Viewliner II Part 2: Dining Car Production, Delivery, Speculation

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AmtrakBlue reporting in, Sir! Mission accomplished.

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OK, so which of these are on the road now? Sounds like Annapolis is being repaired, Albany is being modified, and Baton Rouge hasn't come out of its Amtrak inspection yet.

So are Indianapolis, Augusta, Atlanta, and Boston all rolling? Or are some of them in the shop too?

If they all get fixed, that barely covers the existing decrepit levels of dining car service. I can't wait to see more cars out. At least three more seem to be needed before we get decent breakfasts back on the LSL -- probably more.

Of course I know nobody can really answer this question since nobody outside CAF or the very high levels of Amtrak will know until the last minute. But geez, when can we expect more?
 
OK, so which of these are on the road now? Sounds like Annapolis is being repaired, Albany is being modified, and Baton Rouge hasn't come out of its Amtrak inspection yet.

So are Indianapolis, Augusta, Atlanta, and Boston all rolling? Or are some of them in the shop too?

If they all get fixed, that barely covers the existing decrepit levels of dining car service. I can't wait to see more cars out. At least three more seem to be needed before we get decent breakfasts back on the LSL -- probably more.

Of course I know nobody can really answer this question since nobody outside CAF or the very high levels of Amtrak will know until the last minute. But geez, when can we expect more?
I believe Augusta is not in service at this time; I am not informed as to why. Theoretically, if even these 7 cars could be active at the present they could occupy all the active consists of the SM and Crescent. Obviously, there would still need to be usable Heritage diners because of maintenance and the need for protect cars.
 
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Just so long as there's a VL diner on 20 nb from ATL Aug 9 AND we can board before the diner is closed, we can handle anything else
While it's possible you'll have a Viewliner dining car, it is more likely you will still have a Heritage diner. Even if all the currently delivered cars are in service by then, there aren't enough yet to cover all sets of both the Crescent and Silver Meteor.
 
FYI. The May MPR showed 3 Heritage diners were worked on at Beech and released the past few months including May and one additional being worked on at New Orleans. The MPR did not specify what work was done at BEE ?
 
Have they worked out a fix for the air conditioning yet? Any word if Annapolis and Augusta are back in service yet?

Nick
 
I have seen all three of the Crescent consists in Atlanta over the past three days and none of them had a Viewliner diner. Now with Baton Rouge operating there are 4 active Viewliner diners, which is enough to equip all the active consists of the SM.
 
After following this thread since it started, I have arrived at the conclusion that the CAF Viewliner order will never be completed. We will probably see a car come out of production now and then but since CAF underbid the contract, they lose money with each delivery. If you disagree; let me know when the first sleepers are delivered , put in use and I'll buy you a drink.
 
^you are going to be buying a lot of drinks. That would be a much safer bet on the Nippon Sharyo contract which at this point is fantasy.
 
After following this thread since it started, I have arrived at the conclusion that the CAF Viewliner order will never be completed. We will probably see a car come out of production now and then but since CAF underbid the contract, they lose money with each delivery. If you disagree; let me know when the first sleepers are delivered , put in use and I'll buy you a drink.
I'll have a large Sweet Tea please.

No matter how slow the delivery, the last Viewliner car will eventually be delivered. As KnightRail alluded to, CAF is no Nippon-Sharyo. From reports, Amtrak is relatively satisfied with the Viewliner order aside from the glacial pace of completion.
 
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