avgeeky wrote:Do you happen to know what its reliability is like post-rebuild? Or does it still need to keep going to Ivy City after the morning run, possibly to come back after a few days?Not off hand. It's being tracked in the Amtrak forum.
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avgeeky wrote:Do you happen to know what its reliability is like post-rebuild? Or does it still need to keep going to Ivy City after the morning run, possibly to come back after a few days?Not off hand. It's being tracked in the Amtrak forum.
dt_rt40 wrote:Well, in my opinion the SC-44s cannot arrive soon enough and these (hopefully successful) HHP-8 rebuilds cannot be completed soon enough.I live in DC, and while I've actually never ridden MARC, I've ridden on the NEC quite a bit. I've also railfanned at New Carrollton before, so I am pretty familiar with MARC's equipment. While I don't think I can answer your question, I am a little confused on which train you were on. It sounds like you were on a MARC train that encountered a disabled northbound Amtrak 148 because it hit a tresspasser, is that correct?
We were told of a disabled train on 148 this morning. I say to myself "better not be a sick HHP-8 with a marc train". Turns out it was 517. We pull alongside it, sure enough it was a hideous MP-36...which remember MARC bought less than a decade ago to be 'more reliable' than previous locomotives. In many years of being a MARC rider, my only extreme delayed trains were due to Amtrak AEM-7s and HHP-8 when riding the cross honored regionals, and a MP-36. Never one of the MARC electrics. Yes I know that statistically, they were an improvement. But they still fail at too high a rate.
Anyhow now that I'm done griping...perhaps a question which would maybe be better posted to Amtrak...but it's not like they don't have their hands full with topics at the moment LOL. *After* the Amtrak 148 de-energized (HEP off) to connect the bridge to the MARC train, we had to wait almost 5 minutes before the engineer - I guess - said on the radio it was ok to connect the train bodies. I don't remember the exact wording but it was something like 'clear' or 'safe'. Why the wait? Do they literally use a voltmeter somewhere to check for potential differences between the train sets? I have actually been through this procedure before with two regionals, and I know both had to be de-powered because I walked from one to the other. In this case I was on the receiving train. Not sure if that is done by just opening the MCB, or actually lowering the pantograph? I'm sure the legal department insists that the procedure is extensively detailed in some operations manual. They told the people not to touch both cars.
Nevermind the question of whether this was actually the best way to handle the scenario! Delayed us over an hour. (and more importantly, Amtrak customers from NYC who were paying full price) This was right next to the NS yard...they have scads of locomotives seemingly just sitting around on idle. Is it completely out of the question for them to do an "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" FAVOR, and just pull the disabled MARC back to Baltimore Penn where the PAX could have transferred to 419 or 421? It can't be against rules to pull a passenger train with a loco that can't supply HEP, right? For a couple miles? Our car got a bit cold due to the almost hour long period w/o HEP. The trip back to Baltimore would have taken 10 minutes at most, and the NS locomotive could have been back to the yard in a half hour or so. The 'transfer the passengers' rodeo seemed a bit ridiculous in this case. I could accept it more if the train got disabled way out in Aberdeen, for example. (which actually did happened to me...I just realized I've actually been through this before, back in 2010 or 2011...the dark days before the ACS-64 LOL. In that case the gangplank was in a different car so I wasn't as aware of the goings-on. FWIW, the prior scenario I recalled in the above paragraph was not a breakdown, but a train-human frontal contact incident.)
cf: https://mta.maryland.gov/schedules/disp ... hbound.xls" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
dt_rt40 wrote:We were told of a disabled train on 148 this morning. I say to myself "better not be a sick HHP-8 with a marc train". Turns out it was 517. We pull alongside it, sure enough it was a hideous MP-36...which remember MARC bought less than a decade ago to be 'more reliable' than previous locomotives. In many years of being a MARC rider, my only extreme delayed trains were due to Amtrak AEM-7s and HHP-8 when riding the cross honored regionals, and a MP-36. Never one of the MARC electrics. Yes I know that statistically, they were an improvement. But they still fail at too high a rate.Just to get things clear: You were on Amtrak 148 and it turns out MARC 517 hit a trespasser, right?
Anyhow now that I'm done griping...perhaps a question which would maybe be better posted to Amtrak...but it's not like they don't have their hands full with topics at the moment LOL. *After* the Amtrak 148 de-energized (HEP off) to connect the bridge to the MARC train, we had to wait almost 5 minutes before the engineer - I guess - said on the radio it was ok to connect the train bodies. I don't remember the exact wording but it was something like 'clear' or 'safe'. Why the wait? Do they literally use a voltmeter somewhere to check for potential differences between the train sets? I have actually been through this procedure before with two regionals, and I know both had to be de-powered because I walked from one to the other. In this case I was on the receiving train. Not sure if that is done by just opening the MCB, or actually lowering the pantograph? I'm sure the legal department insists that the procedure is extensively detailed in some operations manual. They told the people not to touch both cars.
Nevermind the question of whether this was actually the best way to handle the scenario! Delayed us over an hour. (and more importantly, Amtrak customers from NYC who were paying full price) This was right next to the NS yard...they have scads of locomotives seemingly just sitting around on idle. Is it completely out of the question for them to do an "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" FAVOR, and just pull the disabled MARC back to Baltimore Penn where the PAX could have transferred to 419 or 421? It can't be against rules to pull a passenger train with a loco that can't supply HEP, right? For a couple miles? Our car got a bit cold due to the almost hour long period w/o HEP. The trip back to Baltimore would have taken 10 minutes at most, and the NS locomotive could have been back to the yard in a half hour or so. The 'transfer the passengers' rodeo seemed a bit ridiculous in this case. I could accept it more if the train got disabled way out in Aberdeen, for example. (which actually did happened to me...I just realized I've actually been through this before, back in 2010 or 2011...the dark days before the ACS-64 LOL. In that case the gangplank was in a different car so I wasn't as aware of the goings-on. FWIW, the prior scenario I recalled in the above paragraph was not a breakdown, but a train-human frontal contact incident.)
cf: https://mta.maryland.gov/schedules/disp ... hbound.xls" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
dt_rt40 wrote:Well, in my opinion the SC-44s cannot arrive soon enough and these (hopefully successful) HHP-8 rebuilds cannot be completed soon enough.Are the MP36s really that bad? I haven't heard of any other MPI operators having major issues. If MARC is having problems, is it because of inadequate maintenance, or perhaps they are using MP36s in ways they weren't designed for (like pulling 8 car trains at 100mph)?
We were told of a disabled train on 148 this morning. I say to myself "better not be a sick HHP-8 with a marc train". Turns out it was 517. We pull alongside it, sure enough it was a hideous MP-36...which remember MARC bought less than a decade ago to be 'more reliable' than previous locomotives. In many years of being a MARC rider, my only extreme delayed trains were due to Amtrak AEM-7s and HHP-8 when riding the cross honored regionals, and a MP-36. Never one of the MARC electrics. Yes I know that statistically, they were an improvement. But they still fail at too high a rate.