unusual consists for the alligenhey route

[bsrrco]

strange but true
http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtODD/co5895.jpg
http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtODD/CO5897.jpg

[Toripony]

How old are those photos? I remember seeing a couple of "rigs" like this... Dad said they were "inspection teams" or "officials" or something like that. Maybe they were potential buyers/investors?

[LandN]

I would have to believe this was a privately owned car chartered for a day trip by the C&O. I have never heard of the GN having an interest in the Chessie.

[Chessie8638]

Amtrak's "Rainbow" Era.

Since Amtrak didn't have any painted cars for themselves when they started up, you could find exotic colorful passenger trains. Cars from the Great Northern, BN, UP, MILW, Atlantic Coast Line all on the same train in the Southwest!

Amtrak's early years are often called the "Rainbow Era," which refers to the arrangement of hand-me-down engines, coaches and sleepers from the various railroads that formed the colorful consists of early Amtrak trains. By mid-1971, the passenger carrier began purchasing some of the equipment it had leased, including 286 second-hand E and F units, 30 GG1 electric locomotives, and 1290 passenger cars, and continued leasing even more motive power.

The "Rainbow Era" was short-lived, and by 1974 the new color scheme was painted on most Amtrak equipment. Newly purchased locomotives and rolling stock began appearing, too - SDP40Fs from EMD in 1972, French-built Turboliner trainsets in 1973, and new Amfleet coaches from the Budd Company in 1975.

http://ctr.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Ref ... nings.aspx

[Toripony]

I would have to believe this was a privately owned car chartered for a day trip by the C&O. I have never heard of the GN having an interest in the Chessie.

Yes, it could have been a charter to The Greenbrier Resort. Usually those were more than one car, though.