Illinois to lead Corridor Power purchase

It's a bit more long-distance that Chicago, but we're the first hub of the corridors west of Philly.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 2021.story

"Locomotives capable of exceeding the 110-mph speed limit on the passenger rail corridor between Chicago and St. Louis will be bought for Illinois and four other states under a process the Illinois Department of Transportation will lead, officials said Thursday.

The Federal Railroad Administration selected IDOT to manage the multistate procurement of at least 35 next-generation locomotives for high-speed rail corridors in Illinois, California, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state, Gov. Pat Quinn said.

No doubt NRE will get a good look here. They have a good relationship with the state, and that counts for a lot around here. If they can license a good truck design from the Euros and figure out a monocoque shell, they would likely get the work.

It appears as if Electro-Motive is already developing a candidate.




Images above from EMD's .pdf file of the F125, available at the following URL:
http://www.emdiesels.com/emdweb/product ... v5RevE.pdf

It's just unfortunate it doesn't look anything like the initial concept-

EMD is apparently trying to make use of a crate of "Winnebago" windshields it has laying around La Grange....

I'm also seeing a continuing theme of Caterpillar trying to erase the EMD brand identity, and now the EMD prime movers. Notice that this thing will be Cat powered. I guess they haven't gotten the message that railroaders don't like Caterpillar.

I'd like to think that Winton, F-M, Cooper-Bessemer, et al, went a different direction for a reason. Neither Cat nor Sulzer has been particularly successful in our industry--and the main difference is that both of those operate at about 2-3x the RPM of locomotive/marine diesels. That C175 runs at 1800 RPM vs. the standard EMD 900 RPM. Nothing listed in the spec sheet about alternators...curious.

SlowFreight wrote: Nothing listed in the spec sheet about alternators...curious.

Regardless of what railroaders like or don't progress will happen. I believe that the alternator will also be supplied from CAT and be part of the integrated generator set.

Agreed. The 710 prime mover's production dates back to the mid 80s, and I'm sure development predates that by -/+ 5 years. Sooner or later it's going to be replaced by something else.

Of note, the model number of this new engine is C175-20. That's a 20 cylinder prime mover.

Fan Railer wrote:

SlowFreight wrote: Nothing listed in the spec sheet about alternators...curious.

Regardless of what railroaders like or don't progress will happen. I believe that the alternator will also be supplied from CAT and be part of the integrated generator set.

Cat doesn't make alternators. That's why it matters who supplies it.