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| Superliner | |
|---|---|
 Superliner I Dining Car | |
 Interior of Superliner I Lounge Car | |
| Manufacturer | Pullman Standard (Series I) / Bombardier Transportation (Series II) |
| Number built | 1978-81, 1993-95 |
| Number built | 479 |
| Number in service | 411 |
| Number scrapped | 22Dan Ainsworth (2007-12-20). Superliner car rosters (HTML) (English). Retrieved on 2008-03-08. |
| Capacity | 74 maximum |
| Operator | Amtrak |
| Lines served | All Amtrak trains west of Mississippi River |
| Specifications | |
| Car length | 85 feet 0 inches (25.9 m) |
| Width | 10 feet 2 inches (3.1 m) |
| Height | 16 feet 2 inches (4.9 m) |
| Entry | Step |
| Maximum speed | 100 mph (161 km/h) |
| Weight | 148,000 lb (67 tonnes) gross weight for coaches (all specs Crossing Collision/Derailment VIA Rail Canada Inc. Passenger Train No 85 Mile 33.54, Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR) Guelph Subdivision Limehouse, Ontario (HTML) (English). Transportation Safety Board of Canada (1999-11-09). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.) |
| Power supply | Head end power |
The Superliner is a double decker passenger car used by Amtrak on longer-distance trains that do not use the Northeast Corridor.
The initial cars were built by Pullman-Standard in the 1970s and a second order was built in the early 1990s by Bombardier Transportation. As delivered, the cars came in various configurations, including coach, diner, and sleeper.
Contents |
The Superliner design was based on the Budd-built Hi-Levels operated by the Santa Fe Railway, for their El Capitan train. That fleet was purchased by Amtrak on its 1971 formation. When the Superliners began to arrive in the late 1970s, many Hi-Level coaches were converted into Coach-Dorms for crew use on Superliner trains. These were replaced in the 1990s by new Superliner II Transition Sleepers. In recent years, five El Capitan lounge cars were refurbished as the Coast Starlight\'s Pacific Parlour first-class lounge cars. These cars have a service bar, booths, and chairs on the upper level, and were recently upgraded to have a theatre on the lower level. All other Hi-Level cars are off the company\'s active roster.
The Superliner I fleet was built in 1978-81 by Pullman Standard and were the last passenger cars built by the Chicago coachbuilder. The last car of the order, a sleeper, was also the last car ever built by Pullman and was named in honor of the Company\'s founder, George Mortimer Pullman. The Superliner I was also the first Amtrak car type to be equipped with an on-board waste treatment and disposal system linked to all toilets. The first cars went into service on 1979-02-26.Trains (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA: Kalmbach), 1979, 1979-06
The Superliner II fleet was built in 1993-94 by Bombardier in Barre, Vermont, which acquired the designs and patents from Pullman in 1987. The Superliner I and Superliner II differ somewhat in interior fittings, primarily in color- the newer cars tend toward gray, aquamarine, and salmon rather than the shades of brown and orange favored on earlier cars. Externally, the two classes differ in a number of subtle respects, but they are readily distinguished by the type of truck (bogie) used to support the car: Superliner I cars use a German design originally fitted with an air bag suspension (replaced with springs), while the Superliner II cars use a General Steel Castings truck of the same type used under Horizon, Viewliner, and the original self-propelled 1969 Metroliner cars.
Superliner I coach-baggage car showing end-door on second level.
Two configurations exist for Superliner sleeping cars. Of the 125 sleeping cars, 119 are configured as below, and the remaining 6 cars are configured with all Bedrooms on the upper level.
Superliner dining cars have almost the entire upper level available for seating, while the galley (kitchen) occupies the entire lower level. A dumbwaiter is used to bring food to the dining level, as well as to return dishes and cutlery for washing. Amtrak operates 69 Superliner dining cars.
When originally delivered in the 1970s, Superliner I lounges were referred to as "Lounge Café" cars. These were fitted with enormous windows that wrapped upward into the ceiling, providing views of scenery along the train\'s route. With the arrival of Superliner II cars in the 1990s, the nomenclature for all Superliner lounges with large windows became "Sightseer Lounge." Superliner lounge cars once had an operating wet-bar on the upper level. This function has been consolidated with that of the snack bar on the lower level, but the abandoned upper-level bars have not yet been removed. Recently, this space has been reactivated during peak periods on the Empire Builder route, but only to serve light snacks like pretzels and soda. On other routes, the bar may be used as a speaking podium for volunteer National Park Service rangers from the Trails and Rails program. The rest of the upper level is filled with a mixture of swivelling chairs and love seats facing the windows. In addition to the 55 Sightseer Lounges, five lounge cars were converted from Superliner I dining cars for Auto Train service; these cars, which are only found in that train, lack the larger windows of the Sightseer Lounge cars.
