San Joaquins - Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock

For its first two years of operation the San Joaquin used single-level coaches Amtrak had inherited from other railroads. In October 1976 Amtrak "Amfleeted" the San Joaquin, introducing new Amfleet coaches to the service. From 1987-1989 Amtrak used Superliner and ex-ATSF Hi-level coaches. Amtrak requipped the San Joaquin trains again in 1989, this time with new Horizon coaches, when service expanded to three daily round-trips. The San Joaquin began receiving the Superliner-derived "California Cars" that it uses today in 1995.

The San Joaquin is equipped with Amtrak California-fleet (bi-level, high-capacity) passenger cars of several types: coach-baggage car, cafe (dining) car, coach car, cab car, and cab-baggage car. A cab car is a typical coach with an engineer's operating cab and headlights on one end, allowing the train to be operated in push-pull mode, which eliminates the need to turn the train at each end-point. A cab-baggage is similar, but with space on the car's lower level for checked-luggage storage.

Two types of locomotives are used on the San Joaquin. The EMD F59PHI, road numbers CDTX 2001-2015, and the GE P32-8WH (Dash 8), road numbers CDTX 2051-2052. These locomotives are owned by the California Department of Transportation and carry its CDTX reporting marks. Other locomotives are occasionally seen on the San Joaquin, including Amtrak-owned Dash 8s and P42DCs. The Amtrak California locomotives and cars livery is unique to California.