Lets not forget Amtrak DID run the '46 back when they were new, they leased i believe the last 5 or 6 of them for Clocker service after the E60s were retired or sent out for rebuilding and never came back...
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The '46s are good locos, a little slippery, but good locos, the '46As are much better locos, much more power and tremendously better wheelslip control. Light years better wheelslip.
But more importantly, they are still running quite reliably after 11 years in grueling service, and are starting to get mid life/in house overhauls by NJT and Bombardier. Something the HHP8s are not getting.
There is a bit of a sibling rivalry with regards to Amtrak and NJT, and well, as silly as it sounds, as its quite an expensive game, but one of the reasons for not buying the '46As is simply because "they look too much like an NJT commuter engine" - nothing to do with reliability, components, performance, anything like that, but because they look like a NJT locomotive. Bombardier went out of their way to change the design of the look of the loco, so it would look different, but have teh same internals, and jumped through all their hoops, but Amtrak came up with excuse after excuse and (side doors and AC units were my favorites, among others) decided to go with the Seimens loco instead.
BTW, that info came from a very very very high up in Bombardier who I had a face to face conversation with, so no railroad rumors there, yes, one side of the story, but it jives.....
Im not saying Bombardier is the best thing in the world and that Seimens can't build a great loco. Im just saying that when it comes to our tax dollars which is buying this stuff, egos and personal feelings of decision makers about some thing that happened FIFTEEN years ago, should be put aside and ALL available options explored.
Jeez, imagine if everyone who had a bad experience on Amtrak never came back? There would probably be next to no one riding the darn trains....
