regular service. In July 1949, #2955 was transferred to the Shasta Daylight between Oakland and Portland. It was converted to a 72-seat coach in 1960. Most of #2955's sister cars were rebuilt into full-dome cars by Southern Pacific's Sacramento Shops; #2955 is one of only two to remain as round-end cars. 

After Southern Pacific retired it, the car was acquired by the Stockton Terminal & Eastern Railroad and ended up being heavily vandalized. The car was acquired by the Northwest Rail Museum of Portland in 1988 and restored to its original Daylight colors. It is named James J. Gilmore after a volunteer who worked on the car but passed away before having the opportunity to enjoy it in excursion service. It is the only former Southern Pacific round-end observation car remaining in service. 

NRM Coach #2202

Pictured in Wishram, Washington, in the consist of an excursion train with Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4 #4449, Lightweight Coach #2202 was originally built by Pullman-Standard in February-March 1937 as Southern Pacific #2401. It and its sister car, #2400, were built for the original Daylight between Los Angeles and San Francisco. These two cars featured revenue seating for 48 passengers and a 5-seat smoking lounge. In June 1939, coaches #2400 & #2401 were transferred to the Texas & New Orleans Sunbeam in exchange for two T&NO articulated coaches, due to the fact that the Daylight was operating at capacity but the Sunbeam was not. This would increase the capacity of the Daylight and decrease the capacity of the Sunbeam by 52 seats. SP #2400 & #2401 became T&NO #452 & #453. In April 1956, T&NO #452 & #453 were transferred back to Southern Pacific. By this time their original numbers had been filled by new cars, so they became Southern Pacific #2201 & #2202. 

In April 1965, Southern Pacific’s Sacramento Shops converted #2202 to a high-density 122-seat commuter coach for service between San Francisco and San Jose. Southern Pacific planned to convert other coaches in this matter, but they were needed in general service, and #2202 was the only car converted. It was retired in 1971. This car was acquired by the Northwest Rail Museum and was used on various excursions in the Portland area.

DLMX Crew Sleeper #9201 "Clackamas River"

Pictured in Wishram, Washington, in the consist of an excursion train with Southern Pacific Daylight GS-4 #4449, #4449’s crew sleeper #9201, the Clackamas River, was built by Pullman in 1941 for the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western's City of San Francisco as 10 roomette-5 bedroom sleeper Rincon Hill. It was transferred to Southern Pacific in 1947 as #9201 and was retired in 1966. The Friends of SP 4449 acquired it in 1990 from a private individual in North Dakota. Though it is a Southern Pacific car, the Daylight paint isn't correct as it was only used on day trains, not sleeping cars.