Viewliner

The first production Viewliners were built in 1995–1996 by Amerail (now Alstom)/Morrison-Knudsen. Amtrak's original intention in the 1980s was to order 500–600 new cars, of which 100 would be sleepers and the rest coaches, diners, and lounges. This would have enabled Amtrak to replace its remaining Heritage Fleet equipment and run trains with solid Viewliner consists.[1] Ultimately, Amtrak awarded a contract for 50 sleeping cars with an option for 227 cars of various types to Morrison-Knudsen, who were also building the new California Cars based on the Superliner design.[10][11] Morrison-Knudsen unveiled the first Viewliner shell at its Chicago plant on October 26, 1994.[12] The first entered service on the Lake Shore Limited in November 1995.[13]

After Morrison-Knudsen was placed in bankruptcy, the outstanding orders were completed by Amerail with final delivery in 1996 alongside the California Car fleet. After the first 50 cars were delivered, none of the remaining 177 options were exercised. The 50 Viewliners arrived just in time to retire most of Amtrak's remaining Heritage sleeping cars, which were coming under increasing environmental pressure due to their use of non-retention toilets. Since the 1990s, Viewliner sleepers have operated on East Coast single-level trains in concert with Amfleet coaches and Heritage diners (and eventually Viewliner diners).[14]

When Amtrak decided on the names for the new Viewliner II sleeping cars, they also announced new names for the Viewliner I sleepers. Instead of names ending in "View," e.g. American View; Mountain View, they were given names to match the incoming cars: alphabetically after major rivers east of the Mississippi.[15]

Viewliner II diner Atlanta deadheading on the Capitol Limited in November 2017

A one-of-a-kind Viewliner dining car, car number 8400, was rebuilt with stimulus funding and restored to revenue service in October 2011 and given the name Indianapolis. Originally a prototype dining car with experimental trucks built during the Viewliner design phase in the late 1980s, the car was completely rebuilt at Amtrak's Beech Grove Shops and currently serves on Eastern long distance trains. Information learned from building and using this car was applied to the dining cars included in the new order of Viewliner II cars.[16]

On July 23, 2010, Amtrak ordered 130 Viewliner II cars – 55 baggage cars, 25 dining cars, 25 sleepers, and 25 baggage-dorms – with an option for up to 70 additional cars.[4] The five-year order, worth $298.1 million, was placed with CAF USA in Elmira, New York, a fully owned subsidiary of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.[17] According to former Amtrak president Joseph Boardman, CAF was selected over Alstom, the only other bidder, due to CAF's lower bid and it being able to construct the entire car at its factory, rather than relying on subcontractors.[18] In August 2014, the order was modified by swapping 15 baggage-dorms for 15 baggage cars, changing their totals to 10 and 70, respectively.[19]

The interior of a Viewliner I sleeping car bedroom with the lower bed down

The first car from the order was originally scheduled to roll off the assembly line in October 2012, but was delayed by more than a year, with field testing beginning in June 2014.[20][21] CAF had multiple issues, including failure to detect defects in the baggage cars, and quality issues with initial construction of the diner and sleeping cars.[19] Amtrak also experienced project management challenges in addressing these faults.[19] While all 130 cars were originally expected to be delivered by the end of 2015,[22] by December 2016 only the baggage cars and one diner were in service.[23] All 25 Viewliner II diners have now been delivered, with 11 in service on the Crescent, Lake Shore Limited and Silver Meteor. As of August 1, 2020, all ten baggage-dorms and eight sleepers have been delivered.[5]

Viewliner IIs have an updated version of Amtrak's older Phase III paint scheme.[24] The baggage cars are numbered 61000–61069 and the bag-dorms are numbered 69000–69009.[5] The dining cars, numbered 68000–68024, are named alphabetically after the first 25 state capitals east of the Mississippi River, with Indianapolis being the name of the Viewliner I which was rebuilt as a prototype.[15] The sleeping cars (62500–62524) are alphabetically named after major rivers east of the Mississippi, continued from the renaming of the Viewliner I sleepers.[15] Unlike the roomettes on Viewliner I sleepers, the Viewliner II roomettes do not have in-room toilets; instead, there are two shared restrooms. Because of this, the Viewliner II sleepers have one fewer roomette than the Viewliner I sleepers – 11 versus 12.[25]