Acela II (Alstom Avelia Liberty): Design, Production, Delivery, Acceptance

Fan Railer wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:09 pm

Pensyfan19 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 20, 2021 12:06 pm How many sets have been built? Is there still 2 of existence, or are there more arriving on the NEC?

There are at least 6 train sets completed, and another two under construction. Not sure if TS1 has gone back to Alstom for refitting yet, but TS3 is due on property some time in April.

The first set that is fully outfitted was supposed to be released in September. But Covid has wreaked havoc on things.

Everything's pushed back, quite frankly. EIS is not expected until February / March of 2022.

No dates but IMO
1. All testing of TS1 and TS-2 complete and all punch list items are satisfied.
2. FRA give full approval for revenue service.
3. Amtrak runs non revenue test trains BOS <> NYP <> WASH to verify OBS works with punch list items corrected. Might offer rides to off duty Amtrak personnel and maybe a few rail interested persons.
4. Amtrak gets 4 - 6 completed AC-2s and substitutes for 1 AC-1round trip from NYP and WASH a day with the AC-1s as back up. Sell trips with AC-1 capacities.
5. With a total of AC-2s ready for revenue service start regular AC-2 service WASH - NYP - BOS Bos trains substituting for AC-1 trips.
Depending of Covid - 19 passengers now returning
6. start the daily 1/2 hour proposed service mixing in with AC-1 trips.

Once about 12 - 16 AC-2 sets are in revenue service Amtrak may start retiring AC-1 sets. That will allow for the finial 28 AC-2 sets planned for service. There is always the possibility that revenue passenger loads are so low that AC-1s are retired sooner. The opposite can also be possible with passenger loads so heavy both on NEC and nationwide that Amtrak might keep the AC-1s in service as some kind of regionals and send Amfleet-1s to work outside the NEC ? Amtrak tested a longer AC-1 train set that led to the AC-2 ordered. But the AC-1s could be made into longer sets for regional ? That IMHO is very unlikely but I will not predict how passenger loads will be 1 -2-3 years from now and anyone who pretends to do so is whistling in the wind ? ? ?

Once TS-3 is on property, I believe the plan is to move TS-2 up to BOS for representative route testing up that way. TS-3 will then take TS-2's place in PHL and, as the first fully outfitted trainset, serve as a crew familiarization / training unit in addition to operational testing.

TS2 is scheduled for positioning move to Boston tomorrow morning, 4/5/21, following 172 east out of PHL. It will stay up that way for the foreseeable future in order to conduct representative route testing between Providence and Westerly during the AM daylight hours.

Fan Railer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:28 pm TS2 is scheduled for positioning move to Boston tomorrow morning, 4/5/21, following 172 east out of PHL. It will stay up that way for the foreseeable future in order to conduct representative route testing between Providence and Westerly during the AM daylight hours.

Thanks for the heads up, tempting to call out of work/go in late, but then I'm already scheduled for dose 1 of the Covid vaccine tomorrow afternoon so I don't want to jeopardize making my appt for that! Next month I'll be back in the hunt, fully vaccinated!

Edit: just as well, as I now realize this was posted Sunday night! Spotting Avelia in daylight hours is still a challenge. I hope the testing ramps up this summer.

Avelia made a lot of noise crossing the Raritan at New Brunswick. That Euro-horn has got to go.

E-44 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:20 pm Avelia made a lot of noise crossing the Raritan at New Brunswick. That Euro-horn has got to go.

They haven't replaced the spastic farting goose horn?

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:22 am

E-44 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:20 pm Avelia made a lot of noise crossing the Raritan at New Brunswick. That Euro-horn has got to go.

They haven't replaced the spastic farting goose horn?

Since the horns are now just playing a digital sample, why not use something else?
I mean, a sample of Rob Halford of Judas Priest screaming would make anyone know that a train is coming.

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:50 am Since the horns are now just playing a digital sample, why not use something else?
I mean, a sample of Rob Halford of Judas Priest screaming would make anyone know that a train is coming.

I now wonder the safety considerations of The O'Jays "Love Train"...

(Although, if you can just tweak a standard horn so you could change pitch, you could get the base melody in and maybe still pass FRA requirements?)

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:52 pm

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:50 am Since the horns are now just playing a digital sample, why not use something else?
I mean, a sample of Rob Halford of Judas Priest screaming would make anyone know that a train is coming.

I now wonder the safety considerations of The O'Jays "Love Train"...

(Although, if you can just tweak a standard horn so you could change pitch, you could get the base melody in and maybe still pass FRA requirements?)

If it's just a digital sampling, then clearly it should imitate a Hancock 4700 air whistle once it gets east of Harold and onto New Haven rails.

I think acdc's runaway train would be better.
These days, having to" skip ad"before the song may make it impractical.

Fan Railer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 7:28 pm TS2 is scheduled for positioning move to Boston tomorrow morning, 4/5/21, following 172 east out of PHL. It will stay up that way for the foreseeable future in order to conduct representative route testing between Providence and Westerly during the AM daylight hours.

Will this be the first time an Acela reaches 165 mph on the NEC north of New York? I know they announced such high-speed testing over 8 years ago (wow) but did they actually achieve it?

Amtrak to run test trains at 165 mph in Northeast
Philadelphia Inquirer
Published Sep 25, 2012
TRENTON - Amtrak is going to break the speed limit in the Northeast Corridor. The rail service announced Monday that it will operate test trains overnight at 165 m.p.h. in four stretches from Maryland to Massachusetts. Acela Express equipment will be used for the tests, which were to start at about 10:30 p.m. Monday in New Jersey and will continue into next week, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said. All the locations may one day have regular 160-m.p.h. service; the current top speed limit is 150 m.p.h.

And I think we all know that the record is still out of reach: In December 1967 the UAC TurboTrain set the speed record at 170.8 miles per hour in New Jersey.

Close...it got up to 160 apparently!

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:22 am

E-44 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:20 pm Avelia made a lot of noise crossing the Raritan at New Brunswick. That Euro-horn has got to go.

They haven't replaced the spastic farting goose horn?

I watched the March 18 Mass Bay RRE presentation by Chris Jagodzinski, of Amtrak Operations, posted here. He said the new Acela would not blow euro horns. Unless I misheard him. It's a two hour Youtube, and sorry, I don't have the timestamp for that remark.