Amtrak Heritage Units Lead Southwest Chief with 3 Private Cars, 5 Business Cars - Ft Madison, IA

Thanks to many heads-up accounts on Trainorders.com, I learned that Amtrak's Southwest Chief of August 2, 2016 would be a giant train full of special engines and cars. I drove to Ft Madison, Iowa, to see the train as it made its stop at the station, which is also located in BNSF's freight yard. The train was running about an hour late.

Leading the train is a matching pair of Amtrak's specially-painted "Heritage" units, P40 #822 and P42 #145, which are both in the "Phase III" livery. Following these engines are P42's #169 and #170. The Heritage units will be taken off the train in Kansas City to power a special Amtrak train to Texas. More about that in a moment.

Next up is the normal Southwest Chief consist of Superliner cars and the Viewliner II baggage car. Besides the baggage car, you may notice that the consist is flipped, with the coaches in front, and sleepers (including the transition car) on the end. This is so the conductor can access the following eight single-deck cars on the train. That's right...EIGHT more cars! The first three are private cars being used for "The Millennial Trains Project" (http://www.millennialtrain.co/) - Frisco sleeping car "Cimarron River", Southern Pacific sleeping car "Birch Grove", and Northern Pacific dome car "Stampede Pass", featuring special wraps across the car advertising the Millennial Trains event and sponsors.

That's not all! Behind the three private cars are five Amtrak single-deck cars. These are being used by Amtrak president and CEO Joe Boardman, who is making a "farewell" tour of sorts with honored guests before a new Amtrak president takes over in the coming months. Heritage units 822 and 145 will take these cars south from Kansas City to El Paso, Texas, across the route of the Sunset Limited to New Orleans, and back up to Chicago in the next several days. The consist in the "Executive Excursion" (as it's being called) is as follows: Amfleet business car #10001 "Beech Grove", Heritage fleet sleeping car #10021 "Pacific Cape", Viewliner sleeping car #62044, full-length dome/lounge #10031 "Ocean View", and Viewliner theater car #10004 "American View". As the train was stopped at the station I actually saw Joe Boardman briefly getting his picture taken on the end of "Beech Grove" (not in video).

Well this was quite the consist! I hope you enjoyed the video. This was the longest Southwest Chief train I've seen since this time three years ago in Rutledge, MO:    • Massive consist plus ACS-64 on Amtrak's So...  

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