SEATTLE – Starting today, the Mount Bachelor, the Talgo Series 8 trainset that has been out of service since its cab car was impaled by a tree in a November storm, is back in service with the other Talgo, the Mount Jefferson, on Cascades service linking Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eugene, Ore.
The move will add capacity at a time when fewer Amfleet cars have been subbing for the withdrawn Horizon coaches, causing sellouts on many departures.
The Mount Bachelor initially is being assigned to a daily Seattle-Eugene round-trip, train No. 503, departing Seattle at 7:10 a.m, and train No. 508, leaving Eugene at 4:30 p.m. This will allow the trainset to be serviced every night in Seattle.
The Mount Jefferson has been switched to a two-day cycle which starts in Seattle with train No. 505, the 8:55 a.m. departure to Portland, flipping to the evening train No. 518 to Vancouver. The next day it leaves in the morning as No. 517 to Portland, where it returns to Seattle as train No. 506 leaving at 5:55 p.m.
The original design for the cabs was deemed unsuitable for crashworthiness and thus the frankencab. Talgo recently released the 230 series with a very beefy looking cab. My guess is the lessons learnt from the PNW were applied.
Just in time…
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
A face only a mother could love. Patterned after the Baldwin baby-faces??