ALP-45DP's - Usage and Delivery

there are several scanner apps for your smartphone - i have "scanner radio" on my droid - it has "central Jersey rail" stream which is the major frequencies of railroads in the central jersey area, basically anything that can be picked up by his antenna, I think its somewhere around Bound Brook.

4501 was west out with a PL42 and some comets this morning. Saw it pass by while I sat at the light at Murray St and 21.

morris&essex4ever wrote:

NJTArrow2 wrote:

Jtgshu wrote:the test trains have been running pretty much daily, and the regular routine seems to be to run diesel from the MMC down to the Coast Line, change to electric at either Woodbridge or Perth Amboy (depending on how close ahead they are to a local behind them) and then running to Long Branch under electric power. In Long Branch they either go back to diesel and head west to Bay Head or just change ends under electric power and go back east.

Of course, not every night/day they are on the coast line, but they are down there a lot. Today there was one that was running during the day down on the Coast Line.

When did it run because I was out between 12:30pm and 3pm at Little Silver.

Isn't there no schedule for test trains?

If you read the question and the other post you would see that by simply reading it a test train went down Sunday,I was out railfanning Sunday so I asked him what time it went by because I didn't see it.

4501 west out with the pan up pulling the 4009+5 through Hunter at 9:35am

Jtgshu wrote:there are several scanner apps for your smartphone - i have "scanner radio" on my droid - it has "central Jersey rail" stream which is the major frequencies of railroads in the central jersey area, basically anything that can be picked up by his antenna, I think its somewhere around Bound Brook.

The scanner feed is located in South Bound Brook which is right across the river from Bound Brook. Improvements were made to the feed when I moved back in May, the scanner is on a dedicated 'traintenna' about 40ft in the air. Since then, I've been able to pick up the South Plainfield detector on the Port Reading Secondary clear as a bell. I'm also able to get the Browns Yard foreman in Sayreville now too. However, i'm still unable to catch Townley, but I can hear most trains clearing the townley detector. On a rare occasion, when all the atmospheric conditions are right, Townley will come in, but it's rare.

As I'm typing this out now, Amtrak's CETC-9 is talking to the test train, just gave him clear RR down to Metropark.

The 4501 , a PL42 and a few coaches with q Comet V cab car came rolling into philly around 1130am. I couldn't stick around. Had to run 646. She sounded quiet as she came in. Glad to see this thing coming out with frequency.

Amtrak67 of America wrote:The 4501 , a PL42 and a few coaches with q Comet V cab car came rolling into philly around 1130am. I couldn't stick around. Had to run 646. She sounded quiet as she came in. Glad to see this thing coming out with frequency.

Thats actually the second unit budd.. Yeah it seems like theyre ramping up the testing for sure!

After all the hell the PL42AC's get on this forum and elsewhere, its ironic that its being used as the safety escort for the ALP-45DP's. I guess in NJT's mind, 10 years old trumps 60 years old.

Hawaiitiki wrote:After all the hell the PL42AC's get on this forum and elsewhere, its ironic that its being used as the safety escort for the ALP-45DP's. I guess in NJT's mind, 10 years old trumps 60 years old.

Does it really matter what the heck NJT uses as a protect engine? The PL42s run, so what is the big effing deal?

4501 and a PL42 with some comets went west through Point Pleasant Beach on NJCL about an hour ago!

sixty-six wrote:

Hawaiitiki wrote:After all the hell the PL42AC's get on this forum and elsewhere, its ironic that its being used as the safety escort for the ALP-45DP's. I guess in NJT's mind, 10 years old trumps 60 years old.

Does it really matter what the heck NJT uses as a protect engine? The PL42s run, so what is the big effing deal?

I didn't say or imply it was a bad idea or a good idea. Just thought it was ironic how much grief that motor has withstood and now it's being used as protect engine...

Hawaiitiki wrote:

sixty-six wrote:

Hawaiitiki wrote:After all the hell the PL42AC's get on this forum and elsewhere, its ironic that its being used as the safety escort for the ALP-45DP's. I guess in NJT's mind, 10 years old trumps 60 years old.

Does it really matter what the heck NJT uses as a protect engine? The PL42s run, so what is the big effing deal?

I didn't say or imply it was a bad idea or a good idea. Just thought it was ironic how much grief that motor has withstood and now it's being used as protect engine...

All new engines have their teething troubles, the PL42s are going on 5-6 years old, NJT basically has worked most of their issues out by now with various tweaks. If you read other topics and posts on here about the PL42, they have been NJTs most reliable engine in terms of miles between failures for awhile now.

Plus I'm sure they'd rather get passenger miles out of the older diesels rather than use up their remaining life on test trains.

First derailment of an ALP-45DP train this morning in Montreal, as it was just entering Central Station. Conflicting reports about either the locomotive or a Multilevel car tilting on its side. A newpaper used stock photo on its Internet edition that showed an F40, adding to the mixup. No injury, the 1400 passengers reached the platform on foot. According to the paper, it would have happen before during testing.

More to come later.

edit 1:
Newpaper short article with the wrong picture (sorry, it's in French):
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/qu ... ntrale.php

edit 2:
Cellphone picture taken by a user (part of the train had reached the platform - sorry again, text still in French!):
http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/faitsd ... 91509.html

Considering the track record of the 46 and the track record of the multis, id put my money on the multilevel had almost everything to do with it lol.