Railroad Forums 

  • Acela Speeds

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1488504  by Backshophoss
 
Might have been access problems with the "neighbors",to install poles with out taking a track out of service. :(
 #1488541  by ApproachMedium
 
No access problems, amtrak owns the right of way and they ran up and down the out of service track. Its really impossible to install the poles without taking the track out and for the amount of them that had to go up, holes drilled, lifted etc easier to do it during long term outage. Failure to properly install though is more like it, and some other things i cannot comment here.

Tier 1 trains is UP TO 125mph. Tier 2 is 125-150mph. Tier 3 will be up to 220mph.
 #1488547  by Matt Johnson
 
Well, what they did get done is roughly equivalent to the Attleboro - Mansfield stretch in Massachusetts, so hopefully still enough to let Avelia stretch its legs and show off its 160 mph speed for a couple of minutes.

One other factor will be the speed on the upgraded variable tension segments on either end. If it's, say, 140 mph, that helps a little bit. The new variable tension hangars can be seen here at Hamilton:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/657488/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1489271  by timz
 
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/657488/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Those rust-color upside-down-T things next to the catenary wire -- what are they for? Are they hanging from the crosswire?

The tracks aren't being moved farther apart, now or in the future?
 #1489296  by ApproachMedium
 
The track moving farther apart thing is a myth. It was only done at adams and delco to accomodate the new switches. The rusty brackets were done at first to hold the old wire while new wire was installed but i guess at some point they found out they were really useless and stopped using them.
 #1508952  by bostontrainguy
 
So much money and so much time for so little. Even if they increase the speeds, how much schedule time is going to be reduced? (Would money have been better spent reducing the "S" curve at Elizabeth?)

They also talked about raising the speeds to 160 in the already constant tension sections in Massachusetts. Again probably not much of a schedule savings but at least a good test bed for higher speed operations.
 #1508975  by ApproachMedium
 
The s curve speed was brought up to 80/85 from 55. They cant change the curve now otherwise because of area construction.
 #1508988  by amtrakhogger
 
02. They could up the speed here on all trains at the Elizabeth curves if they just bumped up the signaling to a Cab Speed from Approach Medium.
 #1509056  by ApproachMedium
 
That wont happen because if you have acses failure, you are dropped to 55 on all tracks with all trains. What they need to do is tie the signal drop in with the TSR radio if theres no comms then it drops to approach medium if there is comms then it can stay at block indication.
 #1509074  by jonnhrr
 
bostontrainguy wrote:
Matt Johnson wrote:The last of the four tracks is finally getting constant tension wire installed. Will the existing Acelas see a bump up to 150 mph here?

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/697391/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
So much money and so much time for so little. Even if they increase the speeds, how much schedule time is going to be reduced? (Would money have been better spent reducing the "S" curve at Elizabeth?)

They also talked about raising the speeds to 160 in the already constant tension sections in Massachusetts. Again probably not much of a schedule savings but at least a good test bed for higher speed operations.
Doesn't the CT catenary also reduce the likelihood of wire breakage in very cold weather and sagging in hot weather i.e. increased reliability?
 #1509084  by R36 Combine Coach
 
ExCon90 wrote:Regarding the posts above about the nonstop Metroliner, Baltimore enacted an ordinance around the time the Union and B&P Tunnels were built requiring all trains operating through Baltimore to make a station stop in that city, and the City Council blew the dust off the ordinance and started to make difficulties over that nonstop Metroliner, but the situation resolved itself when Amtrak discontinued the nonstop to fill seats. I suppose the issue could be raised again if nonstop Acelas were introduced.
There was a "super express" Acela in introduced in January 2008, but dropped on April 4 (PHL stop only).
 #1509099  by ApproachMedium
 
constant tension catenary does hold up much better in weather changes, but the stretch they did the work on almost never has downed wire because its straight and pretty simple. A place to have CT wire is down in maryland where its close to all of those rivers and high winds. Theres always problems with wire down there. Other than the signal upgrades i think a lot of this project was a waste and the concepts and money could have been better spent elsewhere
 #1509114  by BandA
 
Matt Johnson wrote:Well, what they did get done is roughly equivalent to the Attleboro - Mansfield stretch in Massachusetts, so hopefully still enough to let Avelia stretch its legs and show off its 160 mph speed for a couple of minutes.

One other factor will be the speed on the upgraded variable tension segments on either end. If it's, say, 140 mph, that helps a little bit. The new variable tension hangars can be seen here at Hamilton:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/657488/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That's a lot of wiring!!
  • 1
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55