| For many years its was Amtrak's practice to add cars to the northbound CRESCENT and removed them from the southbound train at Atlanta, resulting in a much smaller consist at New Orleans. This was a continuation of the Southern Railway's procedure with the SOUTHERN CRESCENT. During the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, Amtrak ran almost all of the train -- except for the extra mail cars -- all the way into New Orleans to accomodate fair goers. While attendence at the Fair fell well below the projected estimate, and train ridership never met expextations; during this time the CRESCENT was a very impressive train!It's 6:45 P.M. at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal and the early evening sun was reflecting off of the nose of F40 260 as it and the 262 had just backed in on track 5 with a 17-car train. The train's consist was baggage car 1172 SILVER TREASURE, baggage-dormitory car 1624, coaches 4733, 4737, 4637, 4711, 4639, and 4018, Amfleet lounge 28020, diner 8519, 10-6 sleepers 2436 PACIFIC CREST, 2438 PACIFIC CASTLE and un-named 2903, un-named 11-double-bedroom car 2233, lounge 3109, and coaches 4716 and 4702.Across the platform on track 6 is the WORLD'S FAIR DAYLIGHT, which would depart for Oregon the next morning. The DAYLIGHT had GS-4 4-8-4 4449, water car PNWC 4219, combine PNWC 3300 MILN D. GILLESPIE, sleeper-lounge PNWC 600 MT. HOOD, coaches SW 542 SONOMA, SW 544 MENDOCINO, SW 546 HUMBOLDT, SW 507 SHASTA, SW 511 STANISLAUS, PAR 2397, SW 500 SAN JOAQUIN, SW 518 TUOLUMNE, and GW 598 RED RIVER, diner SW 156 LAKE PEPIN and observation-lounge GS 1290 APPEKUNNY MOUNTAIN. (GW was Great Western Tours, GS was Grant Supply, PAR was Pacific Railroad Society, PNWC was Pacific Northwest Chapter-NRHS, and SW was Sierra Western.)The DAYLIGHT had arrived in New Orleans the previous Saturday, and SP 4449 had spent the week parked outside the Fair site. UP 4-8-4 8444 was on display inside the Fair, so for a week there were two big Northern's at the Fair. That's the photographer's Volkswagen RABBIT on the left. |