Good idea using CA glue, very easy to break it down again if you decide to add interiors to the cars. Too many cars I see get ruined because folks think they need to use epoxy or Model plasti weld glues which then require cutting. I have never secured bodies to any cars except with screws on those that come that way, so much easier to get apart and do whatever needs doing, especially repainting. Great video!!

Five truly beautiful carriages, and four beautiful locomotives (even the growly one). I wish you, Sir, "More power to your elbow!"

You can hear how smoothly the cars run. The same for all the locomotives. Very nice, indeed.

Always liked Amtrak stuff. Rode it a lot as a kid.

Beautiful sound as well as appearance.

I started out to mention putting the couplers on before mating trucks to the chassis, but I see you did this after the first assembly/ install. Well done sir! I am new to the channel and I am very pleased I found you! Great material every time!

What would make the train look even nicer would be another coach or two, and an observation car, otherwise, that’s a nice train, like the video🚂

I bought 3 of these in B&O livery brand new back in 05, mine are lighted, that is why half the wheels are plastic, to avoid shorting out, probably just cheaper to use those wheelsets in the unlighted models as well instead of having a set of wheelsets for one and a different set of wheelsets for the other.

The sound affect is amazing

make a video where you mix these vintage amtrak cars with some modern amfleets and horizon czrs and some sleepers and maybe even some superliners

Your skill set makes everything look SO easy...very talented sir

Good day to you, Hope you are doing well. Been watching allot of your video's. They have been been bringing back memories of when I was a kid and my father and I use to build layout's together. Sadly by the time I hit junior high and got on swim team I walked away from model railroading with my father. and he pretty much took it all apart and gave almost everything away. Then when I was done with high school I got working and found no time to get back into railroading. However recently I was injured in a wreck and disabled from it. So I am not able to work a regular job anymore and have lots of time on my hands. looking through you tube I found your page and started watching it. and found the railroading bug returning. I looked through the boxes of items my father had packed away and found a couple 0-4-0 switcher's a few cars not many though. and the old passenger station, water tower, and dock crane that were all that remained of our old layout. A couple friends have offered to help me set up 4x8 layout again. and I have taken the old buildings back apart stripped the paint off the building's and plan to repaint and build them. So I wanted to let you know you inspired someone to get back into model railroading

I got an Amtrak p42 #116 with dcc and sound with 5 Amtrak amfleat passenger cars

Congratulations on finishing the hersheys factory

The GE Genesis looks best in front of those Amtrak passenger cars!

Lighting kit for those cars would be nice. Athearn cars and locos are rock solid but those passenger are not prototypical at 72 ft.

i wish european trains were this much work, get more satisfaction

Had these same amtrak cars as a kid, definitely takes me back to a rough time in life but a good time, thank you SMT !! greetings from southern California

Think my new favorite Locomotive may be those diet Pepsi can Dash 8s

Awesome Amtrak set. Looks good. I too have an Amtrak set. Phase 3, Walthers EMD F40 loco, 4 coach cars and 2 superliners. From Texas.

I remember my brother had a full set of these cars, including a rear observation car in the same Amtrak livery. Plus a matching F40PH (might have even been the same LifeLike unit you were running at the end!), it was a regular runner under the tree at the holidays.

i remember old german n scale passanger cars had boggies installed on pins with circlips, but between circlip and the chasis there was also a washer and little weak spring, so the boggie could picit under the car weight but in general it would keep itself straight,

Super cool!!!

Fabulous video with some great tips. Would you consider doing a video with more detailed information on your control panel?

Working on some N scale would be a nice diversion. 😁

I’m planning to get a used life-like amtrak f40ph locomotive and 3 amtrak cars all for 35 bucks. Is it a good deal? Is lifelike reliable?

Wonderful... lately, my trains' couplers have started malfunctioning... they get detached... and some of them are partially broken.. I need to buy good quality couplers...

Yes

1:55 Great tips re: weights and gluing them in to dampen the unrealistic rattling noises. I bought my first glue gun recently based on your use of one for multiple tasks.

Cool ho train

Saweeet!! Ive been waiting to see you put those cars together and run them. Looks great with that old F40ph pulling them. Reminds me of the Amtrak trip i took as a youngin’. Thanks for sharing!

Very nice train. All it needs is an observation car and it will be a complete passenger train.

YAY

HO scale Amtrak passengers cars, HO scale superliner passengers cars set undecorated, Under Siege 2 Dark Territory. Grand Continental train passengers.

