what a hodge-podge of equiptment in the beginning. i love it

@mikeingersoll4466

7 жыл бұрын

Rukkkis ya but the f40ph bro...best loco ever

@BiggusDickusMontePython

3 жыл бұрын

Was a hodge-podge because of all the railroads that folded to become amtrak.

I am so happy tat someone back then took the time to film these trains.

BN is my favorite railroad of the 1970s. GN is my all time favorite

Mismatched rainbow consists, love them! Trains like you might see on some model railroads!!

@Petemonster62

5 жыл бұрын

Burlington Northern passenger trains were " Rainbow Trains " as well in 1970 & 1971. Burlington Route, Northern Pacific, & two Great Northern color schemes could all be seen in one train!

I was 7 years old. And still remember these in 72 and 1973 was 9 years old. And Amtrak is going

That scene at 3:53 is pretty amazing. I'm sure it isn't original sound, but it does sound pretty close unlike most other clips in this trailer and in other videos like this. It would have been amazing to get the real sound of one of those things blasting by at 90+.

BN's final Empire Builder was a true Rainbow Fleet, one that I think makes it the most interesting. And my favorite to model.

This is great! E units, SDP40fs, BN, UP, Milwuakee....too much good stuff! Thanks so much for sharing:)

What an era!

I just found this on DVD at St. Francis' Thrift Store!

I love the equipment on your videos so much history!!

3:53, love those horns. My boy is hitting them rails. Got a schedule to keep.

@christophercarey3232

Ай бұрын

Leslie S5T on the Santa Fe F7A pulling the Super Chief, now known as the Southwest Chief.

Great videos !

great compilation video

I've actually never taken a passenger train in America before, only ever in Britain, China, Japan, and Continental Europe. I've only ever ridden on tourist railroads like the Strasburg, but seeing these films makes me wish I could take an Amtrak train when they used these creative looking consists.

"Early Amtrak Across Wisconsin" refers to the period following the formation of Amtrak in 1971 when the new national passenger rail service took over intercity train operations from various private railroads. Here are some key points and events related to early Amtrak operations across Wisconsin: 1. **Transition Period**: In the early 1970s, Amtrak took over passenger train services from private railroads like the Milwaukee Road, Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW), and others. This transition led to changes in train routes, schedules, and equipment. 2. **Empire Builder**: Amtrak's flagship train, the Empire Builder, began serving Wisconsin as part of its route between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington. This route passed through cities like Milwaukee, La Crosse, and Tomah in Wisconsin, providing a crucial link for passengers traveling between the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. 3. **Chicago-Milwaukee Corridor**: Amtrak also introduced corridor services between Chicago and Milwaukee, enhancing connectivity and accessibility for commuters and travelers between these two major cities. 4. **Equipment and Operations**: During the early years of Amtrak, the equipment used for passenger trains was a mix of inherited cars and locomotives from different railroads, leading to the "Rainbow" trains mentioned earlier. These trains showcased a variety of paint schemes and equipment types until Amtrak developed its unified branding and standardized equipment. 5. **Local Rail Scenes**: The introduction of Amtrak brought changes to local rail scenes across Wisconsin, including stations, rail yards, and the types of trains running on the tracks. This period witnessed a blend of classic locomotives like E-9s, F-3s, F-7s, and F-9s alongside newer Amtrak equipment. 6. **Historical Significance**: The early years of Amtrak across Wisconsin marked a significant chapter in the history of passenger rail travel, showcasing both the challenges and innovations in transitioning from private to nationalized rail services. If you have specific questions or would like more details about any aspect of early Amtrak operations across Wisconsin, feel free to ask!

At 0:36 that looks like Trempeleau Mountain on the Mississippi River -- "the Mountain that soaks in water."

I own this DVD and highly recommended for your rail archives. I hope see Amtrak footage of the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

I have the CB&Q California Zephyr plus the GN Empire Builder. Good video. Its a shame we don't see trains as beautiful as that today!

I miss those old bridges, like the one at 3:15. 🌉

Whoa!!!!! grate, grate video!!!!!!!!!!

Great classic passenger train footage! 5*****

Bought this DVD and Empire Builders to Milwaukee on Sat. and totally enjoyed them both. Hopefully, the photog has more footage. Yes, thats the Southern 4501 on the Schlitz Circus Train. My mom, 5 year old sister and 7 year old me were standing unknowingly right next to the guy shooting the movie as it passed through our hometown of Waterloo, WI. at Harrison St. My sis lets out a brief scream as the train approaches that can be heard on the DVD.

