So, you want to go to Switzerland....

Fall 2019.  Norcross GA.  Our daughter's wedding.

I'm talking to my cousin Leslie.  She and her husband Eric take a couple of fabulous vacation trips each year.  

"We're going to Switzerland next year", she said.  (or something to that effect).

"Switzerland!  That's on our list, too!", I said.

She said, "Hey, you want to come with us?"

Now, whether she was just being polite or was completely earnest or somewhere in between, I have no idea.  I usually don't figure this stuff out until it's too late...

But, when all the dust had settled, we were all booked for a two week, self-guided tour of Switzerland in May of 2020.

I am really liking that an actual travel agent in Switzerland is building the trip.  I usually enjoy doing the trip planning myself, but it's too easy to make mistakes - big and small, and it would be nice to just have to follow a solid plan instead of worrying about whether the plan would work, or work well.  So, I was all in on this trip!

Then Covid hit.  "Let's try for 2021."

Then Covid didn't go away.  "Let's try for 2022."

Then Omicron hit in Winter of 2021/22, and Spring of 2022 started looking like it might be a bad idea, again.  But, it started ebbing as fast as it hit and cases were down everywhere, even Switzerland, and it was game on!

May 16th, 2022 arrived.  Here we go.  Board Delta in Atlanta for JFK.  Pre-Covid, there was a direct ATL to Zurich flight, but no more.  Now, we have to connect in JFK.  A tight 1:50 connection.

Everyone boards, the door closes, we push back and taxi toward the runway...and stop.  This is your captain, "There's a weather hold.  Storms in NYC.  We're gonna sit here for about and hour."  Oh. boy.  A 50 minute connection?  We just might make it, but our luggage?

Manhattan lit up by sunbeams

We approach JFK and make a big, sweeping turn over Long Island and get a good look at Manhattan and the storms that were still swirling around.  We land and get held out waiting for a gate.  The whole airport is a mess due to the storms.  

We finally get a gate, get the bus shuttle to the other Delta terminal, and find....out outbound flight is delayed and hour.  Whew!  Maybe our luggage will make it after all!  We grab a snack and wait for boarding.

We board and settle in.  Time to go!  No.  "Uh, this is your captain.  We're waiting on baggage handlers to be available to load out baggage.  They're saying an hour.  So, sit tight!"  What's another hour of seat time on a 9 hour flight...

Finally, 3 hours late, we take off!  The good news is, when we got there we didn't have to wait to check into the hotel, and actually slept some.  The bad news is, we were seated behind a super-hyperactive women who couldn't sit still for more than 90 seconds at at time.  (actual Swiss timing).  Up, down, screen on, screen off, seat recline, seat up, not-too-discrete "deck change",  screen on, seat recline, stand up, sit down, lean right, seat up, screen off, etc. etc. for 8-1/2 hours. 

With 30 minutes to go, she apparently takes a sleeping pill.  Zonk!  Out like a light.  Maybe her problem was some sort of other pill at the beginning of the flight.  We land.  Everyone gets off.  She's still sleeping - solid.  Crew has to just about drag her off the plane.  

Anyway.  Here's our inbound plane getting flipped for return to JFK as we head toward our baggage....

...which made the connection, too!

90 mph to Providence

Not your normal day at the office.  

The photo below was taken on December 2, 1981.  Somewhere west of Providence RI on the former New Haven Shoreline.  The 1980 rendition of the Northeast Corridor improvement plan is underway.  Note the new concrete ties on the track to the left.  Conrail is still running the local freight here.  Shortly, the Providence and Worcester will take over much of Conrail's operation in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I'm on an FL-9 locomotive running at 90 mph with five Amfleet coaches between New Haven and Providence RI, passing a Conrail B23-7 on a local somewhere en-route.  My "not so calibrated" rear end firmly planted in the left hand cab seat.  It's raining.  I have my camera along and have some grainy Kodacolor print film in it.

The closing speed between the trains was rather fast, and I'm bouncing a bit in the seat.  It was dark and rainy and my poor print film was still pretty slow by today's digital standards.  So, I set as fast a shutter speed as possible, framed the shot and hoped for the best. 

