Amtrak inherited a menagerie of power at startup in 1971, but what were the oldest Amtrak locomotives?
During the period leading up to the advent of Amtrak in May 1971, it wasn’t uncommon to see passenger train equipment, both locomotives and cars, of significant seniority. Regarding what came behind the locomotives, heavyweight (typically pre-World War II) head-end cars were not uncommon, as well as coaches, both “modernized” to look like more recent lightweight streamliners, and those in their original configuration.
For that matter, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was still using a heavyweight dining car on its Chicago-St. Louis Abraham Lincoln on April 29, two days before Amtrak. A good number of earlier-vintage EMD E and F units were also extant, and the Delaware & Hudson continued to operate their former Santa Fe Alco PA units right up until Amtrak day on May 1. A Santa Fe E8 B unit (which had been rebuilt from a pre-war E unit model) was included in the motive power on the final westbound Santa Fe Super Chief/El Capitan on April 30.
Some of these rolling museum pieces persisted well after that date, while Amtrak sorted out what equipment it would acquire and use. On Nov. 14, 1971, the date run-through St. Louis-Milwaukee service was inaugurated, I rode on the eastbound Abe from Joliet to Glenview behind a pair of E7s; perhaps mercifully, the diner had been replaced by a stainless Sunset Limited car previously belonging to the Southern Pacific, but the “GM&O Special Sandwich” was still available on the menu.
So, of the equipment conveyed to and acquired by Amtrak, what were the oldest locomotives?
The oldest Amtrak locomotives
Although many E units were conveyed initially to Amtrak, nothing earlier than an E8 made the cut. Surprisingly, the oldest road diesel power was a cab-less B unit, Amtrak 155, an F3 dating from January 1947. Originally Northern Pacific 6551B, by the time it came to Amtrak, it was Burlington Northern 9775, and was retired by Amtrak in 1975. Along with BN sister 9777, Amtrak 156, these two units were the only ones of this model designation acquired by the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak’s formal name).
Turning to diesel switchers, pride-of-place for the initially conveyed group belongs to EMD SW1 246, delivered to the New York Central in May 1939, and wearing Penn Central 8464 when it arrived at Amtrak.
As you might expect, discerning the oldest electric Amtrak locomotive was relatively easy: GG1 900, built by the Pennsylvania railroad in March 1940 for its own use, as PRR (and later, PC) 4892. However, it is worth noting that regarding electric locomotives, there was another class that, while not conveyed to, or owned by Amtrak, certainly had the distinction of being the oldest locomotives to routinely couple up with Amtrak passenger consists and haul them over the road, albeit over a relatively short distance.
An honorable mention
This of course would be the P-motors, built for the Cleveland (Ohio) Union Terminal project in 1929 and transferred in the 1950s to the New York Central’s New York City area passenger services. Between 1971 and 1974, these creatures from another age, by now the property of the Penn Central, handled all of Amtrak’s Empire Service passenger trains over the 32.7 timetable miles between Grand Central Terminal and Croton-Harmon, where diesels took over for the rest of trip. So, one could say that the oldest Amtrak locomotives were not even Amtrak locomotives at all!
There are also the NYC&HR/NYC/PC S-motors that switched Grand Central Terminal in NY before the move to Penn Station. The prototype dates to 1904.
NYC 113 (PC 4713) was the last; it’s an S2 built in 1906 and is at MOT in Kirkwood, Mo. as NYC 113. NYC 115, also a 1906 S-2, is at Illinois Railway Museum as PC 4715.
Those are not even close, how about the Center Cab units used at Beech Grove from either the WW II era or the 80T units of the Korea era are O L D
PRR DD1 pair 3936-3937 date to 1910 and were the wire train power until PC sent the NYC motor from Harmon. A third rail motor could operate while the overhead power was shut off and grounded.
The NYC motor was not a success because nobody at Sunnyside knew anything about it and all the parts were at Harmon. Penn Station began moving the wire train with LIRR MU cars.
Amtrak now uses the P32AC-DM dual-mode motors with the diesel shut down.
What about the NYC T3a 278. I have pi tures of it in Penn Station. Since it was third rail powered they used it on wire trains in the tunnels and in the station.