AEM-7 Electrics, Heritage Baggage Cars on Amtrak's Southwest Chief, Fort Madison, IA 7/13/17

On July 13th, 2017, Amtrak's westbound Southwest Chief had some interesting equipment in the consist. Thanks to many online accounts from a few days prior, I found out that a pair of AEM-7 electric locomotives were heading to the TTCI test track in Pueblo, Colorado. The two units had already arrived in Chicago, having traveled on the Capitol Limited from Washington, DC. Railfans in the Chicago area on the afternoon of July 13th posted that the engines had left on the Southwest Chief.
The closest stop on the Southwest Chief line from where I live is Fort Madison, Iowa. I arrived about a half hour before and caught a few BNSF trains arriving. The Amtrak station in Fort Madison is located at the east end of BNSF's division point and yards. The division point is between the Chillicothe Subdivision (Ft Madison - Chicago) and the Marceline Subdivision (Ft Madison - Kansas City), and most freight trains will stop here to change crews. As Amtrak approaches, a westbound intermodal train has just received its new crew and begins out of the station on main #2. Amtrak arrives on main track #1.
On the front of the train are three Genesis diesels, the middle one being Amtrak's Phase III "heritage" unit #822. Following are the AEM-7's, #942 and #928. You may remember hearing about #942 as it was the leader of Amtrak's special AEM-7 farewell excursion between Washington and Philadelphia in June 2016. Today, all of these units have been officially retired by Amtrak, being replaced with the new ACS-64 locomotives built by Siemens. This pair of engines was heading to the Pueblo test track because apparently they don't have any engines there capable of 125 MPH running right now. I assume they will use the engines to perform tests on new high speed equipment, perhaps passenger cars. This was my first time (that I know) that I ever saw an AEM-7 in person. Although my family took a vacation to Washington, DC in 1994, I was very young at the time, so I could have easily seen one in Union Station but I don't remember it.
Behind the electrics was another special appearance, SIX Heritage fleet baggage cars! With the arrival of Viewliner II baggage cars in 2015, the heritage fleet cars have almost entirely been retired by Amtrak, with a few held in reserve for stand-in service, and use as buffer cars. The only Heritage Fleet baggage cars remaining on Amtrak's roster are this style, numbered in the 1700's. These were rebuilt from Heritage Fleet coaches in the 1990's to become "specialty baggage cars", used for Amtrak Express package and US mail service. In 2004, when all Amtrak mail & express services ended, they became part of the usual baggage car fleet. On car in this consist, #1712, is still painted in the Phase IV scheme and features "United States Mail" and "Amtrak Express Baggage" lettering. From the looks of some of these, it appears that they've been sitting unused for a while, as it's very rare to see graffiti on Amtrak equipment. I don't know if they were also heading to Pueblo or not.
The train stops with its engines and baggage cars on the Ft Madison platform, for the change of engineers at the station. The conductor and station attendant walk ahead and stage themselves near where the Viewliner II baggage car will stop, as the train pulls forward for its main stop for passengers. Similar to Ottumwa on the California Zephyr route, Fort Madison is a stop that usually allows passengers to disembark from the train for a few minutes while the crew is briefed and baggage is loaded/unloaded.
This wasn't the first time I caught special equipment on the Chief. In August 2016 the westbound train arrived in Fort Madison with two Amtrak heritage units leading, with 5 Amtrak business cars and 3 private cars on the end. The video can be viewed by clicking here: • Amtrak Heritage Units ...
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