The Amtrak Train that is Older Than Amtrak | Metroliner Cab Car 

"Wow this Amtrak train is older than Amtrak itself, that's so old!" *cries in VIA Rail*

I love the story about the Cavs renting this ancient luxury lounge car to take the team to a game! This whole story is just fun.

I remember growing up and taking the AEM 7-hauled Metroliner without the cab car. However, as a child I also remember asking my mom about how they turn it around, and her answer it just went in reverse. In retrospective, she might have been thinking of when she rode the original fleet.

Besides upgrading platforms for the Metroliners, they also built park-and-ride infill stations specifically for the Metroliners! That's why Metropark station in NJ is called such, for the Metroliners! Two stations were proposed, Capital Beltway Metropark in Lanham, Maryland and Garden State Metropark in Iselin, Woodbridge Township near the interchange of Route 27 and Garden State Parkway, with both later shortened to Capital Beltway and Metropark respectively. Capital Beltway station closed in 1983 when New Carrollton station opened! Because of Metropark, a large business park grew, called "the first Edge City in the world to grow from a parking lot". Today, besides being an Acela stop and other Amtrak services, Metropark is among the busiest NJT stations, and many Staten Islanders from the South Shore of Staten Island drive out to Metropark for their commute to Manhattan. NJT also runs several peak loop bus routes serving the office parks in the area in coordination with train schedules. And besides using Metroliners for service between NYC and DC and service to Harrisburg, they also used Metroliners like adding two New England Metroliner round trips between NYC and Boston using diesel locomotives north of New Haven between 1982 and 1984, a round-trip Metroliner added to the Los Angeles-San Diego corridor (to supplement the former San Diegan) and made just two intermediate stops that was discontinued in 1985, and between 1989 and 1991, a single one-way morning Metroliner trip from Downingtown, PA to DC that served mostly Amtrak employees, as a corresponding evening trip to serve regular commuters was not offered.

One difference I notice: the amfleet 1s have Power Doors (you know those door control panels that conductors use to open every door on a train), while the metroliner cabs have manual doors w/ a handle.

I remember riding the Metroliner cab cars on Amtrak’s short lived Atlantic City service. I found it quite interesting that they found a use for them and that they’ve lasted so long. Couldn’t help but notice Lindsay’s new hair style. Very nice.

Living in Harrisburg area, we take Keystone to NYC several times a year. Love to see a story on track upgrades between Lancaster and Harrisburg which will make repurposed Acella equipment be a good replacement for the Cab cars.

Speaking of Penn Central, a wild story when they were going belly up is that they wanted to demolish NYC's iconic Grand Central Terminal! Now we all know the original NY Penn Station was demolished. The original Penn Station was enormous, a majestic building that rivaled Grand Central. One describes it compared to the current Penn Station as "One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.” When it was decided to demolish the building in favor of Madison Square Garden, there was outrage, but it wasn't enough to save it. But its demolition was a turning point in the preservation movement. Two years after its demolition, the city passed a landmarks preservation act, thereby creating the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Grand Central Terminal was next on the chopping block, as proposed by its then owner Penn Central in 1968. It was to be replaced by a Marcel Breuer office building design that looked like a shoebox lid on its side. And the one who led the movement to save Grand Central...Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis! When she heard the plans for the site, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was having NONE of it. She joined the fight in 1975 with the Municipal Art Society and had a conference at the famous Oyster Bar where she said, "If we don’t care about our past, we can’t have very much hope for our future." Thanks to Jacqueline convincing the mayor (Abraham Beame), the terminal was ultimately saved by the city's LPC, but this was challenged by Penn Central in a Supreme Court case. In 1978, the court ruled in favor of the city. And the most beautiful building in NYC was saved.

Former Washington Amtrak OBS employee here. I worked around those cars off and on during my time there. I took the training to work the Conference Car, but never had to. An interesting car that I hope makes it into preservation. I don't think it lived up to expectations for a charter car, sitting most of the time, but at least Amtrak tried to innovate sometimes. It goes back far enough that it was refurbished with the GTE Railfone service phone booth in it from the late '80s/early '90s era. It basically had three levels of accommodation when it was originally refurbished. 2+1 open club seating; several compartments for two people; and a conference room with a large table at the control end of the car, with the standard Amcafe counter area in the middle. When it was built, Amtrak equipped it with a A/V system for conferences, including a TV monitor and VCR, which were stolen by thieving employees in NY Sunnyside Yard eventually. The most I was around the cab cars was working the Atlantic City service and the "Vermonter", when they made the "Palmer Shuffle" move and reversed directions to get on the New England Central at Palmer, MA for, I guess, nearly 20 years. The object was that a locomotive always led on the Vermont end of the journey because of numerous grade crossings. And, in fact, I was in a highway grade crossing accident on that train involving a lowboy carrying a backhoe that got hung up on a high crown grade crossing. Needless to say the trailer and cargo did not survive the encounter. Words you never want to hear over the radio from the engineer: "Hang on!" Kind of like hearing your flight attendant say, "Brace for impact!" You know you're having a bad day.

