Amtrak took over most of America’s passenger trains in 1971.
The Metroliner trains ran as a premium service on the
Northeast corridor between New York and Washington. The Metroliners
were designed for high speeds up to 120 mph. By 1981 the original electric
self-powered Metroliner cars were replaced with Amfleet cars pulled by electric locomotives. The Amfleet cars
introduced in the later 1970s were also built by the Budd Corporation
with a similar curved profile as the Metroliner cars.
Amfleet cars had the advantage of being able to run
on Amtrak trains all over the country, even in old restrictive tunnels, and
mostly in the east. The Amfleet cars came in several
versions, and except for the café cars with a windowless center section, they
appeared the same externally. Short distance coaches had 84 or 72 seats (62 in
business class), long distance coaches had 60 seats, and club/parlor cars had
18 club and 23 coach seats with a small snack bar. The Amfleet
I cars (2 vestibules, introduced in 1975) were mostly used on short distance
regional trains, and the Amfleet II cars (1 vestibule,
introduced in 1981-3) were mostly used on long distance trains. In 2000,
electric service extended north of New York to Boston permitting trains to run
through without a locomotive change.
Starting in 1980, trains were pulled by the new General
Motors AEM-7 locomotives, which had a cab at both ends making it easier to turn
trains at terminals as before. In the mid 2000’s the AEM-7s
were replaced by modern Siemens ACS-64 locomotives. In the early 2000s
the NE corridor Metroliner trains were renamed
Northeast Regional trains to distinguish themselves
from the premium and faster Acela trains on the same route.
There is no model of the AEM-7 locomotive in N scale, but
Kato made a model of a similar Japanese prototype locomotive (JNR E51A) and Con-cor painted it in Amtrak phase II colors and released it in
the 1980s. That is the model I use on this Metroliner
train to represent what 1980s era trains looked like. Prototypical
models of Amfleet cars are made by Kato and Bachmann.
An Amtrak Metroliner
crosses the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace MD on Feb 6, 1991. The AEM7
locomotive leads a string of Amfleet I cars (2 doors)
in phase III paint. Alex Mayes photo from page 69 of Warner and Simon’s Amtrak by the numbers.
A 4-car Metroliner
train of Amfleet II cars (one door) in the 1980s.
An Amtrak AEM7 locomotive with a Metroliner train in the phase III paint scheme.
A
Metroliner train in the 1980s
The locomotive is a Japanese prototype E51A that superficially
resembles an electric AEM-7 as used by Amtrak in the 1980s. Following are three
Amfleet II coaches made by Kato in phase III paint.
Strictly these were more likely long distance coaches. Kato may release their
new (2016) Amfleet I coach in phase III paint but it
is not available as of this writing.
Next is an
Amfleet II lounge-café car in phase III paint, followed
by another Amfleet II coach. Both are Kato models.
The last two cars are Bachmann models of Amfleet I (2
vestibules) coaches. Note the slightly taller windows of the Amfleet II cars than the Amfleet
I cars, probably reflecting better visibility on long distance rural routes.
The Bachmann cars were issued with Rapido couplers,
and body mounting Microtrains couplers was the best
way to make a compatible train. The Bachmann cars have bright internal lights,
bright red end lights, and high-friction electrical pickups. I found that using
Bachmann Amfleet cars requires removing one of the
pickups to lower the friction, limiting the number of cars in a train, and
perhaps adding extra power to haul a high friction train. These Bachmann cars
are the later more finely tooled model: the early Amfleet Bachmann model from the 1970s is a crudely modeled,
extremely poor runner. See the page on Amtrak’s Lakeshore Limited for more
modeling notes comparing Kato and Bachmann amfleet
cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amfleet
Solomon, Brian, Amtrak, MBI Publishing, 2004.
Warner, David and Elbert Simon, Amtrak by the numbers, A comprehensive passenger car and motive power roster 1971-2011, White River Productions, 2011.
