Brand new Amtrak P40DC 819 is seen in the middle of its brief 20-day career leading train No. 58, the northbound City of New Orleans, out of the Crescent City. Having made its first revenue out of Chicago on train No. 59 on September 3, 1993, this locomotive would be destroyed leading train No. 2 over the Big Bayou Canot bridge near Mobile, Alabama on September 22, 1993. Three Amtrak engineers would be fatally injured in this locomotive that night: Michael Vinet, Ernie Russ, and Billy Rex Hall. But on this day Amtrak 819 was the newest locomotive on the system leading a typical heritage consist of eight cars: 1174, 4724, 4002, 4718, 9408, 4016, 28021, and 2464 "Silver Isle". North Wye Junction - New Orleans, LA - 9-11-1993 - C.M.Palmieri Photo. |