CoNO: All things City of New Orleans

Another argument for an expanded passenger rail system in this county. A two track corridor has the ability to move a far higher volume of people per hour than a eight lane interstate.

I saw a consist list elsewhere for this train. There were 4 Amfleet IIs, 5 Superliner coaches, one Superliner sleeper and one Superliner transition sleeper. The other cars were either deadheads or non-revenue cars (diner/lounge, baggage, etc.)

So, given 11 revenue cars, that's an average of over 63 passengers per car. Considering the fact that the two sleepers (especially the transition sleeper) don't have that high of capacity, and the four Amfleet IIs have a 59/60-seat capacity, this train was basically sold out.

what kind of engines did they use to pull the 21 cars? P42's? what are their limits?

3 P42s. I'd have to look up the numbers. Considering that the City of New Orleans route is pretty flat, that would be adequate.

The numbers were 186, 25, and 16.

Here's the consist, which may have come from the same source as Mr Madison's info:

25
16
186
1710 BAGGAGE/MAIL
1237 BAGGAGE/MAIL
2500 CREW DORM
62015 DEADHEAD SLEEPER
62025 DEADHEAD SLEEPER
8532 DEADHEAD DINER
28021 DEADHEAD LOUNGE
25119 COACH
25049 COACH
25070 COACH
25051 COACH
39014 T/DORM/PASSENGER SLEEPER
38060 DINER
33002 LOUNGE
34092 COACH
31502 COACH
35006 COACH
32030 SLEEPER
31591 COACH
31535 COACH
800129 PRIVATE "HOLLYWOOD BEACH"

that is a long train

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:what kind of engines did they use to pull the 21 cars? P42's? what are their limits?

I was wondering. How exactly are the locomotives "synchronized" together? I would imagine when the throttle is reduced or the brakes are being applied on one, the same thing is happening on the other. How does it happen?

That's a good question Mr. Johnson. The process of enabling the Engineer to control other locomotives assigned to the train from that leading is known as MU, or multiple units. At such time you have occasion to observe a train, passenger or freight, look for thick cables (other than the HEP lines if passenger) between the units. Those are the MU lines.

Obviously, during the days of steam motive power, MU controls were simply not possible - every locomotive in a double or even triple header had both an Engineer and a Fireman. Oh well, one more reason why when I first started following the railroad industry (late 40's), the industry employed over one million persons, compared with today's head count of less than 200,000.

Initially, when the multiple unit diesel locomotive was introduced to the industry by EMD shortly before WWII, they were marketed as four unit sets with one cab (A) unit and three booster (B) units. This was done, albeit surrendering flexibility, out of concern that under existing Labor Agreements, a carrier would be required to assign an Engineer and Fireman to each unit, no doubt arising from the Employees (through accredited representative) contending that in any other locomotive in the train (other than dead in tow) there should be a crew.

Obviously, history showed either this concern to be unfounded, or the carriers prevailed in the handling of any claims or grievances progressed.

To add some technical information to the above, since diesel locomotives use an almost entirely electrical control system (although many first generation diesels had a lot of air operated controls), MUing them together (in layman's terms) bypasses the control stand on the trailing locomotives, and essentially connects their systems to the control stand of the leading locomotive. Since all locomotives are recieving the smae electrical commands, they will perform the same.

The same process happens with airbrakes -- the brake stand on the trailing units are cut out, and the brake stand on the leading locomotive controls all the units. (Note: I have no idea how the new electronic brakes work -- the most modern locomotive I have any intimate knowledge of air brakes on is a GP-7!)

Now, of course, when you put different models and makes together, they won't all react the same, but they should all be getting the same command from the engineer's control stand.

Here's a somewhat related question. When there is a locomotive operating on each end of the train (take the Acela Express, for example), are the couplers (or drawbars for Acela) in tension or compression?

that's a tougher one.

The Acela Express isn't a good example, because (I believe) the cars are coupled together with something more akin to a drawbar (no slack action) or an MU coupler than a conventional knuckle coupler. I'm not sure on that, but there is essentially no slack action in them that you can feel as a passenger. I'll have to hope that someone with more shop-wise knowledge of the AE's can answer that.

Then, when there are units on both end of a train, the can only both be working if the coaches are equipped for push-pull service. If so, the engines can be MUed through the coaches (just as a cab car is essentially "MUed" to its pushing locomotive through the coaches). However, if two units are on each end of the train, and the coaches are not push-pull equipped, then the trailing engine is simply dead in tow (either shut down, or idling, but isolated, and just along for the ride).

That's the layman's explanation. As for the details of how slack action is controlled, I would imagine that its a similiar challenge to managing the slack when pushing with a push pull. Only a passenger enginner can really explain that.

So with 700 passengers being transported on the City of New Orleans, as was reported, Amtrak couldn't staff the Viewliner Sleepers and sell some additional revenue space? Yes, it would have required an attendant (one attendant could have handled two Viewliners for such a situation as this - it's been done in labor crunches). Supposedly they used the Crescent's Amfleets for coach riders. Nice that Amtrak was able to provide an expanded consist to get people out of harm's way, but selling higher yield tickets in the Viewliners would have been a wise revenue decision let alone providing riders with added comfort.

There's a train that would still been longer than that train, that would be the Auto Train. Those trains have about 40 cars.

But I'm glad Amtrak decided to use a 21-car consists to get evacuees out.

Amtrak has resumed service to and from New Orleans