Why am I here?

Remember this post?  Turboliners - more than just a train

The seven sets of Turboliners Amtrak purchased for the improved Empire Service weren't enough.  There were still trains that needed regular locomotives to cover all the trains now operating between Grand Central Terminal to Albany and beyond.  And those locomotives needed to be able to run on 3rd rail in order to get into and out of GCT.  

Amtrak had been using Metro North FL-9s to haul trains to and from GCT, changing power at Croton Harmon.  It took time and Metro North's FL-9s weren't always up to the task. Wanting to eliminate the engine change at Croton Harmon and have locomotives compatible with the new HEP equipped coaches and overhauled sleepers and diners, Amtrak purchase a half dozen FL-9s  from Metro North and sent them out for overhaul which included HEP engine generator sets replacing the steam heat boilers.  When the Turboliners arrived, Amtrak built a shop in Rensselaer to take care of them.  This shop could handle the FL-9s, too.  

With the railroad between Poughkeepsie and Albany (actually all the way to CP-169 west of Schenectady) upgraded for 90-110 mph operation, Amtrak was interested in operating the FL-9s at 90 mph.  So, Amtrak made the pitch to Conrail to increase the speed limit for these locomotives. Conrail said, "show us it's safe and practical. Apparently, it was common practice on the New Haven to let these beasts get up to that speed even thought the track speed limit was 80 mph. Amtrak had some signed letters from former New Haven engineers to that effect.

With the sour taste of the SDP40Fs still fresh, that was not good enough.  "Run them at 90 mph on your own railroad first and then do some testing on ours and we'll let you know", was Conrail's reply.  To be honest, they were a bit different, having HEP instead of a steam generator, so these locomotives needed a close look.

They sent me and a couple of guys from the Technical Services Laboratory in Altoona to get involved. We met the Amtrak folk in New Haven and they had a three car test train to operate to Providence and back.  The goal was to see if one FL-9 could haul five coaches to 90 mph.  In theory it should work - just barely.

We met the Amtrak representative on the platform at New Haven and boarded the test train there.  We rode to New Haven with out a glitch, dropped two coaches and ran back with three, easily making 90 mph.

Having successfully completed that part, it was off to the Hudson Line to do some instrumented ride quality testing.   A test train south from Albany-Rensselaer to Harmon, turn the power and return to Albany Rensselaer.

Test FL9 after turning in Harmon

The results?  Ride was good enough.  Rear end was a bit bouncy and underdamped.  Lateral accelerations were acceptable and well damped.  The only thing out of whack was the front truck appeared out of tram a bit as the flange wear was uneven.  This did not have a measurable impact on the ride, however, and we recommended raising the limit to 90 mph...

...only to have it struck down by the regional GM and, ultimately, the Sr. VP of Transportation, Dick Hasselmann.  Why?  They decided that the out of tram truck was a sign of poor maintenance.  (It was actually a sign of poor rebuilding.)  We just added this to the stack of his decisions we disagreed with and resubmitted them for approval in 1989, when he retired.

So, in 1989, the Amtrak FL9s finally go the go-ahead to operate at 90 mph.  In practice, train size often kept speeds under 90 mph, anyway.  Here are some pictures of the FL9s in action.

Hustling the Lake Shore Limited south through Casleton with an F40PH helping get things up to speed.  The F40PH would come off in Harmon and be added to the westbound later that day.

Headed through Cold Spring northbound.

At Albany-Rensselaer with HEP generator car.  Normally, the longer trains heading further upstate would have the FL9 dropped and an F40PH added.  HEP car is a mystery.

Arriving Hudson, northbound

 

Turboliners - more than just a train

 Born in 1956, I came of age just when passenger trains were dying.  The railroads invested heavily in new passenger trains just after WWII, just in time to watch automobiles and airplanes steal nearly all the passengers away.  By the late 1960s, few trains were left and many of those were getting shabby.  Railroads lost money running them and couldn't wait to get rid of the last of them.  

