Since the
1930s, the Pennsylvania Railroad provided hourly service between New York and
Philadelphia on trains that came to be known as “clockers” because of their
hourly regularity. Amtrak picked up the service in 1971,
though it was mostly a rush hour train that did not run hourly during the whole
day. Clockers usually made all the stops as a local train, but many other
trains covered the run with fewer stops. Clockers were unreserved, coach class,
and had no posh parlor cars. New Jersey Transit assumed the clocker commuter
service from Amtrak in 2005.
The black paint scheme that Amtrak used for some of its GG1
electrics was inherited from that used by the former Penn Central. The black scheme was typical of northeast
corridor trains in local service, but long distance trains got more attractive
locomotives. Black is suited to the gritty appearance of the urban parts of the
northeast corridor, but not to vacation trains. The Pennsylvania Railroad built
the GG1s in the mid 1930s and they served the northeast corridor well. GG1s accelerate quickly and are well suited to commuter service.
The GG1s were retired in the early 1980s (hence the end of this model train’s
time period) after long lives. Other electric locomotives such as the AEM-7s
and E60s replaced the GG1s. Amfleet coaches were
added to Amtrak trains in 1975 (the start of this time period), but other cars
could also be found, including old Pennsylvania Railroad coaches and newer NJT
cars. In the 1980 time frame, phase III-painted Amfleet
cars started replacing the older phase I and phase II scheme
of this model train.
An Amtrak clocker with 5 Amfleet cars
and one other coach pulled by a GG1 in black Amtrak paint. This is at North Elizabeth, New Jersey,
probably in the late 1970s. Picture from Brian Solomon’s Amtrak.
A northbound clocker near the 30th
street Philadelphia station in May 1976. Wikipedia photo.
A clocker, the whole
train
The GG1 locomotive is in Amtrak’s gritty black paint scheme. It is
a Kato model. Clocker trains typically had about four coach cars and a café
car. The new Amfleet I coaches (two doors) were
introduced on trains including the clockers as soon as they were delivered in
1975. Three Amfleet cars in phase II paint are in
this train, all are Bachmann models to which I added body-mount couplers. Two
older coaches with the arrow logo are in the train. The first coach is a Walthers model of a 1950s era PS corrugated coach. The last
car is an ex-SP coach. It is a long distance car with large picture windows and
is a treat for eastern commuters. It is an Intermountain model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clocker_(train)
Solomon, Brian, Amtrak, MBI Railroad Color History, MBI publishing, 2004.
Amtrak by the numbers, by David Warner and Elbert Simon, White River productions, 2011. An excellent guide with thorough car histories and hundreds of photographs.