The Metroliner was the first train I’d seen with a passenger telephone (in a booth, no less). An early use of the cellular phone.

As a new subscriber I just want to thank you for doing your homework and giving so much historical context in your video's. And also, a shout out to Lindsey for being so supportive. I rode the old Metroliner's in Cleveland, Ohio back in the 1960's on a school field trip on the way to the Zoo, was very cool back then. I also appreciate the fact that you are not one of these You Tubers who is always asking for financial support and hawking themself which makes for a much better clean production value IMHO. 👍

It's been at least five years since I've ridden Metro into Union Station, and 15 since I commuted on that stretch. The changes around the station are huge. Thanks for showing them!

In addition to the Hartford service. Valley Flyer runs a two car train, one AmFleet, one Cab Car between New Haven, CT and Greenfield, MA, with one train running just between Springfield, MA and Greenfield, MA

I don't live too far from the BWI Train station that's an Idea taking that specific route to do the same thing you did. I have also seen some cab cars during the week to. Great video. Cheers!

I didn't know NBA teams travel by train. That's pretty cool.

Great report of the Metroliner cab cars! I've always seen them on the Springfield MA railcam and have always been curious about their interior (there's not that many trip reports on YT of them). Thank you, Thom! Also looking forward to seeing the HHP8 conversion in the future.

I remember when we had Amfleets with cab cars in southern California on the San Diegan/Pacific Surfliner. I never realized those cab cars were from the Metroliner! Thanks for that info. Comfortable enough, and good foot room, but those tiny windows were disappointing as we rode along the beach, trying to get a glimpse of the ocean, surfers, etc. And station stops were slow because the conductor had to raise the trapdoor to uncover the stairs, and then lower the trapdoor after boarding was done. I think they often put out a step box too. Great video as always, Thom and Lindsey!

I remember riding the Metroliner before Amtrak, when the friendly engineer let my young son blow the horn. They were a great improvement in NY-DC time. In last 20 years, I have often ridden the Keystone between NY and PHL. Almost as fast as the Acela at a fraction of the cost.

A neat little bit of railroad history captured for us. Thanks Thom. I noticed the work train with road-rail truck (probably Brandt White brand) in part of the forward vision section. We had one of those operating in Victoria, Australia around 25 years ago (I think its mothballed or scrapped now). It was used on short trains of woodchip logs from the Gippsland region for a time and on spot placement and pick up of small grain consignments, also available for small work train movements. While versatile, in that it could transfer across the network by road between assignments, there were Trade Union industrial issues that caused some angst. Just a small snippet of railroad history from downunder. Cheers from Michael in Melbourne, Australia.🙂🙂🙂

Nice video. I have seen these Metroliner cab cars back in July 2023, and I rode on Amtrak Keystone 643 from New York to Philadelphia around the same time and Metroliner cab car 9644, originally 804 led my train.

Really enjoyed this ride on a pre-Amtrak car and being able to look out the front window was a fun perk!!! Awesome!!!

I remember riding on some of those cars to and from Harrisburg on the Keystone line for college.

Rode on a metroliner cab in 2019 was surprisingly smooth

I rode a keystone train last year (funny enough the locomotive pushing us was 642) and it was fun. I don't regularly see ex metroliner cab cars but they are really cool to see. I believe they have the exact same 80s K5LA horn that the AEM-7 had (my favorite horn) and they have a really nice bell. I also got to go inside 9800 back in 2013(?) during a train show at Union Station (they had a bunch of museum equipment for people to tour and they decided 9800 should be there too). I remember 9800 having a very 70s looking interior (which I loved). Lots of wood, brown carpet, and an old CRT TV.

Brilliant video sir, good to see Lyndsey supervising you :-).

Very rare treat seeing an Amtrak Regional using a cab car converted from a Metroliner. And those are commonly seen on the Keystone Service between New York, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg. But what a treat seeing them Sundays on Regional 121 to Washington DC and 122 to Philadelphia. Gotta enjoy these while we can before the Hippos NPCUs come along. That’ll be fun to see for the time being before Siemens equipment takes over.

I rode in one of these from SPG-HFD, glad I did while I could.

