I'm so glad passenger rail was saved from obliteration back in 1971! Train ridership is booming in recent years, and lots of young people like me are much more eager to take the train places than to own a car. Things are looking up for Amtrak!

Love seeing a lot of the old equipment being reused by Amtrak, it’s a shame they couldn’t keep the level of service as the original trains did. I would think there would be a lot more interest in rail travel today, if that was the case

I love the train order scene at 10:10. Classic American railroading. Thank you for sharing!

19:06 Auburn WA. Amtrak is coming off of the Stampede Pass line and is headed to Seattle.

Minute 19:04 is the Empire Builder coming off what was then the 4th Subdivision at Auburn onto the Seattle Subdivision heading toward Seattle. The old Auburn station is shown on the right. It was torn down in 1978. The Empire Builder at that time was running on the Southern, or former Northern Pacific route and the North Coast Hiwawatha was running on the Northern, or former Great Northern route. The train that is pictured was pulled off in 1979, unfortunately.

Wow those SP units are gorgeous! Cant beat seeing the variety of rolling stock. Great video and history!

I like how they use a bunch of random cars it makes the train look more different and colorful

Wow!!! This is fantastic. 26 minutes back 40-something years...feel like I'm there. Things sure do feel different. Props to the sound engineer/vid lab, and thanks for posting man.

Thanks Lee, vids like yours are almost as good as a TARDIS. Every country railroads differently & as they are for ever changing as well, the scene will never be the same. Australia & the USA have run some pretty big passenger trains. 25 car 2 loco continent crossing stuff ( occaisionly over 40 cars long) in Australia & in the days of EMD E's in America 4 & even 5 of em on one pass. 140 ton a piece, 2 huge v12 engines in each. NOW THAT'S HEAVY METAL ( as fast as speeding on the freeway too)

Outstanding. Thank you for taking the time to share this footage with us.

Lee this is OUTSTANDING! Thank you very much for sharing this here. Although I'm an "east coaster", this rekindled many fond memories for me as I often watched Amtrak in action back in the 70s when trains, like the Silver Meteor, regularly ran 15 cars long! I hope you don't mind just one corrective suggestion: At 10:28 where Chapter 2's intro page is, you should include the "SDP40F" locomotive in the info along with the F40 in Post Rainbow era as the SDP's ran in Amtrak's mainline service from 1973 to 1982.

Lee Thank you for sharing these videos with us

What a fantastic look into the past! This is a great video- I added it to my 'recommended' page so others can see!

Wow! I'v been waiting ages for a good early amtrak post. thanks so much Geoff. U.k. the sound is perfect too.

Awesome! My favorite Amtrak era.

Fantastic video's Mr. lee.... Thanks for posting!

The only time that I was served a cocktail in my lounge car seat on Amtrak was on the Transcontinental Steam Excursion between Phoenix and Los Angeles. I mentioned the fact to my server who responded, "Honey, you come ride my regular train and I will serve you at your seat". Dick Reynolds and David P. Morgan were sitting across from me, such royalty! I long for the Santa Fe and Union Pacific days of fine service.

Outstanding video. I am going to "share" it. I love Amtrak and I love trains.

Best Amtrak video I've seen so far. I loved it! Congratulations from Spain! El mejor vídeo sobre Amtrak que he visto hasta ahora. Me ha encantado! Felicidades desde España

that place in question is on the old SP 100 miles north of Mt. Shasta on the old Siskyou. You can see Mt. Shasta in the background in the last shot.

Great scenes here! Note: there was no Coast Starlight in summer 1971, only nameless 11/14 north of Oakland, 12/13 south. The Coast Starlight name debuted in November, along with North Coast Hiawatha and new numbers.

beautiful video, loved it!

I'm with you Christopher. If I can't get there by train, car or walking, I don't go.

The bilevel superliner coaches that were in the last scene were constructed for Amtrak in 1979 to replace Amtrak’s old singular level coaches. Amtrak still uses it today

Excellent collection. I use it for inspiration for my Rainbow era train videos on KZfaq.

Great stuff! He really did well with the SP full length domes.

This never gets old. Love it

Minute 18:09 is Steilacoom, Washington not the Columbia River. That's the Southbound Coast Starlight. I worked on those engines when I was a machinist in Seattle.

Very cool! I jpoined the Army in August 1971, so missed alot of this!

I've never heard of the SF Zephyr or San Francisco Zephyr, from the time I could remember such things The CALIFORNIA Zephyr went through the medium sized city I grew up in every night at 9:00 PM. The train terminated at Emeryville, CA or San Francisco, true, but the name never had San Francisco or SF in it, unless I've fallen off the turnip truck. The Desert Wind passed through sometime in the morning, my guess would be around 10:30 AM. The Zephyr was the memorable train with its Art Deco style cars, reminders of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train". And at night the head lamp sweeping side-to-side cutting through darkness, you could see it coming from way back.

Man, do I miss dome cars. Guess I'll have to ride VIA's this summer just for old time's sake. Great video.

Great sound work,and love the captures of the rainbow era!