@xCharjx

6 жыл бұрын

Thats amazing!

I used to go up to Oconomowoc to watch the Hiawatha roll through at 90 + mph

I believe the horn is an old cast Nathan P5.

Love it.

3:53, I railfan that place all the time! Mazon, IL!

@willberestartingthischanne9984

3 жыл бұрын

3:53

At 3:16 it looks like the circus train's running right on the grass...you can barely see the track LOL

@esthercavagnaro9147

5 жыл бұрын

3:16 looks like the circus train

I just realised the narrator is the game guy who did the narration for the ‘Firepower’ military documentary DVD series. Either that or they sound REALLY similar 😅

Yeah - try Fargo/Moorhead in the dead of Winter... then the long flat stretch to & though Eastern Montana...

The Union Pacific Railroad Co. Can Only Restore The Floridian! in 1986.

@micmac99, hey it is even weirder for me because I remember getting on an amtrak train like that sometime in the '70's.

May 1st, 1971, Amtrak begins in passenger service

I have wondered if the passenger equipment and diesels were saved once they were retired

Can you do one on the GB&W and A&W. Two major wisconsin railways

Beautiful train, cars look like Northern Pacific or was that the B units we saw.

We railfans used to drive to Oconomowoc (an hour drive) to watch the Hi' blast through town in the snow at 90 + mph... what a thrill

@josephagnello9335

6 жыл бұрын

We did the same thing in Hartland!!!

@josephagnello9335

6 жыл бұрын

I was born in 1950.I got to see the end of three cultureal shifts and the beginning of a new one . . ."baby-boomers.6 surrounded in 1950.s by modernism (men and women returning home to a new life.pockets flushed with spendable cash propelled and dipped us into the Golden Age of the wonderful 1950s and 1960s.Hartland has MY SOUL!!! My brothers and I would fall asleep to the steam engine's drivers clicking and hear that long long low whistle.Every day Mom would take us to the little Hartland train station to see those groumd-blast freight trains pulled by the 4-8-4s and the high speed HIAWATHA'S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! replete with telegragh machine,green visor and spectacles!!! Those freight trains and Hiawatha's were clocked at 90.7 mph after they rounded that Peewaukee bend in the East .That light crept so slowly rounding that bend we thought it would never head straight West ALAS,Here SHE COMES !!!

...yeah I remember the "rainbow trains".

@taublix315

5 жыл бұрын

Sadly i never got to see them.

@bluerazor7049

4 жыл бұрын

@@taublix315 at least there is pictures and footage to show it

@taublix315

2 жыл бұрын

@@bluerazor7049 yeah

Amtrak should bring back their EMD E & F units, as well as the SDP40F (Revised and redone), P30CH (Revised and redone), and other locomotives that they used to have like the Pennsylvania GG1's and GE E60's. In the end, in my opinion, any Locomotive can be useful, and can last a very long time with proper maintenance and care. If locomotives need to be redone to qualify for tier 4 emission standards, then they should be redone.

Where can you purchase the films narrirated by this guy? I saw this same film at the Green Bay national Railroad Museum.

It would be nice to see the North Coat Hiawatha return. Its also a sad state how primitive our country is with rail travel. People complain about the pollution, global warming, and the traffic on the highways, but yet, they choose to forget about rail transportation as a necessity to resolve these issues or at least slow them down.

I think originally Amtrak simply used railroad passenger cars in their original livery; however, you may have seen some cars in the video that were in Amtrak colors. Eventually, most of the equipment looked the same, at least on the outside. As rando points out, however, in 1975 (or thereabouts) Amtrak started buying new equipment (probably Amfleet), painted of course in Amtrak colors, and the Superliners came out in 1979-80.

Yeah,that's a bummer

this was used in the classic sdp40f of vid made by amtrakguy365 but it got copyrighted until it came back

I hate how the recording is cut off prior to seeing the entire consist. Is the full DVD like this?

0:23 is La Crosse, WI crossing of BN at the time. Heading for Minnesota (Westbound)

@pkranz937

4 жыл бұрын

Actually, it was BN, C&NW, and Milwaukee.

You're right, they should credit the trains in Alaska. :D

like train

oh yeah

at the 3:20 mark, watch out for the smoke, haha

was that steam southern engine 4501

3:53 is that ATSF Super Chief in Mazon, IL?

The 1994, And Diesel Powered 1995 Sunset Circus Trains Appear!

That locomotive was GM&O E7. The train was the Abraham Lincoln.

