Amtrak recently notified the railroad that the car, which was sought by a number of railroads, would be donated to ASR, largely on the strength of the car’s lineage, says Frank Koblinski, board vice president of the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society, which operates the railroad.
The car was originally New York Central Lounge Car No. 463, and records show it travelled the tracks that run through Utica, N.Y., where the scenic railroad is based, Koblinski says. There were NYC trains that split at Utica, with one section riding the tracks to Lake Placid, N.Y., which is on the current scenic railroad line. While there are no photographs to prove it, it’s likely that No. 463 made the trip along those same rails years ago, he says.
Adirondack Scenic’s proposal for the car included that narrative, which Koblinksi believes influenced Amtrak’s decision. The tourist line hopes to take possession of the car in May.
“We’re thrilled,” he says.
Amtrak number?
NYC typically ran long hood forward.
Great News!
Nice to hear this positive news!
Sometimes…………….good things happen !
I wish them good fortune, but Please, place the Locomotive in forward, Please!!!
Carl Fowl
I, too, rode the “Century” in that era and testify that the first class section was kept up to the highest standards. Riding in a “Creek” car while enjoying a Manhattan in the month of June with daylight almost all the way to Albany and then enjoying a wonderful meal in the twin-unit diner was an experience never to be forgotten. I was fortunate to do it five times!
Indeed former NYC #463 was built in 1948 as a Grill-Diner. While it certainly ran through Utica (and did so regularly up until just a few years on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited), it is doubtful that it ever routinely ran north out of Utica on the St. Lawrence or Adirondack Divisions. These overnight trains to Lake Placid, Ogdensburg or Massena, NY carried both sleepers and coaches but no food service north of Utica.
Most of the New York Central diners retained by Amtrak were of the design the Budd Company provided for what the NYC called Grill Diners. These cars could serve full meals, but were also capable of a simplified meal service and could be set up with some of the car used as lounge space.
After coaches were added to the 20th CENTURY LIMITED a grill diner was almost always present, just behind the one or two coaches and adjacent to the one or two slumbercoaches (later sleepercoaches in NYC parlance). These were followed by what effectively was the still full-service Pullman section–all room sleepers (generally Pullman built for the 1947 edition of the CENTURY, although in later years Budd sleepers also appeared), followed by a twin unit diner/kitchen/lounge two car set (open to all riders–although the diner side rarely saw coach passengers, perhaps because the menus were too fancy/pricey for them?), then more Pullmans and finally one of the “Creek” series Pullman-built huge windowed sleeper-lounge-observation cars, which were always restricted to Pullman riders only.
I personally experienced the CENTURY in this configuration both as a slumbercoach and Pullman customer. Those remain the best train trips of my life in terms of exquisite food and service. This was a true grand hotel on rails. That the NYC pulled off perfection every night, even after they had taken direct control over the sleepers by ending their Pullman operating contract, speaks to true corporate devotion and pride!
Grill diners also at first served the coach side of the post war streamlined edition of the NEW ENGLAND STATES, as well as trains like the originally all-coach PACEMAKER.
Budd did deliver a substantial number of streamlined full lounge cars to the NYC, with the same floor plan (but no observation windows) as the cars delivered to the Lackawanna for the PHOEBE SNOW. But these cars lacked a true kitchen. Amtrak may have crafted a home-built kitchen, but I suspect the car acquired by the ASR was a grill-diner. The true lounge cars did have on offer a very limited cold sandwich menu on some trains, but could not do anything really cooked properly, at least as delivered.
Budd NYC diners and lounge cars are still around on several preservation lines. I had a fine lunch in an ex-YC Budd diner ascending the Allegheny Mountains out of Eklins, WV on the NEW TYGART FLYER in 2010, and encountered one of the Budd lounge cars both at Washington Union Station for a NARP function in 2018 and on the Cape May Seashore Lines a few years earlier. I believe Iowa Pacific also has/or had at least one of the diners.
Whatever its original heritage this is a great acquisition for the beautiful Adirondack Scenic route and should allow them to offer a much enhanced food service experience. Congratulations!