Amtrak Service

That must be a nice mess

That must be a nice mess running down the wall.  

"I was spitballing some off-the-wall ideas for switching layouts,"

Mike.

Switching

Switching would be minimal.  Maybe taking cars off the train and putting them on a track and then putting the cars back on the train.  All switching would be done as additional charges to Amtrak, so it was expensive.

There probably wouldn't be any "buildings" involved.  Probably just used a station track.  Amtrak didn't own many facilities outside the major terminals and the railroads sure weren't going to let Amtrak use their facilities unless legally forced to.  The Post Office no longer had rail served facilities.

The railroads got concessions on performance penalties for trains carrying express and eventually sued to prevent Amtrak from carrying express.

To add to Greg's comments.

To add to Greg's comments. When I worked as an engineer for the MNNR (Minnesota Commercial Railroad) we indeed up to and through the early 2000s switched Amtrak for roadrailers and boxcar/reefer traffic. Both these types of equipment rode at the end of Amtrak trains and we would wait, with our switch engine in the clear of arriving trains to cut off/add this type of traffic. Then immediately set the roadrailers to a station spur (imbedded in asphalt) while later running around the express box/reefer cars to set them into an old warehouse to be unloaded/re-loaded. This was the way we handled the inbound train from Chicago which usally arrived about midnight with the roadrailers hauling Ford auto parts. The box/reefer traffic was only about 3 or 4 cars  and didn't amount to much.

Amtrak's contractors would work all night pulling apart the roadrailers, delivering them, bring the mtys back and putting them back together while the folks at the warehouse would unload/reload the box and reefer cars so they would be available to connect with the Amtrak train from the west in the morning. While all this was going on we would switch in the yard or handle some industrial customers being ready before we quit in the morning to add the roadrailers and any box/reefers to the rear of  of the eastbound train. I generally, liked this job because my usual engine weas an old, cut nose, ex- GBW, Alco roadswitcher which produced lots of  black, oily, smoke when throttling up or down while switching which was fun to use.

Those Amtrak trains handling this freight equipment could really get long and I recall working one Christmas eve where the eastbound train was 31 car lengths long leaving Minneapolis/St.Paul. Alas, none of the roadrailers or box/reefer traffic was very profitable and the big railroads complained about it cutting into their freight business so Amtrak gave it up. It should be noted that the person who set up this business for Amtrak also was the one who saw the great, decline at Iowa Pacific and their passenger trains, later. Folks with great vision sometimes forget that their new ideas must pay the bills to survive.  

Barry

Express

They did more than complain, they filed lawsuits against Amtrak to force them to stop.

As Barry noted... its at the rear these days

Mail cars in the RPO days were at the engine end of the train... now they trail everything.

I live near the NEC, and there are actually few trains with the boxcars attached... you can watch for an hour (maybe 2-3 trains each way)  and see 1 or 2. 

At the major stations (NY Penn, for example) the PO is next to the passenger station... in NY, the PO has its own platforms... long unused at the GPO, they're Amtrak's next station... converting the GPO to Amtrak use will get those platforms active again.

How (in the old setup) arriving trains would drop cars from the front and continue is somewhat mysterious to me.  I'd expect the RPOs would be intercity, and not on through trains... IOW: attached to trains from DC to Boston, they would not be dropped at NYC.  But Boston bound mail from DC would be on a through train.

Roadrailers and MHC's carried the markers

The Amtrak Roadrailers were always tacked on the rear of the SW Chief,some were dropped at ABQ for

 Phoenix and El Paso USPS sorting centers with the trucking contractor running the miles between.

The Roadrailers would get moved to the intermodal yard to become trailers, get delivered and returned back,

then sent east to Chicago,some of the MHC's and Roadrailers would tacked on to Amtrak's Three Rivers,(aka

Broadway Ltd's DC section) at Chicago for the run to Washington DC.

Amtrak's Three Rivers was more of an Express and Mail train then passenger.

After the Host RR's started objecting,they restricted the speed of any passenger train that had MHC's

and Roadrailers in the consist.

Thank you

Interesting to read how the Roadrailers were handled.  Also have new ideas for my REA cars.

 edit- to stay on topic.