In an effort to procrastinate on all the crap I need to do around home, I decided to go see Amtrak’s latest new train set yesterday. The first of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) Airo sets had left Siemens in California on May 27th, and made its way east to Denver following a couple hours behind the eastbound California Zephyr. On Friday, they ran down the Joint Line and out to the Transportation Test Center at Avondale, east of Pueblo.

This is the first set to include the Auxiliary Power Vehicle – a coach car with a set of pantographs, a transformer/rectifier, and four additional traction motors, which will allow the set to operate under electric power while on the Corridor or diesel power once it leaves electrified track. These will eliminate the locomotive changes for many trains that operate both on and off the NEC.

Once they’d switched out the Airo set and it had been pulled back into the TTC, the two Amtrak P42s and two cars continued to to La Junta. They’d be added to the eastbound Southwest Chief a few hours later, and continue back to Chicago.

There’s nothing spectacular about most of these. It’s a lot of roster shot goodness and some rare mileage stuff. After all, when was the last time you saw Amtrak pass the old Santa Fe depots between Pueblo and La Junta? Anyway, the full thing is [here].