Kicked Around Gem of the Rails May Resurrect Once More, by Robert J. Evans Jr.
Reported from signal outlet L-R Head Trans Assoc.
Christened the 'Viewliner Diner Indianapolis', it started life as a bold experiment to lure and keep travelers riding the resurgence of Amtrak, circa 1987. A rail renessance had already begun after a sympathetic Congress gave the railroad what it needed: massive infusions of capital funding over a ten year period that would ultimately see over a thousand new railcars and 400 locomotives in electric and diesel versions to power them. Bad tracks were torn out and replaced with welded ribbon rail, on concrete ties reinforced with steel rods. The public took notice of the bilevel Superliners, high speed Metroliners, and the tubular Amfleet cars of many varieties. And since the U.S. had just come out of a oil crisis, the observing souls were legion. America really was getting back into training, and helping this noble purpose were advertising campaigns that made you remember. Catchy, whimsical, and daring. Who can forget the airplane hanger man guiding the pilot, or so we thought. This was no plane; instead, a brand new train emerges, full of comfort, power, homeliness, and unlike anything anyone had seen before.
Older 'Heritage' cars were stripped down and given new life as Diners, Sleepers, Lounges, and Coach too. But there came a time when Amtrak knew this fleet will one day simply be to worn to keep fixing. A committee team designed, then built, three next generation Viewliners. The two sleepers and one diner were to be tested extensively and provide experience for refining the details for a three hundred plus, car purchase. But it was too late: Washington leadership had grown either apethetic or downright hostile, and the Viewliner project, as many call it, stopped in its tracks. Sure, a severely curtailed fleet of a mere 50 sleepers eventually got through, but it unsuprisingly was inadequate to handle the patronage the old Heritage fleet used to, and so the dark ages began. The three test vehicles eventually got parked on yard tracks out of everyone's way and forgetten about. Those who didn't forget were flagellated for dreaming.
And then the right forces congealled, rescued the lone Viewliner Diner, and took it for a stroll to the wizards and magicians of Beech Grove. Badly designed components and error prone construction meant that everything had to go, except for the shell. The stainless steel hulk and chassis remained, looking as if had emerged from the Pullman plant of old. Hard work, genious, and yes, perhaps a sorcery of some kind, namely of the care and passion that comes when a team of minds come together to pull off the impossible. A shell that sat in some way or form, for 25 years waiting for a large fleet of new railcars that would keep the renessance building, a fleet never to be built. It was and still is the only Viewliner Diner in the world. But when Amtrak released No. 8400 on 8/4, August 4th, it was a truer first entry than the 1987 one. Not in sixty years has a new full service restaurant style Dining Car for the East Coast been born. Still a prototype, but a now a real one, since it shall herald the first Dining Car fleet since the days of The 20th Century Limited. The few that have seen the interior call it "spectacular", with the second row of top windows matching their Sleeper brethren, and giving the interior an aura that will rival and amaze the expectations. Improvements in the kitchen galley, to give chefs, food handlers, and attendants space and acoutrements with more touhgtful planning than before. How it will actually come together will be revealed very shortly, as word goes around the Eastbound Lake Shore Limited to New York will be testing grounds for this Cadillac on rails, followed by the Florida trains and the New Orleans bound Crescent.
A shop employee choosing to be anonymous blithely states of the foolhardyness that has been at DC for too long, referring to the mandates to drop the food and sleeper servies, "People need to eat. If they travel overnight or even across two zones, that's two full days. What are they supposed to do, bring on cans of tuna fish? This is how it should be. I think once the 8400 gets around and the people see it, they'll talk to their travel agents, their church groups, friends." This employee believes if Amtrak proactively markets this well, and doesn't mess up with customer service, namely the few staff who are rude, or deaf by choice, such as when you ask for a glass of water 20 minutes ago and still don't have it, it can be parlayed into a fresh new draw that travelers will respond to. "Run the staff though the Acela program, changing it a little to match the long distance nature of the train as opposed to high speed corridor. The discipline was fantastic, and everyone was happy, as long as you know you're doing it for a common good and everyone cares to help out.", he says.
God willing, this version of Indianapolis will roll across the country and greet many towns, welcome throngs of travelers desiring to be reunited, or maybe to vacation somewhere they've never been. Business travel? Why not! An executive on the Silver Star on his way to the Carolinas can fit in very comfortably, winding down on one of the Amfleet II coaches, watching one of her movies, answering some emails. And then it's dinner time. What a surprise that it's not the cafe microwave cuisine long the chant for Amtrak to change. Not this time. Now, he or she learns of a full restaurant on board, and after walking in, becomes a kid again for a few minutes. An attendant welcomes this visitor in, totally woo-ed by the spaciousness, and the choice of fresh food. On actual dishes. Conversations with strangers, or friends. Perhaps the folks at Beech Grove can rightfully claim their Noble Peace Prize.
NE933
