gokeefe wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 6:20 pm
Still thinking MARC or another one of the NEC commuter agencies is going to pick these units up on the cheap and have them rebuilt. MBTA apparently took a pass (quite understandably) on the AEM-7s. Should be interesting to see if they try for the HHP-8s.
MBTA didnt take a pass on anything. They havent looked at anything. And again, even if they did a locomotive with an absolutely poor record in snow weather performance (it doesnt work) would be an extremely poor choice by a state that often sees serious snowfall.
The only logical place for these to end up IF anybody wants to bother with them is MARC, since they already run them and already have a partner whos working on some of the subsystems. As far as all of the units ending up functional on marc, is impossible. When the locos were running at any one time you would never have all 15 in service because at least one that was out of service would be stripped of critical computers/modules etc to keep the others running. Now that they are out, and HSTs have seen their problems creeping along it seems to be the HHP8s have provided to keep the HST fleet moving.
Id also like to remind that the HHP-8 is not "done" on amtrak. While they were pulled from service and do not operate, they are still officially on the books and at any time could be put back in service, if they actually worked.
No good deed goes unpunished.