This past weekend my wife and I took Amtrak's Silver Star from Cary NC up to DC. We've taken this same train probably twice a year up and down the east coast for the past decade. In the past couple of years I have noticed a real improvement, particularly this last time. Frankly, the locos and the passenger cars look more weathered, in need of paint, etc., than ever, and the rails give no smoother a ride, but I get the impression anymore that the company is actual trying, and succeeding. We have a wonderful new station in Cary NC, and they continue to add small improvements. People working for Amtrak seem friendlier, happier, and more competent and like they are trying: the staff this trip just had its act together a bit more in every way from station to conductors to dining car to luggage handlers. Amtrak finally has e-tickets. More important, the train runs a bit faster: cutting 25 minutes off a seven hour trip might not seem like much, but its a start!
I model the 1950s on my layout, which makes it difficult to justify buying models of current Amtrak locos and such, but I might just have to get a model of the Southern Star. I think the locos are P40s. Can anyone recommend who makes/made the most recent best models of these and the current non-Acela rolling stock in O?
