Does anything still exist? I am referring to Garfield's Auto Train from the 70's and not the current Amtrak Auto Train.
Any equipment still running or did they go the way of the torch?

The majority of passenger equipment used on the original Auto-Train still exists. Most of the rolling stock was sold during the big auction in 1981. For example, consider the dome cars: With the exception of one that ATSF kept, all of the other Budd-built ex-ATSF full domes went to the original Auto-Train and most of those eventually ended up in tour service in Alaska. Many of them have now been sold to 2 tourist RR's in Colorado. As for the UP domes, with the exception of (if I remember correctly) 2 coaches and 1 lounge that UP kept and one diner that ended up in a museum, every remaining ex-UP dome lounge, diner and coach went to A-T. Most of these ended up in private ownership and many of them ended up back in the hands of the UP. Any time you see a big UP business train with lots of dome cars, chances are most of them saw service with Auto-Train for about 10 years. A handfull of the dome diners and dome lounges were scrapped after the auction due to wreck damage, missing trucks, etc. And all of the ex-WP CZ dome coaches went to Auto-Train, and except for one that was evidently scrapped after the auction, all ended up in private hands initially.

I believe most of the original ex-CN auto carrier freight cars were scrapped as well, though it's possible there are still a few around somewhere. But it's very unlikely any of those are in service anywhere.

According to Karl Zimmerman's "Domeliners," Auto-Train got all seven of WP's ex-CZ Vista-Dome chair cars, all but one of Santa Fe's 14 Big Domes, and 33 of UP's 40 domes; many were never actually placed into service. What was still left after cannibalization and derailments was auctioned at Sanford, Florida in December 1981. That was the beginning of large-scale private ownership of domes among PV owners. UP bought back six of their own cars at that auction, and they're in the UP executive fleet today. I think the full-length ATSF dome, 552, that Conrail got in 1988 originally came from there as well. More of the ex-AT domes went to the Alaska RR (to join four that the ARR bought in 1971), and one went to the Maryland Midland for their passenger operations; I rode this car back in the MMID's "dog's breakfast consist" days of 1984.

The NYS&W bought eight ex-ATSF Big Domes and two ex-UP domes from Auto-Train; the bulk of that fleet eventually ended up with Westours, save for one consumed in a fire. The UP dome-coach they got (not the dome-lounge) went to the Reading & Northern as #3 Catawissa.

There's a LOT more detective work to do; this is just part of the dome car history ex-Auto-Train!!!

For a complete history of the AT domes, and domes in general, check out this web site:

http://www.trainweb.org/web_lurker/WebLurkersDOMEmain/

It has everything you could possibly want to know. For example, the history of the UP domes now in their executive fleet is very convoluted and this site pretty well sorts it out.

Quite a few of the UP domes AT owned got scrapped. From the pictures I saw many of them were not in bad shape at all, and several were in original UP paint with original window shades, etc. Some were sold but the sale price was so low the bankruptcy judge overrulled the sale and had them sent to a scrapper for more money. And some of the cars after the sale got stripped - at least one of the WP CZ domes got gutted and turned into an ice cream store.

The preservation community missed a major opportunity to preserve equipment from the important western trains in this sale - it is hard to believe dome cars in basically their original condition couldn't even get bids above scrap value not all that long ago.

Not all that long ago the AT auto racks were still on the dead line in Beech Grove - what was their disposition?

Has anyone documented what happened to the non-domes AT owned and operated?

Chris.

Did the the ex-WP Baldwin VO-100 that Auto Train had survive? There is very little information out there.
Chris Allan

None did:
http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/auto-train/index.html

But a hood ended up on a USS-Fairless unit!



Tim
The Baldwin Diesel Zone
http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/contents.html

Quite a few of the UP domes AT owned got scrapped. From the pictures I saw many of them were not in bad shape at all, and several were in original UP paint with original window shades, etc. Some were sold but the sale price was so low the bankruptcy judge overrulled the sale and had them sent to a scrapper for more money. And some of the cars after the sale got stripped - at least one of the WP CZ domes got gutted and turned into an ice cream store.

The preservation community missed a major opportunity to preserve equipment from the important western trains in this sale - it is hard to believe dome cars in basically their original condition couldn't even get bids above scrap value not all that long ago.


Chris.[/quote]


1981 may not seem like that long ago, but it was over 25 years ago. I believe there were several reasons the cars at the A-T auction went so cheap. One, not many people knew about the sale. Back then, it was much harder to get the word out to interested parties than it is today. Two, the market was really flooded with cars since Amtark was auctioning large lots of retired steam heated DC cars at that time. Cars were readily available for low prices. There never have been many buyers of these old cars, and there may have been even fewer buyers back then than today, even though it took much less effort and consderabley less money in 1981 to buy and refurbish a car for operation as an Amtrak certified private car.

If this same sale were held today, few, if any of those dome cars would have been scrapped since cars in worse shape those have been brought back from the dead in recent years, and people realize how few of these cars are left.

How about any of the U-Boats?

Didn't some or most go to Conrail? Those would be scrapped.
And I wonder about the S-2 #625? I would guess scrapped too.

Check out these U boat photos!
http://rides.webshots.com/album/561954006PlpYut

And I should have checked first, the ones CR got were from a cancelled Auto Train order! 4001, 4004 were wercked & scrapped.

According to Greg McDonnell's book "U-Boats", the 11 surviving U36B's were returned to the lessor in 1981, stored on the C&NW in Iowa, and then scrapped between '84-'85. In addition to the original 13 Auto-Train U36B's, GE had built another 4 units (4013 - 4016) but were never delivered due to "Auto-Train's worsening financial state" and thus stored at GE Erie. Conrail purchased these four units (after being re-trucked from Blombergs to drop equalizer style trucks) in 1976. McDonnell lists these four units has being traded into GE and on their property in 1994, so I would say that it is safe to assume that these four units were also scrapped as well.

UP only kept two domes at the end of passenger service, one coach, #7006, and one dome lounge obs, #9004. #7006 was sold to Mexico in 1986, #9004 remains in UP possession today, having been owned since new. UP didn't re-acquire its other six dome cars until the late '80s- early '90s, and none directly from the Auto-Train auction. Two came from Scenic Rail Dining, one from a private owner, and the other three from KCS, IIRC. Most of them passed through several owners between being auctioned by Auto-Train and returning home to UP.