The silver express, definitely looks pretty good on this Amtrak passenger train, although I liked it better with the Dash-8 and F40PH. (PS: The Dash-8 could use a snowplow)

9:51 i also have that same station

bro please let me come over i wanted one of these my whole life please make my dream come true

I have some budd Amtrak cars from Walthers mainline

Amazing Video! Please post more like this soon! I'm probably gonna request this train in the next Livestream if I'm in it.

Need the Observation car to complete the consist and the cars need metal wheels.

Nice work!!! And as an owner of several blue-box Athearn passenger units - adding the extra weight is a good idea. But that can get a bit difficult when one adds interiors, as I have done....FYI...I uses interiors for older Rivarossi passenger sets and kitbached them to fit the Athearn units. I even added LED lighting, with a power supply unit in the baggage car.

You should use a E8 in Amtrak

I have some cars like that but from Märklin in the santa fe livery, nice and shiny, but they were not kits, they are very similar to these

That Amtrak engine looks like bnsf

This video is wayyy under rated. Instead of 5 star review on this video, I'll go for 1000 Stars!😀

11:59 why did i hear in my head a voice saying ' all we had to do, was follow that damn train, CJ!'?

Do you a have a retail source for those weights you hot glued in the bottom of the cars?

I think you should do another Santa fe super chief video and can you try to find some Santa fe cars?

Athearn passenger cars are a rabbit hole. First you put the cars together, and then you realize they are empty so you put an interior kit for each particular car that cost more than the passenger car itself. Of course you cannot see the interior you work so hard to put in the car. So then you get lights in the passenger car to illuminate the passenger car and then you realize the passenger car is empty. Now you buy a whole bag of passengers and you have to paint them all. So between the interior and the interior lighting and the passengers you spent three times what the passenger car kit originally cost you. That's that's how they get you. Of course that's part of the fun of the hobby hahaha 😂🤣😂😂😂😂🤣🤣.

I would go through my entire rolling stock haul and add weights to all of them if i had 5 minutes

Needs some lighting in the cars!

👍👍👍❤❤❤🚂🚂🚂

I have a similar set but it's union pacific instead of amtrak

I always love some Amtrak action. Very nice.

I have. Plastic wheels and it doesn’t ruin my tracks

That is one awesome train! Thanks for showing this. Great Vid SMT!!

The nostalgia! When I was younger, I had these exact cars that I had collected at different model train shows and a similar P42 locomotive. I miss this collection.

Hot glue aka universal weigth mount

Why do you have it doing top speed?

Glad to see the new bridge is working well!

I love these Athearn blue box passenger cars, got a set of SP and UP cars myself! They're so easy to assemble, the only difficult (if you can call it that) is installing the window glazing. In some cases you may have to file down the outer edges of the glass to get them to fit properly. Just file very small incriminates at a time and test fit them, that way you don't file to much of the material away!

What a nice looking train! Very good job Harrison I was a pleasure watching them run, great video.

All aboard Amtrak 👌 very nice passenger set and looks great with all the locomotives 👍

On this addition of smt mainline - Harrison builds a train, and possibly the double track mainline might be finished soon 😳

Awesome video! These Athearn blue box stuff brings back memories, especially from my early childhood years in the mid-late 90s and I remember the HO Amtrak stuff. So Harrison, have you ever thought about motorizing one of the Revell plastic locomotive model kits before? Like either the Big Boy kit or one of the German locomotives made by Revell Germany? I'm not sure if that would be a cheaper alternative to buying a locomotive, especially a RTR German locomotive identical to one of those of the said kits.

There is something really satisfying about putting a full set of equipment into service. And then it performs well. Banner. I have really struggle make passenger equipment perform across my whole layout, so I have limited equipment in service, and alot on Standby* lol My own fave is a set of Kato Superliners. Anyway I need to ask you, did you use the wheelsets on those that P. Waco sent you? He noticed them and got all excited. He requested I ask, (picture lurch in a bouncy house) so I ask. His computer is acting up so asked me to inquire. I talked to him on the phone. Anyway you won't get the odd messages from him for a few days. A nice break. Take care. Oh BTW I always had thought that there was an NMRA gauge in the crazy box he sent you, but he says there is yet another (!! ) box that went missing long ago. cheers.

Good idea hot gluing the standard weights as well. They often times come loose. Good video on how to upgrade basic Athearn passenger cars.

I’ve got a few of these coach kits too, the only only one I need is the diner. I’ve got an observation car to go along with these and it was a pain in the neck for me to install the rear windows, they kept popping out even with super glue.

🥹😆🤣😂

Because I could use some help

Excellent work, SMT Mainline!

