What is the Amtrak "Corridor Clipper"?

Wesley Paulson · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 9:39 am

There is a two car trainset stored on the platform in Washington Union Station with the side sign "Corridor Clipper". One car in the set has a pantograph on the roof. The cars are either Amfleet, or maybe ex-Metroliner MUs?

Don C. · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 10:30 am

> There is a two car trainset stored on the
> platform in Washington Union Station with
> the side sign "Corridor Clipper".
> One car in the set has a pantograph on the
> roof. The cars are either Amfleet, or maybe
> ex-Metroliner MUs?

They are Amtrak's track inspection/geometry cars. Both were built out of salvaged Amfleet wrecks.

Don C.

milw261@sbcglobal.net

Steve Zuiderveen · **Posted:** Mon Aug 11, 2003 12:23 pm

> They are Amtrak's track inspection/geometry
> cars. Both were built out of salvaged
> Amfleet wrecks.

> Don C.

Under FRA regulations, to operate in excess of 110 mph, the track/equipment system needs to be inspected weekly for ride quality with a car of the same type and construction as the cars runing 110+. Acela does this by having the instrumentation on board, but the Corridor Clipper does this work for the Amfleet fleet. MARC's 110+ equipment has several cab cars equipped with the instrumentation, which is cell phoned to a server on a regular basis and anaylzed.

Steve Zuiderveen

SZuidervee@aol.com

Phil Mulligan · **Posted:** Tue Aug 12, 2003 9:39 am

The two cars are AMTK 10001 "Beech Grove" and 10002 "Corridor Clipper."

Both were rebuilt at Beech Grove from Amfleet 1 cars. 10001 is the office car but was the original towed geometry car (there was a self-propelled Plasser car) and the equipment went to 10002 when that car was built.

There is also 10003 which is an Acela car built new as a geometry car.

See the link below for more about these cars.

AMTRAK's Track Testing Fleet