Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains

Since the spring of 2016, the Piedmonts have run with an engine at both ends. The seats in each coach have been reconfigured so that half face forward and half face backwards. When the cars were originally reconstructed, they were outfitted with multiple unit (MU) cables. These allow the engines to work together as one, even though they are located in different parts of the train.

This configuration started during track construction for the new Raleigh station since there was no way to turn the trains there at that time. Afterwards, in June 2018, it helped to utilize this configuration when the fourth frequency between Raleigh and Charlotte was added. With less time between arrivals and departures at Charlotte, there isn't enough time to turn the trains. NCDOT has purchased additional locomotives which will be refurbished, but will have the prime movers removed. These will serve as operating platforms for the engineer.

When the two newest locomotives, 1755 and 1797, are used in this push+pull operation, to me it looks like an NC version of a bullet train. Here is a video of train 73 stopping at the Cary station in late May, 2016. The video was shot by Susan Bobinyec.