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All Aboard Florida
PROGRESS: All Aboard Florida has signed an easement purchase agreement with the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authori- ty which will allow the company to build a new railroad along the Highway 528 corridor. Coupled with a June pact with the Florida De- partment of Transportation, now AAF can build the “missing link” of the Orlando-Miami route between Orlando and Cocoa. In a sepa- rate agreement, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority will allow AAF to build an inter- modal station at Orlando International Air- port, where AAF will also build a car and loco- motive shop. Now that All Aboard Florida has secured its route to Orlando, residents and businesses in Tampa want to be part of the action, after Governor Rick Scott torpedoed a proposed Tampa-Orlando high speed rail line in 2011. However, AAF says it wants to get the Orlan- do-Miami core system established before con- sidering any expansion.
Amtrak
SECURES TUNNEL RIGHT OF WAY: With a September 24 groundbreaking, Am- trak started construction on an 800-foot “tun- nel box” which will preserve the railroad’s right of way into its proposed new Gateway Project tunnels under the Hudson River. The concrete casing is being built between 10th and 11th Avenues, beneath the Hudson Yards Development project. The two new tunnels are expected to be built as part of the Gateway Project, which will double capacity under the Hudson River for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains, taking pressure off the two ex- isting tubes, which were built in 1910. The current project is being financed by $185 mil- lion in Hurricane Sandy relief funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
TRAIN LOCATOR APP IS AVAILABLE: Amtrak and Google Maps have introduced a new train location tracking system which pro- vides near real-time train status of more than 300 daily trains, estimates of arrival times, and station information – all in the context of the Amtrak national system map. Users can search by train number or name, city name, or station name or code. The information is gathered from GPS equipment on each train, which is uploaded to the Google cloud and transferred to the Amtrak map.
FOOD SERVICE OVERHAUL COMING: Amtrak says that in five years it will elimi- nate losses from its food and beverage serv- ice. The company plans to align dining car staffing with seasonal changes in demand; es- tablish metrics to assess service attendants’ onboard sales performance; reduce spoilage; closely track stock levels; regularly update menus; and explore pricing and revenue man- agement options to align with customer needs and enhance cost recovery. President and CEO Joe Boardman says that the company’s food and beverage loss has been reduced by 30 per cent compared to 2006 and that 99 per cent of food and beverage losses come from long-distance dining car service.
It’s Alive!!!
RECONSTITUTED FROM A PICKED-OVER CARCASS, Doyle McCormack’s Nickel Plate Road Alco PA No. 190 erupted in a celebratory plume of Alco smoke as the locomotive was fired up for the first time on October 6, 2012, at the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation site in Port- land. The 12-251F engine came from a BC Rail M420B. Built as Santa Fe No. 62L in 1948, the locomotive (and three sisters) served two stints in passenger service on the Delaware & Hudson as No. 18 before being sold to Mexico in 1978. While former D&H Nos. 17 and 19 remain in Mex- ican museums, the wrecked bodies of Nos. 16 and 18 were brought back to the U.S. in 2000 through the efforts of McCormack and Bill Withuhn of the Smithsonian Institution. No. 16 is being restored as Santa Fe 59L by the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas.
Tri-State RHS Saves a Lackawanna Geep
THE TRI-STATE RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY of New Jersey has teamed up with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad of Scranton, Penn., to acquire former Conrail GP10 No. 5460 from the Vulcan Materials in Kankakee, Ill. Except for a blanked-out dynamic brake blister and modified m.u. equipment and footboards, the former Lackawanna No. 959 looks much as it and 14 GP7 siblings did when they rolled out of the EMD factory in 1952. The locomotive was num- bered 1278 after the Erie Lackawanna merger, and in 1976 it became Conrail No. 5993. It was rebuilt into GP8 No. 5460 by Morrison-Knudsen, and after being traded to EMD in 1991 it was later sold to Vulcan. Still in CR blue, the locomotive arrived at the D-L shop in Scranton on Octo- ber 5. It will be restored to its as-delivered Lackawanna appearance and occasionally operate on the former DL&W main line between Scranton and the Delaware Water Gap.
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LACKAWANNA RAILROAD; MIKE DEL VECCHIO COLLECTION
DOYLE MCCORMACK
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