Pine Tree Ltd. Came Back a Little Shorter

The Pine Tree Limited is shown crossing Conneaut Creek a week ago on its trip from Cleveland to Binghamton, N.Y. The car at right is the Cimarron River, a Frisco sleeper once assigned to the Meteor. The car is now owned by Tony Marchiando.

It was a little shorter, but the Pine Tree Limited made a return trip through Northern Ohio today en route to Chicago.

The train had originated in Chicago on Sept. 18 and spent the night in Cleveland before departing the next day for Binghamton, N.Y.

Eventually, the train made a three-day, 1,245-mile trip with 26 private cars pulled by three Amtrak P42 locomotives to reach Portland, Maine, and the annual convention of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners.

A published schedule of the return trip to Chicago indicated that the Pine Tree Limited was due into Toledo at 7:35 a.m. It was to arrive in Chicago at 12:20 p.m., but given the freight congestion that these days is routinely delaying Amtrak trains by hours that arrival time might be rather optimistic.

The journey of the Pine Tree Limited included 681 miles of former Nickle Plate Road; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; and Boston & Maine tracks owned by Norfolk Southern; New York, Susquehanna & Western; and Pan Am Railways that haven’t hosted scheduled intercity passenger service for at least 50 years.

The train was split into two sections for the return home with section operating to Chicago having 14 cars. The other 12 cars were be attacked to regular Amtrak trains out of Boston South Station.

The Chicago section was to follow the routes of the Downeaster and Lake Shore Limited.

Pine Tree Limited Was Quite a Sight

The Pine Tree Limited, the inbound convention special for the American Association of Private Railroad Car owners soars over Conneaut Creek on Friday morning behind three Amtrak P42 locomotives.

Edward Ribinskas and I had a small window of opportunity on Friday morning to catch the Pine Tree Limited, the convention train of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners. The special, which was bound for next week’s AAPRCO convention in Portland, Maine, left Cleveland early Friday morning over the former Nickel Plate Road mainline.

The train had originated in Chicago on Thursday and became bogged down in the usual congestion these days on Norfolk Southern’s Chicago Line. The special had originally been set to travel the ex-NKP between Chicago and Cleveland, but NS requested that it move to the Chicago Line due to a crew shortage.

Known as the Pine Tree Limited, the train was scheduled to spend the night in Cleveland. On Friday it was to travel to Binghamton, N.Y., via the Southern Tier.

The special was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. on Friday and Ed and I guesstimated that that might put it through Painesville around 7 a.m. There isn’t enough daylight then to get good photographs so we decided to head east to Conneaut and photograph the train on the trestle over Conneaut Creek.

As it turned out, we might have been able to photograph the train, which operated under the symbol Amtrak 040, back in Painesville. At about 7:50 a.m., we heard the Youngstown Line dispatcher tell a westbound auto rack train that it would be going into the siding at Sandborn to meet the Amtrak special.  The dispatcher noted that the Amtrak train was at Wickliffe.

The dispatcher told the crew of the auto rack train that the Amtrak special should be a fast mover, but it did not reach Conneaut until about 9:08 a.m.

We had in the meantime staked out a position beneath the bridge. I photographed every car on the train in some manner. It was quite an impressive sight. It is the first AAPRCO train I’ve seen and had more than 20 private passenger cars led by three Amtrak P42 locomotives.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The former Great Northern car is observation car City of Spokane.

The silver car to the right is the Mount Vernon. I had photographed this car earlier this year on a very late westbound Lake Shore Limited in Olmsted Falls.

The Iowa Pacific owned Caritas is decked out in an Illinois Central inspired livery.

Dome cars were well represented in the consist.

Bringing up the rear was the “Georgia.” We were surprised that no one appeared to be on the rear platform.

Private Car Charter to Pass Through Cleveland

A charter train of privately owned passenger cars will pass through Cleveland on Sept. 18-19 en route to a convention in Maine of private car owners.

The Pine Tree Limited, will depart Chicago Union Station on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 18, and spend the night in Cleveland at an undisclosed location.

The train will depart the next morning for its next stopover point in Binghamton, N.Y.

The train was chartered by the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners and will be operated by Amtrak in cooperation with Norfolk Southern.

The train was originally scheduled to travel between Chicago and Cleveland via the former Nickel Plate Road mainline, but that has been changed to the Amtrak route via Toledo over the NS Chicago Line.

AAPRCO trains are known for taking routes that offer passengers “rare mileage” over freight-only rail lines.

The train will eventually reach Portland, Maine, on Sept. 21. Many of the cars will return to Chicago on Sept. 25-26, traveling in part on the route of Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited.

The APPRCO convention will be held Sept. 21-25.

All passengers riding the special train must be members of AAPRCO or the guest of an AAPRCO member. Passengers and guests do not have to register for the convention to ride all of a portion of the trip.

Some owners of the cars that will make up the Pine Tree Limited are selling space to the public. Some of these cars will originate at distant points and travel to Chicago via Amtrak.

For example, car Vista Canyon was to depart Tucson, Ariz., on Sept. 11 on the Sunset Limited en route to Los Angeles where it would connect with the Southwest Chief for the trip to Chicago. It will return on Amtrak via New Orleans.

The fare to ride the Vista Canyon for its entire journey is $8,750, based on double occupancy.

The Los Angeles Railroad Club will offer three cars on the AAPRCO special. The fare aboard the Pacific Sands and Tioga Pass is $6,750 per person and space in both cars is already sold out.

The club will offer a third car, Salisbury Beach, at a fare of $5,350 per person. In early September, this car still had a few rooms available.

Closer to home, the Cincinnati Railway Company will operate three cars that were to originate in Cincinnati on Sunday, Sept. 14, traveling to Chicago via Amtrak’s Cardinal.

The Oliver Hazard Perry is being sold as a unit, not by individual rooms as is typically the case with private cars on special trains. The price for the car is $38,500.

The Cincinnati group also plans to take the Birch Grove and The Observatory to Maine.

Rooms in the Birch Grove were listed at $22,000 for a quad suite of two rooms en suite, $12,000 for a double bedroom and $6,000 for a roomette.

The Observatory was priced at $12,750 for a master bedroom and $12,500 for a double bedroom.

Two things are obvious in this cursory review. Its helps to be wealthy if you want to ride this train and you need to have a lot of free time.

Yet a friend of mine who is an avid rare mileage collector – and who will not be riding the Pine Tree Limited – once told me that some ordinary middle class individuals scrimp and save their money during the year to purchase a room aboard a private car for one of the APPRCO specials.

Aside from some rare mileage, those who ride these specials enjoy an experience that you just can’t get on Amtrak, even in the most pricey sleeper accommodations.

Many of these private cars carry their own chefs and have very attractive interiors. Most of the cars were built in the streamliner era. We’re not talking Amfleet or Superliner equipment.

For the rest of us, it is an opportunity to see an unusual train as well as to ponder what it must be like to ride like a railroad tycoon.

Article by Craig Sanders