I shudder to think that Amtrak would buy GE when purchasing a new locomotive. The P-42's are plagued with problems. Most noteably the recent case of having traction motors lock up. I had one lock on me at 30MPH. Then I tied up the whole sub-division for 6 hours until I could move then engine doing nothing but sliding the locked axle. Worst of all the hot bearing detector never went off and when I tried to move the engine to see if it was locked, I got no locked axle alarm!
I dont care for the cab design of that concept. The cab design on the 42 is terrible. The side windows are too small to be very effective. Also, with the sides being angled like they are makes the side view mirror more useless than it would be if it were mounted vertically. Not to mention with the angle they are mounted at you can not use the firemans side mirror because when you turn it far enough to see from the engineer seat you can only see the bottom rung of the ladder going up to the door.
Another problem I have is the angeled windshield. When light conditions are just right everything glares off the windshield.
Would be great if they would get rid of the computer screens. The screens always seem to either not get bright enough in the day or they are too bright at night.
Just my opinions!
HIGHBALL