This video is great! Love seeing the passenger cars. I get a kick out of seeing Stephen Harris' car in nearly every scene.

Excellent, I model HO early Amtrak. a great help. Geoff. /England

Amtrak paint schemes have always been gaudy, but that bloody nose scheme on those SDP40's and E-units were a nice touch.

At one, Amtrak painted all of its units in one scene, phase 3, the red, white and blue scene which Amtrak used that scene during the 1980s and early 1990s, and all Amtrak trains had this painting scene which made them streamlined trains. In fact that painting scene was iconic and some people considered it to be an invert painting scene of American airlines because it was like the American airlines scene but the red and blue stripes are reversed.

This video is pure gold to Amtrak fans of the 1970's. I'm working on building an HO model version of the San Francisco Zephyr and the run-by's are a great resource! I have managed to obtain quite a few Walthers passenger cars and a few Broadway Ltd to pull behind Athearn Genesis SDP40F's. The UP E8's would be interesting to add as well. I road the SFZ as a teen twice in 1975 and 1976 and have fond memories of those trips. The one disappointment is the SFZ did not travel through the D&RGW Rockies route, but instead you were treated to the "scenic wonders" of the continental divide in Wyoming at Sherman Hill.

Amtrak has gone back with a rainbow painting scene on most of its trains. The passenger cars are painted in phase 4 scene which is a thin red and purple stripe while the locomotives are painted in phase 5 which is a painting with light blue and with a wave design. This painting scene also has the current Amtrak logo on it. A few Amtrak baggage cars and other passenger cars are painted in the iconic phase 3 painting scene which is the red. White, and blue stripes painting scene.

2:52 That epic Nathan M3

I never knew that the sdp40f pull the superliners I love when it was leading the f40ph and six cars on the desert wide I model that train but my cars are in phase 5 paint but hey it's still beautiful good job on the clips of early Amtrak trains you give me some good ideas to model

Awesome video!

Absolutely amazing!!!!!

Rode an early Amtrak. Had two cars and a C&O E8. Don't know if it was the beaten up old Union Pacific car, or the track, but that was a shaky, bumpy ride between Main St. Station in Richmond, VA. and the C&O depot at Charlottsville. Was maybe 1973.

Excellent footage, greetings from the UK!

You would never guess the sound was dubbed if it wasn't announced initially.

These are literally the only clips of phase II SDP40F’s i could find

18:07 That's actually Steilacoom Washington, you can see the old Northern Pacific Steilacoom station on the right side of the screen, it was closed to passenger service in the 60s and fright service in 1972 it is now used by BNSF as a storage facility

Those Amtrak units only seem to have one Gyralight in the two-light array, similar to Chicago's current-day Metra trains. What is the bottom light for that never seems to be used, on the top Gyralight array?

Enjoyed this early years of Amtrak, especially when they were inhereting a mixed consist of passenger cars and locomotives

I used to see all those F40s sitting in the Beech Grove shops, but no more.

Great movies and some fine dubbing of suitable sound. A fine video indeed!

17:09, that amtrak train had an f40ph and burlington northern unit and also a steam generator car too.

Thanks for reminding people that Amtrak used to ascend historic Sherman Hill and cross Wyoming. Long time ago.

19:55 is Scenic, WA.

I'm loving this video. Thank you so much for posting it. I'm new to railfanning but a loooong time Amtrak fan and I love the history. At one point a train is slowing to pickup orders..in Granger I believe. The guy at the tower handed off to 3 people. Engineer I think a few cars later a conductor and a few cars later another person. What is that about? Thanks to anyone!

I love seeing the leased Southern Railway FP7s along Puget Sound! After SR discontinued the "Piedmont" after Thanksgiving weekend 1976, Amtrak leased a few and sent them West.

Yes,and some of these trains have ample *Soot,* too! Awesome! Alco?!

The caption says 5 E units at 17:30, but looking closely at the trucks under the 4 trailing diesels, those are 4 FP7A's. The first two are Southern FP7A's borrowed for a time and the 2nd two are former SP FP7A's. Only the lead unit is an E. Indeed, these are treasures.

When Part 2 started, I was excited about seeing the F40s in their original paint schemes. I was disappointed when I saw the first scene was of a pair of SDP40Fs. Ugh...what was EMD thinking? Also, the 5 E-units at 17:41...that's just an E-unit on the point of four F-units.

At 10:30 on the video, The caption shows Post "rainbow" era it says F40 locomotives, but I see SDP40F's pulling Amtrak trains. It was the EMD SDP40F that took over from the E8's on the San Francisco Zephyr around 1974.

mom and i went on the el cap / super chief ( later known as the sw chief) to new mexico in 1970 that was great fun.

Thank you friends for sharing, it's very good 😄🌏🌍🌐

18:07 I believe that isn't along the Columbia river, but rather the Puget Sound. That is Steilacoom, Washington.

At 19:04, that is Auburn, Washington. The train coming onto the main was the North Coast Hiawatha, a passenger train that was discontinued in 1979 due to low ridership.