In 1971, Amtrak was created to lift the burden of passenger trains from the railroads.  Despite some new paint and upholstery, the passenger cars and locomotives were still old and largely unreliable.  

Early Amtrak paint job.  Empire Builder.  Havre Montana

Carman makes up connections of two old NYC coaches in Albany - Rensselaer

Typical Hudson Line train in mid 1970s

I went to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY.  One "benefit" was that I could travel home on Amtrak.  A two legged trip.  Albany (Rensselaer, across the river, actually) to New York, Grand Central Terminal, then two subway trains to New York Penn Station and a train to Philadelphia.  

The Albany to New York portion of the trip was a worn-out shadow of it's glory years.  What once was a well used, multi-track mainline with lots of freight and passenger service was now a worn out, weedy line with five passenger trains and a pair of freight trains each day.  South of Poughkeepsie, the railroad belonged to the state of  New York to run commuter service.  Although there were more trains, the right of way wasn't much better.  A typical train was a worn out E8 ex-NYC E8 locomotive or three, and two or more coaches that were remnants of the New York Central's "Great Steel Fleet".  On bouncy, "clickety clack", jointed rail, the 79 mph maximum, 142 mile trip took 2:40, if you were lucky.   Sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold, sometimes a bit decrepit, the coaches had the "disappearing railroad blues".  

Trying for 79 mph.  Staats Island Road.  South of Rensselaer NY

However, New York State had plans for this route.  The success of the Metroliners from Washington DC to New York led them to believe the "Empire Corridor" could be successful, too.  They ordered some sleek, French designed - US adapted, 110 mph, turbo-hydraulic passenger train sets nicknamed "Turboliners" and set to work fixing up the track and signaling on the route.  About the same time, Amtrak ordered a fleet of new passenger cars and locomotives to complement the Metroliners on the New York to Washington "Northeast Corridor" route. 

Maybe things were looking up for passenger trains?  Yes!

They are here! 
 Turboliners not yet in service sit in Rensselaer as Lake Shore Limited makes it's station stop.

The Turboliners arrived!   The were sleek and modern and comfortable and smooth and quiet and FAST!  I rode them many times, both during my college days and later for business and pleasure.

The Turboliners were my personal icon for hope for passenger travel when all seemed lost.  I can't look at pictures of them without recalling feeling "things ARE getting better!"  

So, after much haranguing in the model railroad community - much of it in jest (hopefully!), Rapido Model Trains https://rapidotrains.com/ho-scale/complete-train/rtl-turboliner.html decides to manufacture Turboliners in HO scale.  

Perfect for my model railroad!  

Actually, NOT perfect.  My model railroad is the right era for the Turboliners, but they never got within 100 mile of  Atlantic City.  Rats.

My model RR takes an alternate history view of South Jersey.
Yellow lines are area modeled.

Yeah, but I really want one... So, here's how.

Amtrak ran trains from Philadelphia to Atlantic City from 1989 to 1995.  Some of the trains continued beyond Philadelphia to NYC/Springfield MA, Washington DC/Richmond.  On my model railroad, one of the trains has through cars from Chicago.  So....why not have one train extend to Albany?  And, why not have it be a Turboliner!  

Plausible?  Can Turboliners get from Penn Station to NJ through the North River Tunnels?  Yes!  Turboliners were built to run on under-running third rail in order to get into Grand Central Terminal.  They were later converted to run on over-running third rail when the connection from the Hudson Line to Penn Station was completed in 1991.  The tunnels under the Hudson river have overhead catenary, but were originally built with over-running third rail as far as Exchange Place - where they used to switch from electric locomotives to steam.  As recently as 1960, the third rail was still in place, at least through the tunnels, and was used to test FL9 locomotives for possible use service to the North Jersey Coast.  

So, you could get a Turboliner from Penn Station to NJ.  My train service would operate from Albany to Penn Station where the train would change ends and then continue into NJ.  It would travel on the Northeast Corridor to Frankfort Junction, in northeast Philadelphia, change ends again and continue across the Delair Bridge and on to Atlantic City.

My reservation is in with Rapido (actually Tony's Trains...).  I'm ready.  Are you?