Heritage Fleet

When Amtrak took over most intercity passenger service in the United States in 1971, the company selected the best equipment from its predecessor railroads. Amtrak selected about 1,190 of the circa 3,000 passenger cars available; all were air-conditioned, and over 90% were stainless steel.^{[2]: 108 [3]} None of the initial cars came from Penn Central due to its bankruptcy proceedings, even though it was the source of a substantial proportion of Amtrak's initial trains. Amtrak acquired additional secondhand equipment from various railroads, including Penn Central, during the 1970s.^[2]: 108

Amtrak used its secondhand equipment across its national system – often with cars from multiple railroads seen in a single train, creating the "Rainbow Era". This created maintenance difficulties: mechanics from one railroad were not familiar with the equipment from another.^[4]: 17 Almost all of the secondhand equipment was steam heated; only eight cars from the Keystone and 16 ex-C&NW cars had head-end power (HEP).^{[2]: 153 [4]: 76} Amtrak acquired its first large HEP fleet, the Amfleet cars, in 1975–76. The company converted 30 ex-US Army troop kitchen cars to baggage cars with HEP in 1976 to operate with Amfleet cars on the Northeast Corridor.^{[2]: 114–115, 170}

The unusually harsh winter of 1976–1977 sidelined much of the steam-heated fleet, causing cancellation of most Amtrak service in the Midwest for two months.^[4]: 32 The HEP-equipped Amfleet corridor cars handled the weather better; some were even pressed into service on long-distance routes.^{[5]: 96 [4]: 78} On May 26, 1977, Amtrak began a program to convert steam-heat cars to HEP at Beech Grove Shops.^[4]: 33 The rebuild cost $250,000–$400,000 per car – one-third the cost of new equipment.^[6][7] Beech Grove was initially to handle all 500 cars selected for HEP conversion, but 175 were overhauled elsewhere to speed the process.^[5]: 260 In a separate program, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway handled the conversion of the Hi-Levels in its Topeka, Kansas shops.^[7]

On October 15, 1979, the Lake Shore Limited was the first Amtrak route to be permanently assigned HEP-equipped Heritage Fleet cars.^[5]: 34 The Broadway Limited followed in March–April 1980, then the Crescent and Silver Meteor in 1981.^{[5]: 34 [4]: 78} The conversion of the Silver Star on March 10, 1982, completed Amtrak's transition to HEP equipment.^[4]: 78 (Most of the western long-distance trains were converted to new Superliner equipment in 1979–1981.) The final cars from the main HEP program were completed in March 1983.^[2]: 170 A small number of cars were converted later, including several dome cars in 1984.^[4]: 79

The HEP conversion program was intended to wring about ten additional years of service out of the aging cars.^[7] Amfleet II coaches began replacing older coaches on the Broadway Limited in 1982 and the Lake Shore Limited in 1983, and Heritage Fleet coaches were gone from the latter by 1990. Viewliner sleeping cars replaced Heritage Fleet sleepers in the 1990s.^[5]: 34 Nevertheless, some Heritage Fleet cars remained in use into the 21st century. By 2011, 101 ex-steam-heat cars remained active: 67 baggage cars, 20 dining cars, five "Pacific Parlour" Hi-Level lounge cars, one dome car, and eight non-revenue cars.^[2]: 193

The Viewliner II cars, delivered from 2014 to 2021, replaced the remaining Heritage Fleet baggage and dining cars were used on the Eastern single-level trains.^[8][9] The final use of the remaining Pacific Parlour cars on the Coast Starlight was on February 4, 2018.^[10] The last Heritage Fleet car in Amtrak use was a 1955-built ex-Great Northern Railway full-length dome car, Ocean View, which was manufactured in 1955. Used intermittently, it was retired in 2019 due to its age and maintenance expense.^[11]

• Union Pacific heritage fleet

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