#metroliner

[supertrainstationh]

X

That front looks absurd.

I know they were desperate to get the Amtrak logo on there somewhere, but this is NOT the way.

Anyway, I love it.

[nocternalrandomness]

U.S. Navy / Fairchild C-26D Metroliner / Glasgow Prestwick Airport

[alcidyne]

Amtrak Metroliner Cab Car 9645 (July 2 2025)

[aryburn-trains]

Metroliner

An eastbound Amtrak Metroliner bounds past the commuter station at Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA, July 1975. Photo by Bill Wilcox.

[wikipediapictures]

High-speed rail

[railwayhistorical]

Electrics on the Main Line and Washington Branch

Back in the 1970s I spent a day running around on the Main LIne east of Harrisburg as well as down to the Washington Branch (NEC) near Perryville, MD. Here are some electrics I saw that day—two trains powered by GG1s and one made up of electroliners.

Four images by Richard Koenig; taken March 21st 1977.

[hagleyvault]

In 2019, the Hagley Library was privileged to receive a donation of over 150,000 negatives from railroad photographer and collector Herbert Harwood Jr. The following is one of a series of posts featuring images from the collection. To learn more and see additional images from the collection, check the Hagley Digital Archives.

Amtrak makes up the largest volume of negatives in the Harwood Collection. Amtrak started via an act of the U.S. government after the bankruptcy of the Penn Central in 1970. The Penn Central was formed with the merger of the once mighty Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central in 1968, which brought together two of the largest passenger carriers in the country. Together, the two companies had dominated the heavily populated northeast corridor. At the time, the bankruptcy of the Penn Central was the largest in U.S. history. 

To fill the massive void left by the failure of not just the Penn Central but passenger lines across the country, the government passed the Congressional Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970. The act consolidated twenty passenger railroads into one and caused Amtrak to operate as a private entity with funding from federal and state governments. Today, Amtrak continues to operate as it did at its founding and is the only operator of rail service between cities and towns in the country.

Harwood amassed a collection of an estimated 3,500 Amtrak images -- most that he took himself -- starting with its founding in the 1970s.

Below (and above) are photographs showing GG1 electric engines running under the banner of Amtrak and Conrail. The GG1 was developed by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s and served the PRR, the Penn Central, Amtrak, and Northeast commuter lines in New York and New Jersey. The last GG1 in regular service retired in 1983.

Southbound Amtrak #918 on viaduct at I-95 crossing in Wilmington, Delaware, 1975. (Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.)

Banner image: Amtrak northbound 'Patriot' passing Conrail freight train at Bay View, Baltimore, 1979. (Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.)

The Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970 but continued to operate until 1975. The image below by Herbert Harwood Jr. shows a Metroliner train in Edgewood, Maryland in 1974 during Amtrak’s early years and the final years of the Penn Central. The Metroliner -- developed under a partnership between the Pennsylvania Railroad and U.S. Dept of Transportation in the 1960s -- was the first high-speed passenger and ran between New York and Washington DC

This collection is currently being processed, but selected items have been digitized and made available on the Hagley Library’s Digital Archive. Click here to view them now. 

[xoverit]

Amtrak Metroliner in Maryland. (1987)