From your into to the train passing sounded like a higher pitch of your into train horn lol 😂

Old but still going strong. The first time i saw a picture of the Metroliner i really thought it was a actually metro, a bit bigger but with the same looks. Very surprised is was a high speed train. As always very interesting content.👍

Great video! Nice to meet you with Andy last Saturday!

I rode this train last year and the "bump" from the trailing locomotive was quite noticiable, but since I like trains, it was still a great trip.

I used to have two book covers from "Penn Central - Route of the Metroliners." Interesting video - thanks.

Great video

Great video thom I love the way you make these videos you go in detail and into the history this is amazing

Good afternoon Thom... Sneaking in footage of Sunnyside yards from a moving 7 train heading towards Queensborough Plaza😂 One of these days I'll have to try this trip before its too late... L8er

Saw the 9800 and a metroliner cab the other day. The cab car was on 122. Also, the 9649 has a rare straight-4 bell K5LA. One of I believe 3 cars to recieve one, the other 2 being 9646 (i think) and DOTX 216.

Thank you for this truly superb video ! I have ridden in these cab control cars ever since they started using them in California between L.A and San Diego ! They were pushed and pulled of course by the wonderful F40 locos, and they became a firm favourite. I have also used them on the Keystone service between NYC and Philadelphia, with AEM -7 locos and the Siemens electrics now used on the loco hauled services along the North East corridor. It is interesting news that these Budd built cab cars will be replaced by converted HHP electrics, and what a shame that those locos could not have been made more reliable, for to me they always looked stunning ! Many thanks indeed !

I enjoyed that video👍👍

The two main differences that I noticed inside the Metroliner cab cars were the slightly different luggage racks and the reading lights are aligned across the width of the train instead of in a long strip along the length.

I rode the original ML at age 15 in 1970 NYP>WAS as my stepdad was to meet with a few Senators. This was before they were rebuilt with the huge AC and radiator blisters on the roof. Only pantographs were on the roofs in 1970. Got to spend more than a little time in the engineer’s vestibule, watching the digital speedometer and his occasional arm movements to ack the deadman, which was a new safety thing at the time.

NICE video 👍🏽👍🏽

thanks for the info on the Metroliner=== rode it many times Good historic pictures, too

1:18 As a regular Acela rider, hearing Metroliner was $50/one way in 1985 was like taking a bullet. $50 in 1985 is $145.70 today, and that barely gets you business class on a NE REGIONAL today or if you're lucky, squeak onto an 80%+ full Acela (the "Metroliner" of today)...

A nice view you showed off, if heading into DC Union look out the right, they have had a lot of the geometry and other rare cars including the Acela test car seen at one point sitting out to see including some of the Acela Liberty sets. I love that Marc is keeping with they HHP-8's I hope they become as Maryland as Crabs and O's.

🎉...as a train buff...I road the Metroliner when it was first introduced. A lot of hype surrounded it...🎉

Nice video

Back in the 1980s, severa of thel train sets were rebuilt and called Captioliners. They ran from NYP to 30th Street upper level to Harrisburg. One Friday afternoon I rode it from NYp to Philly. The engineer let me stay up with him in the vestibule. It still is my favorite NE Corridor ride ever!!!

I looked forward so much when I was 13 our family was going to Brazil in Summer of 1974 where my dad arranged for us to ride the Bud MetroLiner from DC to NYC. It was so smooth! I went up and watched the cab and the speedometer was at 12 the driver informed me rather harshly it was 120 mph. It didn't seem that fast looking out the front. The big deal is the Bud Metroliner air suspension and rigid structure were used to develop Amfleet Cars. Amfleet cars were a huge improvement over the heritage fleet cars in ride and comfort on bad tracks. I rode in the Amfleet Café car on the Cardinal between Montgomery WV and Washington DC in the mid 1980s. I could feel the Amfleet car taking on the stress of bad track and steading it. Back in the heritage fleet cars it was jarring and motion sickness inducing with creaking noises. The Amfleet Cars are BEAUTIFUL passenger cars! I'm not a fan of the looks of the new Siemens build replacements. I seriously wonder if the Siemens cars are actually as good in the truck, suspension and chassis rigidity as the Amfleet cars. The Bud Metroliner cars were built for 160 mph! The future to look forward to and possible champion is the Chinese CF600 maglev that is prototyped at above 600 kph with hopes to advance to 800 kph. It has about 4 meter wide loading gauge. I'd think when starting a new train standard it should be at 8 meters wide that has been the desired wide loading gauge since the start of the railroad age in 1840s Great Britain. The 8 meter wide loading gauge would allow much larger assemblies to transported easily over land. For passenger use it would allow about three levels if needed. I want vista domes on the top level to see forward!