It's just criminal that they canceled most of those wonder full trains. Reducing the Hiawatha route to a dinky corridor route? That's an insult to the train. But at least we have the Empire Builder. Let's hope nothing happens to that!

@teapop311

6 жыл бұрын

traindude80 Amtrak’s Hiawatha Route is run exactly how the Milwaukee road ran it for their last time. When the Milwaukee built its transcontinental route, they went too far over budget, and I mean by millions upon millions of dollars over budget. This eventually grew out of control and as a last ditch effort to save the Milwaukee Road, they sold off the line to Great Northern, who then made the empire builder service. The Milwaukee Road by then had gotten rid of all Hiawatha services, such as the Olympian Hiawatha, the Northwoods Hiawatha, etc... They then made a new service from Milwaukee to Chicago called the Hiawatha. And then they went bankrupt. Great northern merged with Burlington Route and the two later merged with the Santa Fe, creating BNSF, but had already stopped service on the empire builder when Amtrak was created. Amtrak is innocent, for the most part. They did stop using the F40PH as their main source of road power so that’s a big guilty in my books. At least they still use a couple F40PHs.

The 1972 And Steam Powered 1973 Milwaukee Circus Tains Appear!

It looks like around the time they got the new eqipment, it went slower. LOL I was Born in 1981

I wonder if the super chief scene's sound at 3:53 is real.

Amtrak should run more rainbow trains. Or at least, with it's own paint scheme. After all, it has five versions now.

@maxshelltrack9720

5 жыл бұрын

They should go back to the phase 3 scheme and stick with it the one now looks to generic.

@SHADOWNADO where is train day?

These are pretty cool, but I like P42's and Superliners a bit more, even though I am "old?"

Yeah it is. Look closely and you can see the word, "southern" on the tender.

Whoaa 3:38 - 3:44 creepy light O__O

@anhkietduongdo

5 жыл бұрын

It’s called a Mars light

back when the rails had flavor to them. Now they all look alike.

Interesting how on early Amtrak "rainbow" consists you have everything from SP to BN to Union Pacific and others. Weird!

Can anyone suggest where to find the 1950's train horn sounds. thaks

@ErickC

2 жыл бұрын

Pretty much anything that doesn't begin with an "RS" and isn't part of the K5LA/HL/LLH/whatever family was in production in the 1950s. You're going to have to be a bit more specific.

@paulbrennan5646

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErickC Thanks!

I did the 800th like, just to let you know

I thought the BN railroad was a fright railroad not a passenger train

@evanwaters1074

7 жыл бұрын

In it's first year, 1970, the BN took over passenger trains from the SP&S, NP, CB&Q, and GN. 1 year later, Amtrak was made

@maxshelltrack9720

5 жыл бұрын

Bn was pretty much always a freight rr.

What r the cool blue cars

@Trainmaster909

9 жыл бұрын

Great Northern livery passenger cars

@richardgerlach5156

9 жыл бұрын

Ryan Mcminn "Big Sky Blue". 1967-1971.

Was this back when they didn't derail everyday?

3:26 that’s the southern #4501!

It is running on the grass or should I say weeds. Some of the tracks are like that were I live most of the tracks are still used but some have been ripped out. Which sucks if only I had Hank Hills lawn mower to get rid of the DAMN weeds.

Why does Amtrak get so little funding ?? Is there no passenger rail lobbyists??

@leakyjeep5.9

5 жыл бұрын

It all goes to the fat cats in the school systems.

Has Amtrak ever broke even or made a profit?

0:48

Ok PC Or Penn Central has e8

just like druing the merger american west airlines and us airways 2004 to 2007

"Rail Passenger Carrier"--WTF? And what is a "first vestige?"

2:55 whats the horn?

@TrainTrackTrav

7 жыл бұрын

Leslie S3L with dead 44 bell. I.E. a Leslie S2A.

@ErickC

2 жыл бұрын

@@TrainTrackTrav : I should note that the actual horn on the unit was probably a PM-990. BN didn't use the S3L/PM-920.

@christophercarey3232

Ай бұрын

​@@ErickCBN did have a small handful of S3Ls/PM920s on some of their units. Other units had S5Ts.

1 engine per car lol

seriously who cares about soo line these days?

@ErickC

2 жыл бұрын

Bob Rivard does, I imagine...

My mind was just shocked from what Amtrak used to be like when they were first founded and started revenue service. Also, I got quite emotional on these old clips as well. 🥹🥹.

like train