Corridor Clipper Car
 

The other day I was at Union Stations and I saw the Corridor Clipper car parked in front of an Acela Express train set.

While I have no idea if it was related to the Corridor Clipper car or not, there was a bunch of security to right if you were walking from the Acela Express train (near the VRE/MARC train area) and I thought that maybe the car carried high value dignitaries (Like VP Biden)?

Does anybody know the official role of the Corridor Clipper car? The windows were blacked out and it seemed that whatever purpose the car served AMTRAK did not want the common citizen to know about it.

Dan

The Corridor Clipper is Amtrak's track inspection car. It's full of high tech equipment and video cameras. Attached to the rear of a regular train, it can survey miles of track to check for defects and alignment problems.

Everything is taped, so that experts can slow down the tapes later and look for problems.

according to some google searches it is used for inspections


http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidfullarton/3554884785/

I have also seen another car parked at Union Station from time to time called Beech Grove or something like that.

I was once told that Beech Grove was the President of Amtrak's private car, but that may not be correct and I defer to experts here at FT.

Dan

Nope, you're correct.

This happens quite a bit there. It appears that they stage the car there to couple to the rear of a future Regional that will pick it up and take it north on the Corridor for track geometry and/or catenary inspections. Often an Acela or two will use that track before it gets picked up.