Another MARC train breaks down

Around 5:30 PM a MARC train broke down just afer leaving Union Station. A rescue train has been sent to pick them up.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0710/755799.html

I think MARC needs to do better maintenance on their equipmenmt. VRE hasn't had many breaks down lately probably because they do rigiourous maitenance. If a part needs to be replaced on one locomotive, they will then replace the same part on all the locomotives in the fleet to ensure relability.

I farted today so I guess we need to report that too? Everytime a Marc train breaksdown , we need to start a new thread? Marc doesn't maintain the equipment, Amtrak and CSX does depending on equipment and line. Funny , all these anti Amtrak fan Boys were all over the forum bashing Amtrak on how they maintained and ran VRE and now you're saying VRE never has breakdowns?

Why don't we just designate one thread to this? I mean every time someone posts one of these I always think that if its worth posting then it had to have been a big deal but really this probably hasn't even scraped the news.

Trains break down everyday, if anyone cared there would be enough posts to have their own forum.

Davis

davinp wrote:Around 5:30 PM a MARC train broke down just afer leaving Union Station. A rescue train has been sent to pick them up.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0710/755799.html

I think MARC needs to do better maintenance on their equipmenmt. VRE hasn't had many breaks down lately probably because they do rigiourous maitenance. If a part needs to be replaced on one locomotive, they will then replace the same part on all the locomotives in the fleet to ensure relability.

As mentioned above, maintenance of electrics is solely Amtrak's responsibility, and prior to this week the same was true for VRE (diesels not electrics). The HHP-8 (which is prob what broke down) is apparently an inferior design for the type of commuter environment that MARC has it running in.

As mentioned above, maintenance of electrics is solely Amtrak's responsibility, and prior to this week the same was true for VRE (diesels not electrics). The HHP-8 (which is prob what broke down) is apparently an inferior design for the type of commuter environment that MARC has it running in.

Maybe you should change your user avatar then

Hey they perform crappy but in MARC paint they still look somewhat cool.

Davis

I think there should be an investigation into the procurement process for the MARC HHP-8s to see if they had been proven in commuter service before being purchased for that purpose. Sorry, I think it's no laughing (or farting) matter if locos that taxpayers spent tens of millions on are failing after ten years in weather conditions that are completely normal for the area. If Amtrak just told MARC "Trust us, we know what we're doing" MARC needed to "trust, but verify" and it sounds like they didn't.

Jersey_Mike wrote:

As mentioned above, maintenance of electrics is solely Amtrak's responsibility, and prior to this week the same was true for VRE (diesels not electrics). The HHP-8 (which is prob what broke down) is apparently an inferior design for the type of commuter environment that MARC has it running in.

Maybe you should change your user avatar then

Lol. [what strench707 said^]

As for the weather, this summer is defintely more brutal than usual (just like the past winter) but yeah still that's no excuse. I haven't heard of NJT ALP-46 breakdowns and they operate under practically the same conditions (stop and go/high speed, hot weather).

realtype wrote:As for the weather, this summer is defintely more brutal than usual (just like the past winter) but yeah still that's no excuse. I haven't heard of NJT ALP-46 breakdowns and they operate under practically the same conditions (stop and go/high speed, hot weather).

I don't think you can blame the troubles with the way MARC operates them, Amtrak has had the same problems. Maybe, just maybe, the problems lie with the Amtrak personnel maintaining and operating them?

electricron wrote:

realtype wrote:As for the weather, this summer is defintely more brutal than usual (just like the past winter) but yeah still that's no excuse. I haven't heard of NJT ALP-46 breakdowns and they operate under practically the same conditions (stop and go/high speed, hot weather).

I don't think you can blame the troubles with the way MARC operates them, Amtrak has had the same problems. Maybe, just maybe, the problems lie with the Amtrak personnel maintaining and operating them?

Of course you would say that. You're such a tool. You have no railroad knowledge or railroad work history and to come on here and bash railroad employees is ridiculous. The HHP is not a great locomotive, hence the reason why Amtrak is looking forward to getting rid of them . The problems with these units are well documented. Amtraks units seem to fair better without the constant starting and stopping but they still have issues. Maybe to correct the problems would require a large amount of cash and that's something Amtrak doesn't have a lot of. Marc knows of the problems with them and they still choose to use them instead of parking them and using something else. Amtrak has been using some of there own units in Marc service such as a P32 bwh as I witnessed the other day.Maybe if you think you can do better, by all means apply for the job since you think you know so much about electricity but for whatever reason, I highly doubt it. Until then, keep the trap shut....

Just out of curiosity....do the Acela power cars share a common architecture with the HHP's?

cobra30689 wrote:Just out of curiosity....do the Acela power cars share a common architecture with the HHP's?

Yes they do - something like 80% parts commonality.... close enough that they had to have the same truck fixes that the acela did....

IIRC - Amtrak was looking for a replacement for the E60s.... Something that could pull the heavy LD trains and didnot have speed restrictions....

Supposedly the cheapest and quickest fix was to take an Acela powercar design and modify it from a single cab to a dual cab- add standard couplers at both ends - change the brake system to something compatible with the LD equipment including some legacy equipment (something about direct release capable/selectable sticks in my mind but I can't remember where I heard it)... And I think the HEP system was modified also.... Since the E60s would sometimes haul 15 car trains and the AEM7s couldn't without doubling up this was supposed to cure that....

So the story goes that when MARC went looking for a more robust motor to handle the penn line commuter traffic; Amtrak, who was MARC's technical advisor and contractor on the penn line, suggested that MARC buy the HHPs. The argument was that as they were current production and since Wilmington and Ivy would be maintaining them for MARC would be cheaper to fix because of common spares with Amtrak and the mechanics already knew them.

chucksc wrote:So the story goes that when MARC went looking for a more robust motor to handle the penn line commuter traffic; Amtrak, who was MARC's technical advisor and contractor on the penn line, suggested that MARC buy the HHPs. The argument was that as they were current production and since Wilmington and Ivy would be maintaining them for MARC would be cheaper to fix because of common spares with Amtrak and the mechanics already knew them.

Probably the same reason MARC ended up with their 4 AEM-7's, which were arguably more successful.

This particular MARC breakdown is newsworthy because:

1) It occurred at about 1710, right in the middle of rush hour
2) It occurred right in the throat of Union Station, between "K" and New York Ave.
3) It affected several Amtrak trains, including 196 (which I was on), which took a 45 minute delay
4) Amtrak maintains the MARC equipment

The HHP8s seem to be doing better these days. For several years, they were seen only on the through "Silver Service" trains and the "Crescent", and if on anything else always south of New York. Back in March, I saw two of them in Boston, so Amtrak is apparently becoming more confident about their reliability. Can't say whether that's also true of MARC.