Some Viewliner Info

[Amfleet]

Adam (and anyone else who is interested), this may be of help to your Viewliner roster. It was posted by Gene Poon in response to a question on the All-Aboard Yahoo Groups.

One prototype, the 2300, was sent to Morrison-Knudsen, which reportedly partly disassembled it while developing their assembly line procedures. It was returned to Amtrak but never was reassembled.  The other, 2301, remained in service until 1997 or so, then was parked at Bear, DE where it sat awaiting retrofit.  The two prototypes were once planned to be retrofitted to bring them up to "equal" the fifty regular production cars, but that never happened.  The 2301 was repainted in Phase IV and renumbered 62091 with the name "Eastern View," and returning to service after repairs; but it still had numerous problems, plus an air conditioning/heating system that was totally different from anything else in the fleet except the prototype Viewliner Diner, the 8400.  62091 wound up being used mostly as a dormitory car before being withdrawn. All Viewliner prototypes (two sleepers, one diner) are now out of service. Two production cars, the 62011 and 62013, are off the active roster due to wreck damage.

 

[Viewliner]

Well its certainly interesting, it doesn't vary that much from my knowledge, but it can be of some use if I ever get around to updating my Info Page. I wonder to what degree it was disassembled (if thats the unfortunate case). I wonder how much upgrading the two sleepers (and maybe the diner) would've cost, not that it'll matter now that theres supposed to be a new order.

 

[F59 PHI]

Well... if ya think of it, now, with the incoming viewliners, is the Ideal time to upgrade the prototypes.

 

[Amfleet]

Well... if ya think of it, now, with the incoming viewliners, is the Ideal time to upgrade the prototypes.

The prototypes would cost so much money to rebuild that you might as well just buy new equipment. There's only three cars, two sleepers and a diner. The design of the prototpye diner was very poor and lack of space for crew to prepare food and whatnot. The two sleepers (if there are still two) would require gutting the interior down to the shell and building it back up, redoing the entire underbody, and installing new trucks. Baisicly, you want it to match the 50 other Viewliners perfectly so maintenence doesn't have to worry about one car with a different design from the rest.

 

[F59 PHI]

Yes. I am talking about gutting down to the shell.

 

[Amfleet]

Yes. I am talking about gutting down to the shell.

Still, they're almost 20 years old and I don't think it's worth the time and effort. Plus you're only gaining one sleeping car. I'd rather see the 50 Viewliner sleeping cars in service now all get heavy overhauls in the next few years.