Nice vid! I used to live in Philly so rode the keystone quite a bit haha!

I got to see a metroliner cab car on the Valley Flyer a few times

Recently rode in the cab car on the Keystone back from New York to Harrisburg. I have to say they are better than the Amfleets even though they are older, they have more legroom and the seats are wider.

That’s quite the catch in the intro, a special livery cabcar is rare on its own, but in DC?! I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never seen one of these cab cars down here.

Thom, are these related to the Amtrak SPV 2000s from the 80’s? I recall riding on one from New Haven to Springfield MA in the early 80’s? It was a single self propelled car. I think they were referred to as “seldom propelled vehicles” because they were plagued with issues and frequently out of service. I think there are a few still around but are non powered possibly now owned by the Connecticut DOT. I’ve seen one or two at New Haven Union station.

Nice flick , your story tail was not to slow or to fast . Nice to follow ! Good job !

I rode on the Metroliner cab car on the Keystone from New York to Philadelphia. Also, the Raising Canes restaurants have been popping up all over the place. It's good, but not worth waiting in those huge lines.

I mean to be really specific, the reading lights look a bit different without a plastic covering over them. You’re also right that the baggage racks look different, as they’re bare.

When I was onboard MARC recently I was lucky enough to spot two of these cab car sets along with that I saw an Avelia liberty being towed

I live in Lancaster County Pa. right along the Keystone line, so I'm making sure I get plenty of pics of these old relics before they are gone. I still remember the Metroliners when they ran under the PRR and Penn Central flags....Jeez, I'm dating myself!😆

Back in May of 2021 i saw the inspection car variant on the capital limited in Chesterton, in July of 2021 I saw the PRR one on display in Strasburg, and a cab car in Lancaster Pennsylvania.

a metroliner track geometry car just visited slc this past sunday!

Great overview of the Metroliner program and these cab cars. It's interesting how we have the fixed half forward/half backward Amleet Is on the Empire Service, but they still wye the consists and do not use cab cars so I guess I won't be seeing these along the east shore of the Hudson. And that's too bad because that foamer window would be amazing along the Hudson Line. I do remember seeing them a couple of times when I rode the Keystone Service, but I never thought to sit in them specifically. As for the interiors they really do look just like the Amfleet I I rode earlier today.

Saw one of these a couple years ago at max speed on the NEC. Still waiting to see a modern day EMU on the NEC (like Alstom’s TER trains in France). Hope NJ transit gets new EMU’s ?

Your Username Tells the Truth😊

That train ran between Springfield IL and Chicago between 1986 and 1996 Monday through Saturday

Lindsay's haircut looks pretty good.

I remember catching the Metroliner in Paoli, PA (around 1985) to Washinton, DC. I would call Amtrak the night before and ask for a Metroliner to Washinton, DC. They used to immediately tell me, Metroliner does not run to Washington, DC from Paoli, PA. I insisted they check and every time they would come back and say, Sorry, I didn’t know we had that service. This went on for a couple of three years or so. Until they finally terminated the service.

The Ultimate Ringa Dinga Metroliner cab thats older than Amtrak.

Did you try pushing the black pad on the cab door? I wonder if that was deactivated in favor of some sort of key

Whoa, I never knew the NBA uses Amtrak!

The Metroliners have had such a weird lasting effect on the NEC, it's strange how they've affected basically every railroad on the corridor and the Keystone corridor for almost 60 years now lol. It's kind of interesting in retrospect how good the Amfleet I and II have been for Amtrak and how big of lemons the Metroliners were by comparison

Very nice Thom; how do you like living in D.C? I'm really dating myself, but I remember when the Pennsy announced them. Rode the Metroliner several times in the 70s and they were somewhat unreliable, though a huge improvement in comfort from the ramshackle PC and Amtrak steam heated coaches.

I started ride from DC to NYC when they started, I was 15 years old at the time. One cool thing was the phone you could make calls as you zoom along at 120 mph.

Once again, Thom managed to fill me in on a bit of information I did not yet know about. I also heard that the Metroliner cab cars are about to get replaced. But I thought that they will go alongside the Amfleets and get replaced alltogether by the Siemens Venture sets. Which include cab cars as well. First time I heard about the conversion of the HHP8. I assume they will use them as cabbage cars like they did with the F40? Cannot imagine that they convert them to passenger rail cars. Do you have more information on the topic? Also, I think the paintjob on the front of the cab car is really hideous.... A cool retro design completely ruined.

Wow I got to blow the horn in 9800 between Springfield IL and Lincoln IL on train 312 the loop back in the mid 1990’s

That is very historical don’t get me wrong. I hope it ends up in a museum someday. But I can’t wait to see the old HHP-8s become NPCUs on the Keystone Corridor.

