The Illini: Amtrak's STRANGEST Consist | Chicago to Homewood in Coach

Huge thank you to everyone who showed up to the premiere! The plan moving forward is to premiere every video, with a few exceptions, so be sure to turn on the notification bell to be alerted when premieres go live!

Now THIS is a intercity train we all need! Comfy seats, fast ride, and good views!

They’re testing some equipment on a CDTX F59PHI to get around that axle count restriction and put those cars (IE the sleeper) back on Long hauls that use them. If it becomes successful they will add it to the Surfliner and San Joaquin trains to Get rid of the axle count needed on those trains too.

Love how bro basically gives a tutorial on the super liner seats

Im always amazed by how extensive the American rail net work is. These trains go extremely long distances.

The unused sleeper on the Illini is probably the reason I was told that there were no sleepers available to add to the Capital Ltd that I had paid for, so I was downgraded to a crowded coach seat for a miserable overnight trip to Washington DC.

Thanks for another great trip review, love to see Chicago Union, such a nice station!

1:41 haha. Nice. Saw that on the Zephyr once.

I rode the Southwest Chief in February, 2003 and it was led by P42s 69 with 79 right behind it (and two more that I can't remember -this was back in the express freight car days, hence four locomotives)

They pinched that sleeper off an inbound California Zephyr. I guess they just grab what's handy.

Look for between 150-200 for a room between Carbondale and Chicago if the sleeper were being used. Also Amtrak is looking to rerouting the passenger trains using this route in the Chicago area over Norfolk and Southern Tracks to avoid the costly backing in and out of Chicago Union Station.

When Amtrak first received Superliner coaches in the early 1980s, Amtrak put them on trains between Chicago and Detroit. The dining cars, lounge cars, and sleepers came later, and Amtrak didn't have enough Amfleet cars.

The cafe car on the Illini is similar to that on the Heartland Flyer between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. That train has locomotives on each end to allow operation without a turnaround.

Another thing to note is that the illini and saluki routes also share the same route with the City of New Orleans route with continuing service to New Orleans after Carbondale.

Ricobenes is a good food spot on the south side. Glad to see it on the map

12:44 The Northbound Illini usually runs at night so that would probably be the only time using the sleeper car would work. The Midwest trains that use single-level cars should consider using the empty baggage cars to carry bikes, and I always thought adding a cab car or 2nd locomotive at the other end could reduce the down time between runs.

I suspect they don't sell space in the sleeper since this is a state supported route and the state of Illinois doesn't have included in their contract sleeper cars. What they should do is open it up and let passengers get a 2-3 hour "taste" of what the sleeper is like, whole charging coach prices. Might encourage people to book an overnight ticket at one point.

I just watched this will on the 393 heading home to Carbondale after a fun weekend in Chicago.

Thorough as always! Did I see a supplemental light for the camera shots around the seat area? Along with making the quality of your video better, it shows the lack of cleaning unfortunately.

I remember riding this train back in 2017 and they used horizon cars and amfleets, but I did see one of this trains using superliners but from Carbondale to Chicago and back I had Horizons on both trips, when I herd they switched to Superliners I thought it was temporary because they were being brought to the Cascades and I thought eventually the Venture cars will be on the Illini but after the most recent stories about CN and everything I realize now, I think it's a shame using long distance equipment on this short distance route I know amtrak has been very short on superliners and they only use the Venture cars on 3 routes but I herd they are trying something let's hope this works