Wait isnt that ATSF at 5:40 the San Diegan? I recognize those locations, first one is approaching Middletown, 2nd one is leaving Old Town, you can see the airplane factory in the back, the 3rd one by the beach is Del Mar. Regardless this is the only footage Ive seen of the San Diegan during its ATSF days, so this is a rare catch! Thank you

These are beautiful trains!

The rainbow Era is just the best.

exactly! These Locomotives were replaced by their successors the F40s because they didn't work very well. They still look very cool! I wonder if there is a Museum with these engines that have their old Amtrak livery.

The thing I miss the most about steam generators is how the locomotive will just disappear (or appear) into a cloud of steam

Thank you so much for filming and uploading these clips! Do you mind if I use the audio with credit?

18:07 is Steilacoom, WA, in the Puget Sound, not Columbia River.

18:13 is not "along the Columbia River". It's Steilacoom, WA along Puget Sound.

Gotta love the early 70s :D

The first scenes headed by caption 'Post "rainbow"era F40 locomotives ...' shows trains led by EMD SDP40F's

Now I know that this gorgeous and colorful era existed. I can possibly create any first class passenger train I want. I'm still deciding on what locomotive (e.g. SDP40F, E8, PA, F40PH) I'm going to use to pull them. Does anyone have any suggestions? I know it's just models and not the real thing but I'm trying to be realistic.

May be a dumb question, but did film back in 71 have sound capturing capabilities? I assume the sound was put in after but honestly have no idea

The station at 19:00 in the video is Auburn, Washington and the train is the westbound Empire Builder.

at 17:35 check out the southern railways E units in that latch up

Love these, but are the sounds of the trains made from some kind of stock audio? I keep hearing the exact same sounds at the same volume at different places, was just wondering as it doesn’t sound natural.

Hi Lee, This is a very interesting video. A possible correction. At 4:34 the caption on the shot says "3 E units" They actually look to be Southern Pacific F units.

...too bad there aren't any films from the Great Lakes Region. We had probably the most eclectic mixes considering they used rolling stock from a number of different Eastern, Midwest and Western railroads.including the Milwaukee Road (including the Hiawatha "Super Dome" and "Skytop" lounge cars), Union Pacific, New York Central, Penn Central (both the older "Tuscan Red" and Budd Stainless Steel cars), Great Northern (the sky blue ones), Northern Pacific, Chesapeake and Ohio, Seaboard, Burlington, Illinois Central, Gulf Mobile and Ohio (I remember riding an old GM&O steam era coach that still had transverse leaf springs and windows which opened on a run from Milwaukee to Chicago). Interestingly, no ex Chicago and Northwestern Railway cars or locomotive units ever became part of the "Rainbow fleet". The Bi-Level cars were moved to commuter operations in the Chicago metro area. and all locomotives were moved to freight operations.

Wow, the California zephyr had a different name at that time, the san Francisco zephyr. Also, the California zephyr traveled on a different route at that time, too. That being routed through Wyoming instead of the Moffat tunnel route through the rocky mountains.

The Amtrak F40 wasn’t meant to be used as a long distance passenger locomotive

Idea: Amtrak should bring Back the SDP40F’s and P30CH’s, but with better Bogies, better ventilation for Tier 4 Standards, and just better. Also, Bring back the EMD E & F units into service. And I don’t want to hear anything about how bad the Locomotives were. All I will say is this: They weren’t given a chance.

At 24:34 seems like the rails are tipping at the wrong angle, instead of to the inside of the curve. Pretty wierd for a high speed rail?

It would be nice if Amtrak privatized it’s busiest routes because they’ll make enough money to not require government support. Oh how nice it will be to see a NS acs-64 or UP P42DC

What was the horn at 5:10 on the SP F units?

12:00-12:03 love the classic S-4T

The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did BACK in 1954.

4:33, I noticed a little inconsistency here. Notice how it read "E Units?" Well, those Aren't E units, but rather F units. How to tell? First off, E units have their number boards inside their nose end and have fully rounded ends, while F units have theirs poking out and are more rectangular. Also, E units are long, and F units are short, as well as E units having the C-C (Co-Co) wheel arrangement, and F units have the B-B (Bo-Bo) wheel arrangement. It may be easy to mix them up because they look So Similar, but E and F units do have their differences, you just need to know where to look.

The sd40fs have had a short life on amtrak trains compared to other locomotives on amtrak's roster.

Early Antrak Silver Meteor with Seaboard rolling stock and still staffed with Seaboard conductors. The club car was great fun drinking and smoking was permitted the club car was comfy as a living room.

Dose anyone have 70s nyc amtrak videos? thses are great videos. but its surprising i haven't seen an vintage 70s Amtrak nyc videos

for the location request, it might be Billings MT

I wish we had a passenger train running out of Tulsa Oklahoma, we have to drive 1 3/4 hours to Oklahoma City to catch Amtrack

the engine is either an SDP40F or an FP45

at18:30 was that two Southern E7s or 8s

At 17:40 that was one E unit and four F units.

Amtrak still uses f40phs, but they have converted them into cab cars

Were the FP45s more expensive to operate then the F40PHs or did the FP45s have sooo many miles on them that they needed to be retired ?