Now that's cool! I like the idea of starting a preservation group by themselves to save what THEY deemed as worthy and interesting. Best of luck to everyone at the NRH.

Good news! Now there are the last two operable ones that CalTrain has in San Francisco that need to be brought back East...

Thank you all for the support. I personally had my heartstrings tugged with this save. Having ridden the head end of a few Meatball-lead trains during my time on NS to qualify on pieces of the NEC between 2012-2015, I firmly believe these more modern machines have stories to tell too. If I can help inspire other folks who are/were in my position, I'd be more than thrilled.

Check us out, spread the word, and if you're able, help us out by donating. Any amount helps us get to the goal of seeing red, white, blue, platinum mist and black on the 927 once again! https://www.northeastrailheritage.org/

I recently took a tour of the Amtrak Ivy City facility. It was clear from the start that the railroaders giving the tour were railfans. While waiting for the group to finish looking over an ACS64, I asked the tour guide, an older supervisor who isn't that far off from retirement, what he thought about the AEM-7s. He launched into a very passionate description of the AEM-7: "I loved those units!"

So I find it interesting, and not surprising this group is made up of railroaders. If they are looking for more railroader members with hands on experience with the units, I suspect they are out there.

Bob

I'm one. I never got to run one, but ran Amcafes behind them for 14 years and was on the Farewell trip in 2016. I was always impressed with their power. They could lay you back in your seat if the engineer "got on it" pulling out of a station. I like to point out that former Amtrak President Paul Reistrup called them, along with the F40s, "the locomotives that saved Amtrak." They deserve an honored place in Amtrak's history.

Watching videos of Swedish railroads, there are still motors running over there that clearly have linage with the AEM7s, although I can't identify the specific models. X2000 train sets like Amtrak borrowed to test for the Acela trains are also still an express mainstay of their passenger operations after 35 years, although I'm sure they are newer versions, unlike they would be here.

Amtrak's AEM-7 motors are based on the Swedish Rc-4 built by ASEA, also in Sweden. SEPTA and MARC also had AEM-7's and NJT and SEPTA had ALP-44 motors, based on a later Rc motor.

Phil Mulligan

It wasn't the F40 or the AEM7's that saved Amtrak it was the explosive growth in the economy of the 80's that saved it. The government was able to pour the needed money into Amtrak to allow them to overhaul all those heritage cars get the new power they so badly needed and buy those new cars. Plus rebuild the entire NE corridor trackwork. Amtrak also had one of the best Presidents they ever could have had at the helm in William Graham Claytor Jr. He clashed with Reagan for years but got the needed funding to get the needed equipment. Claytor ran Amtrak like a Railroad not a political company.

Credit also goes to Drew Lewis, Reagan's Sec'y of Transportation. Lewis (R) was infuential in Eastern PA politics and had been a Trustee of the Reading Co. when it went bankrupt due to unpaid Penn Central receivables and a steel strike.

Phil Mulligan