Craig,Found this link on another forum. It show many, many old Hi-Level cars and other old passenger equipment being stored in St. Louis.
Anyone know who owns it all or anyone ever seen this yard first hand?
LINK
He is correct about the company, their home page shows the same building from the opposite side.I believe ITAC is now Gateway Rail Services, Inc. They rebuild, repair, store, etc. private rail cars. While they have a .com website, there is also a .org website of the same name which shows some equipment for sale.
Lots of domes on those tracks... and maybe even a mythical "slumbercoach".
That looks like one of the ex Southern Pacifc 3/4 Domes they rebuilt for use on some of their West Coast trains.Why exactly did they remove most all of the domes from service? Too expensive to keep and maintain?
http://www.railpixs.com/amt/Amt9372atHoustonTx-Feb78.jpg
What kind of car is this?
The Hi-levels were made for Santa Fe (and they named them Hi-level). Amtrak inherited them and used many before the Superliners were purchased. In fact, I believe the hi-levels were the inspiration for the Superliners. Even after the first order of Superliners arrived, Amtrak continued to use many of the hi-levels, especially for transition cars between the the two level cars and single level cars. Once the second order of SL's came, the transition dorms came and most all hi-levels went away from Amtrak. They used 3 coaches for the Heartland Flyer for many years but replaced them with Superliners last year I think. SO now the only hi-levels in service are the Pacific Parlour cars on the Coast Starlight.Why exactly did they remove most all of the domes from service? Too expensive to keep and maintain?
http://www.railpixs.com/amt/Amt9372atHoustonTx-Feb78.jpg
What kind of car is this?
Lastly, were "hi-level" cars what was used before Superliners were introduced? I don't really know much about hi-levels....
Could they be used on the east coast...?
Some of those cars look very nice. The domes would be awesome to see back in service, but I'm not sure what the chances are. Maybe if the budget is increased a lot?
since there is a single level car behind it do we assume this is a transition car???One interesting thing I found out yesterday is that there was a Hi-Level prototype that Amtrak used. It looked a bit different than the production Hi-levels and had kinda a funky shape to it.
You can see some pictures at http://www.railpixs.com/amt3/amt3.html (scroll down midway)
Here is a direct link to the best picture http://www.railpixs.com/amt3/prototypeHiLe...uston_Jan81.jpg
They are about 26 miles apart. One in Missouri and the other in Illinois. See this MAP.I stumbled upon this yard three or four of years ago. All of a sudden, there were all these old passenger cars. I was with a friend who lives in the St. Louis area and he knew nothing about it. We are going to St. Louis in November and I hope to get a chance to go by here again. We are going to the transportation museum outside of St. Louis. Anybody know if this is on the way?
I've not been to the Transportation Museum, but would like to some day. Wish I could tell you about it. Maybe some of our St Louis members will know.MrFSS, thank you so much for the info. As I said, I stumbled upon this area on the way to St. Louis. We have friends in Greenville, IL and this looks kind of on the way to the transportation museum. We are going there in November. Is the transportation museum worthwhile? Lots of train stuff?
We are going to Chicago from East Lansing (I know, Blue Water but still a train) next Saturday. I am spoiled now. The last time I rode this train I upgraded to business class. Now I can't ride anything less. I only wish the OTP was better.
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