102 Superliner I coaches were built, and 48 Superliner I coach-baggage combination cars with a secure baggage hold instead of lower-level seating. 38 Superliner II coaches were added to the roster. 30 of the coach-baggage combinations were later converted into "smoking coaches" with a smoking lounge replacing the baggage area and the outside baggage door in the side of the car sealed shut. Since all Amtrak trains are now non-smoking throughout (with the exception of Auto Train), all coach smoking cars were converted back to coach baggage cars. At least one train, the Texas Eagle, already uses a coach-bag in lieu of a stand-alone baggage car. Another train, the Coast Starlight, uses a converted standard coach as a special "children\'s car", with the lower level space converted into a playroom for small children. Of the 188 coaches of various types originally delivered, 159 are "in service" [late 2006], the remainder either wrecked and scrapped or wreck-damaged and awaiting either repairs or scrapping.
The "normal" Superliner coaches have 12 seats downstairs in addition to the 62 seats upstairs. The lower level coach seating is handicapped accessible (with actual space for a wheelchair or two) and is a special reservations category (with no additional charge). The coach-bag combination coaches naturally have only upstairs seating. On the lower level in all coaches there are large luggage racks and, typically, four unisex toilets (one with a changing room), an accessible toilet, and a dedicated women\'s restroom.
Superliner coach seating is highly unlike airplane coach-class seating. Superliner coaches have wide two-and-two reclining seats, with foot-rests and retractable leg-rests. The 50-inch "pitch" (distance from one seat-back to the next) of the seats makes for very comfortable and commodious seating, but puts the foot-rests out of reach of many passengers. There are overhead open luggage racks but they are not suitable for bulky objects.
A number of "transition sleeper" cars were built for use on Superliner-equipped trains. These cars, feature roomette accommodations for members of the train crew (although occasionally used for passengers) on the upper level, and a handicapped bedroom and crew lounge on the lower level. Sanitary facilities (toilets and showers) are on the upper and lower levels, along with the standard center vestibule. The "transition" in the name refers to the fact that these cars have a high-level end door and diaphragm only at one end; the other end has a short staircase from the upper level leading to an end door at the height of standard single-deck railcar end doors. Theoretically, this could be used to allow passengers passage from single-level to Superliner cars in a single train; in practice, it is only used to allow the crew on-the-road access to the older, single-level baggage cars used on many Superliner trains. Transition cars have been used in the past to connect single level cars with Superliner or high level cars on rare occasions. High level Coach-Dorms were the predecessors to the current Superliner transition dorms and had a coach section.
In 1990 California passed propositions 108 and 116 drastically expanding funding funding for intercity rail within the state. With this new source of money, the state set out to specify a standardized railcar for the state that would be suitable for both intercity and commuter rail operations. The result of this effort were designs for two variations of the Superliner. While the commuter rail version was never built, 88 cars of the intercity version were built. The most visible difference between the Superliner and the "California Car" is that the California Cars have 2 doors per side instead of one on the Superliners. The first California Cars were built by Morrison-Knudsen and were delivered in 1996, the remainder were built by Alstom and delivered in 2000 and 2001. In 2008, Caltrans accepted delivery of 2 rebuilt Superliners which had been damaged in accidents for use in Amtrak California service. These cars are painted in the Amtrak California scheme and have had their interiors rebuilt to match the California Cars. Caltrans is curently rebuilding another 4 Superliners to add to the Amtrak California fleet.
| Amtrak Rolling Stock accurate as of August 1, 2007 | |
|---|---|
| Cars | Amfleet • Auto Train / Autorack • Baggage cars • Dome car • Heritage Fleet • California Cars • Horizon Fleet • Maintenance of way • Talgo Cars • Surfliner Cars • Superliner • Viewliner |
| Diesel locomotives | GE 32BWH Dash 8 • F59PHI • P42DC Genesis • P40DC Genesis |
| Electric locomotives | P32ACDM Genesis • Acela HHP-8 • AEM-7 |
| Switchers | GP15D • GG20B • GP38 • GP38H-3 • MP15 • SW1 • SW1001 • SW1200 • SW1500 • SW1000R • SW8 |
| Locomotives received from other railroads | Diesel: E8 • E9 • F3B • F7 • FP7 Electric: FL9 • GG1 |
| Former locomotives | Diesel: F40PH • F69PHAC • GP40TC • P30CH • SDP40F • Turboliner • TurboTrain Electric: E60 • Metroliner |
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