St Louis & Midwest in Film 

Glad you enjoyed it!

I will be working on a similar video for Atlanta and Birmingham once I am done with some current projects. The film quality is not as good as this video, but still worth doing. Thanks for watching.

@@fmnut I'll be watching them when you post them. Don't know if you have Station footage, but that Moorish looking Birmingham Terminal Station was a sight to behold. So was the one that sat on a 4-acre plot of downtown Atlanta real estate. Both Union and Terminal Stations got down at the heels in their later years, but many there were very displeased over Terminal Station's demolition.

Not sure that ALL Amtrak's E's were rebuilt, the ones that were lost their portholes and there were a few HEP conversions which lasted into the early 80's, 2 went to BM&R and 2 to Conrail and later Bennett Levin. As to the templates for the classic "bulldog" nose being "lost", I think that's a bit of railfan lore that found its way into print. EMD's licensee Clyde in Australia built the CLP/CLF class locos for Commonwealth Railways in 1969-1970. These were effectively SD40's under the cowl, and resembled an SDP40F with a classic bulldog nose. If EMD had been really serious about doing the job, they could have gotten the templates from Clyde even if the originals had been discarded. It was just easier and probably more profitable to discourage the more complicated construction and push the SDP40F on Amtrak instead. As to Amtrak "buying" PC's E units, it wasn't really a purchase. Railroads joining Amtrak had to either contribute cash or equipment equal to half the road's passenger losses for 1970. Since PC at that point was cash strapped, I'm sure they scraped the bottom of the barrel for the units in the worst condition, keeping the better ones for the commuter services they were still required to operate.

@@fmnut Did not know a lot of that. I stand corrected. The article mentioned that many would be surprised, considering Penn Central's aged locomotives, and the general poor shape they were in, that Amtrak had so many of them.

@@tommythomason6187 That's because PC had by far the largest number of both trains and routes going into Amtrak. Pre-Amtrak PC had 73 trains that were either absorbed or discontinued, while the next largest was BN with 20. The average number of trains for the rest joining was around 7. That's not route mileage, just daily train starts. The western roads had far longer routes, but fewer trains on them. Because of this, PC's annual 1970 losses were far greater than those of the other roads combined, and therefore PC's contribution of equipment was proportionally higher than anyone else's.

@@fmnut Yes, indeed. Like I said, Amtrak got lots of PC units by default because of the road's sheer size. And, Amtrak must have been aware of their physical condition, too, in, at least, some of the locomotives they accepted, because when Southern Railway System offered the passenger railroad all 17 of it's E8s, Amtrak balked - dubious of the condition of the high-mileage units.

The MRS as a common carrier was shut down by Anheuser Busch in 2011 due to a shift in traffic to trucks and no remaining outside rail customers. The remaining in-plant switching operations and the rail equipment went to Foster Townsend Rail Logistics, a non-common carrier contract operator.

@@fmnut Thamk you sir, if anyone would know, I figured it’d be you! I will say they sure had a snappy looking paint scheme.

It's a GE U30CG. Only made for ATSF, they were GE's attempt to compete with EMD's FP45 in the passenger market to replace aging E and F units. Only 6 were built. They only lasted 2 years in passenger service before a derailment suspected to be caused by their high speed tracking qualities led to their demotion to freight service as seen here. A similar fate befell Amtrak's SDP40F's a decade later when derailments suspected to have been caused by the HTC truck led to their banning by some railroads.

@@fmnut cheers mate.

So would I. Unfortunately the photographer is long gone and I don't have a clue.

Feel free to use what you want.

@@fmnut May I email you a video release form giving me written permission to use, its required working on film.

@@314birdstudios7 yes. fmnut "at" msn.com

@@fmnut Thank you again!