Greetings Thom Tra. Model trains in Ho, N, S, Z and O scale have come along way. Model companies like Athearn, Bachmann, Atlas, Walthers, Kato upgraded to sound in the late 90's and early 2000. You have new comers like Broadway Limited Imports and Scaled Trains have come aboard to sell to the public. Every now and then, Lional trains will put out some Ho scale trains. Ho scale and N scale are very popular, and you can do miniature towns and layouts. There are two magazines, that I think are still in production. Model Railroader and Model Railroader Craftsmen. And regular real train magazines.

The only comment I would say is to remember Metroliners came first.. Amfleets were made after many Metroliners were having teething problems the first few years of service. The Amfleet is a Metroliner shell only without the cab and original drive motor and pantagraph... Other wise kudos to you.. Great installment.

It looks like Union Station has cleaned up a bit, or was that just careful scene selection?

I never really knew much about those old metroliners but I think it would be cool to ride in those cab cars that are still in use. I don’t know if I’d be able to make it in time for that though.

So the only possible comfort difference, seemingly, would be one's proximity to the horn and bell - were they obtrusive by comparison to the pure hauled experience or was there extra sound insulation in the end corridor?

there are a few minor differences in the interior between the Amfleets and the Horizons. the luggage racks are slightly different since the seat checks slot in from the bottom side rather than the top like Amfleets do. they, along with the 829XX Amfleets and Horizons also have slightly different seats with the biggest difference being a metal recline button rather than a plastic one. I guess perhaps the biggest difference is the inward facing seating instead of outwards on Amfleets and Horizons but that’s probably changeable.

The 11 added Metroliner cars for Harrisburg service never actually ran there nor were picked up by SEPTA, so those cars were added to the New York-DC fleet. About 30 cars were converted to cab control cars for San Diego, Atlantic City and Midwest Corridor routes. Michigan got 8 cars rebuilt to cabless coaches.

Yoooo! Im watching from PG County which is not too far from DC.

Hi TRA, will you do a video on the Interoceanic Railroad?

lol. We've recently got Raising Cane's locations in Atlanta...and the drive-thru lines backed up traffic onto the main roads. :o They have receded now, though. We went there a few days ago. I prefer the fries at Zaxby's (and their Freestyle Coke machines), but the chicken fingers are bigger at Cane's. (And Zaxby's salads are amazing.)

You mentioned my Cavs

I notice that some Metroloners have a different door design than Amfleet1s with a larger window. Are those powered doors or manual like the Amfleet 2s?

I ride these cab cars alternately with the CT Rail trains from Hartford to New Haven.

Ah! So the Amtrak Amfleet car was not a new design, unique to Amtrak, but was derived from the Budd Metroliner car. New (to me) knowledge, that then raises the question “what was Penn Central (or Budd) seeking when it adopted the airliner fuselage shape? As usual with TRA videos, good history, good storytelling.

Is Chic fa' la at union station still there?

In some cases this will go all the way to Boston from Washington DC and down south Boston Providence Washington Union Station. Benefit of it by going to Boston is that you don't use the turning track

"Foamer window"-- that's not nice, Thom... 😀

Great video. Enjoyed it a lot. I have the model of it by Walthers trains. But they drop the rail spike. I mean how do you create four powered cars, and no dummy cars? I wish Bachman trains would reissue the Metroliner set, with DCC Sound. But that's just wishful thinking. As for the Acela by Bachmann trains, I had to send it to a hobby shop, and get DCC Sound installed. As for wishful thinking again. Why couldn't Bachmann trains install sound into the Acela model sets of the past. They did it for the new Acela sets. Thanks for reading this.

I am not holding my breath when it comes to the new Avalia Liberty. Heard of tons of issues with them.

Liberty Land Railway’s Tube Train = Budd Amfleet Full Cabin = Cab Carriages Both Ends Locomotive-Haul = Corridor Clippers Both Ends Of The Train Observation = Observation Carriages Both Ends

How were you able to get trackside with the luxury metroliner, every time I’ve gone there I’ve been kicked off

I think that every Amsrican Railroads should use different type propulsion power plants for electrification of lines!..

did you take MARC out to BWI ?

If only Amtrak came by Omaha more than just the middle of the night, then I could maybe see interesting things like this. Hopefully, the Borealis I’m catching from Red Wing, MN to St. Paul next week will offer something (I’ll be on the 2nd northbound one, my family happened to be visiting Minneapolis starting then).

That one with Amtrak painted on the front in big letters has a lot of dents in it almost as if ballast had been thrown up on hit it.