Hard to believe, but despite my fascination with Amtrak, I had never before heard of the Viewliner Dining Car 8400 (Indianapolis).
I took the Amtrak #98 Silver Meteor from Fort Lauderdale to Winter Haven this past Monday the 21st for Thanksgiving and when I went to the Dining Car for breakfast, I noticed that the car was a Viewliner. I said to myself "very nice" simply thought that it was one of the new configurations of the Viewliner car that Amtrak was doing as in the past year they've replaced the old Heritage Baggage cars with Viewliner Baggage Cars. When I disembarked I noted that the name of the car was the Indianapolis
It wasn't until during my stay that I looked up the Indianapolis Dining Car that I found out about its history. If only I had known of the uniqueness of the Viewliner Diner 8400 Indianapolis (the only such one in the Amtrak lineup), I would have made a point to take some more photos. Oh well.
You can see some glimpses of the Indianapolis on my YouTube Amtrak 98 Silver Meteor video.
Now, here is were it gets a bit interesting.
The long holiday consist that Monday morning was two Genesis P42's (#135 and #148) pulling the following 12 cars:
Baggage Car 61004
Viewliner 62010
Viewliner 62028
Viewliner 62015
Viewliner 62033
Viewliner Diner 8400 Indianapolis
Cafe Car 28022
Amfleet Coach 25118
Amfleet Coach 25059 (this is the one my ticketed seat was located)
Amfleet Coach 25096
Amfleet Coach 25013
Amfleet Coach 25093
I went to the Winter Haven train station on Black Friday to do some Amtrak trainspotting. So in comes the the northbound #98 at 1:55p (1 hour and 48 minutes late) and its another long 14-unit consist, this time being pulled by P42's #58 and #71. I was surprised to see that the 8400 Indianapolis was once again the chosen Dining Car for this train so I managed to see it twice in the same week. Upon watching my video of that train Amtrak Silvers @ Winter Haven, I noticed that the 12 cars behind the locomotives were the exact same order as had run north to NY Penn Station 4 days earlier.
Baggage Car 61004
Viewliner 62010
Viewliner 62028
Viewliner 62015
Viewliner 62033
Viewliner Diner 8400 Indianapolis
Cafe Car 28022
Amfleet Coach 25118
Amfleet Coach 25059
Amfleet Coach 25096
Amfleet Coach 25013
Amfleet Coach 25093
I know that cars get switched out for various reasons (mechanical, etc.) but I thought it was cool that the exact same lineup that went north on Mon-Tue came back south on Wed-Thu, and now on Fri-Sat was heading back north. I have the mind to pass by the Fort Lauderdale train station this Tuesday morning (Nov 29) just to see if the consist is still the same 