Great set-up - looks awesome and runs so well

Your missing one car the observation car

One of the best amtrak trains ive ever seen

Those Athearn streamliner cars are lovely! I have a Santa Fe set (although the Diner is Amtrak and I don't have a baggage car) That is probably my favorite thing to run. The good thing about modeling early Amtrak trains is that you can add in cars and locomotives from other railroads.

Looks fantastic! And quiet also. Your layout changes add to SMTs overall functionality

Nice, those bluebox kits are always fun to build

I was thinking back then of making a MASSIVE Island Of Sodor layout in HO Scale. Safe to say is good thing I never got around to it. Would've cost me a pretty penny too.

2:39 Though pea-bulb lights do not appear to have been included, it appears the wheelsets were made that way to accomodate interior lighting. I had an early 70s blue box undec. heavyweight combination coach kit with the same configuration. The metal wheels became heavily oxidized over time.

I've been out of the hobby for a while popped into a shop awhile back and to my horror no Athearn, Roundhouse, or Walthers kits anymore! Just pristine ready to run stuff. How am I supposed to replicate a specific car i photographed? These new people are lazy.

Great work! Next we need to see a race inbetween a Via Rail and Amtrak train on the layout. 😂

Have you completed the double tracking all around the layout yet? And, also - How is that project layout coming along. We haven't been updated about that for a couple of weeks.

Your layout is really shaping up. That Amtrak train looks swell.

Wow that’s old and classic I like it!

Great work looks awesome and the new track layout Is pretty Awesome as well. oh are you adding more track in the back area looks a little bit wider over there cool

We have some Athearn kit passenger cars as well which could benefit from some extra weight. I will remember the hot glue trick!

I sent in my model train to a friend who said their dad may be able to fix it, and within 4 hours, he had! So I’m gonna get it back tomorrow! (That one that burned my finger with its screwy circuit board) I also realized that I have some Athearn passenger cars like the ones you unboxed in Northern Pacific colors

Yes! I did enjoy watching you assemble your Amtrak cars!!! I always enjoy your "assembly" and "repair" videos!!!!

Nice job

Awesome SMT, Have you ever thought of getting a ScaleTrains locomotive? they have NS, BNSF, CN, KCS, CSX, and more

Very enjoyable video & nostalgic for me. In 1975 I was a teenage model railroader in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia. I managed to acquire some of the Athearn Blue Box Amtrak passenger cars you assembled in your video, from local hobby shops. The rest of the Athearn Amtrak cars I bought on a day trip from New Westminster to Seattle return on the slapdash ' Pacific International' Amtrak train. I had a note from my parents, so had no aggro crossing the border. In downtown Seattle I took an ancient Twin Coach or Pullman trolley bus from near King Street Station to north side of downtown Seattle. I went to the Frederick & Nelson Department store, which had a hobby shop on the 5th floor. At F&N, I bought the rest of the Amtrak Athearn Blue Box kit passenger cars, so I had a complete consist, including the round end observation car. Then I walked to the Woolworth's store in downtown Seattle. Woolworth's had a large selection of H.O. model railway items in the toy department. There I bought an AHM / Rivarossi H.O. scale E unit locomotive in Amtrak colour scheme, to go with my Amtrak Athearn Blue Box passenger train consist. The Amtrak " Pacific International " train that I returned to New Westminster on had an E unit on the head end, just like the AHM / Rivarossi model I had just bought, in Amtrak livery. The ragtag passenger cars on my trip back to New Westminster were in Amtrak colours, like my Athearn set. I wrote the car numbers down of my Amtrak train home, later I found out that most of the coaches were ex-Great Northern & Union Pacific & that the dome cafe observation was a former Wabash ' Blue Bird' car. Anyway, I digress. Your video took me right back to assembling my Amtrak Blue Box passenger cars back in 1975. BTW, I still have those now 48 year old Athearn Amtrak cars I purchased in B.C. & Seattle. They still look fab. I can't remember where my AHM / Rivarossi E unit is, likely buried in storage crate, somewhere.....

nice train

SMT when will you do another video by putting the double track around the table?

Hello, Harrison glad to see you finally got my gift I sent you to have a full-passenger Amtrak set and see you had fun putting them together, awesome to see them finally rolling on your layout cheers my friend.

It looks amazing. The only thing is missing is some am fleets.

Nicely done on the Amtrak set! I really like how your double mainline track is looking and running since you updated it...keep up the great videos... Rich...

Now this is quality entertrainment!

Hi smt love your work

That is super cool. That should be called the Harrison passenger train. 1 million stars from Colorado

if you get a bunch of athearn cars I highly recommend getting the A-Line bullseye jig. Screws the coupler clip in place and it's darn near bullet proof at that point.