Amtrak HHP-8 Discussion: Use, Reliability, Disposition

In the limited amount of times I have rode regional trains, I have always had HHP-8's north of New York and AEM-7s south of New York. I haven't rode all that often, but I have never seen an HHP-8 south of Penn Station.

I saw two HHP's on the NH line in the past two days pulling regionals, I think they were 631 on Monday afternoon, and 608 today. I saw 631 heading towards BOS passing Fairfield,CT around 3:15PM Monday and 608 was heading towards NYP/WAS in the Norwalk,CT area around the same time on Tuesday.

Patrick

I had #656 pull me on Regional train 177 from South Station yesterday

Armadillos that I saw on Tuesday:
662 on the Silver Meteor
655 on Regional 95
653 on Regional 86
650 on Regional 125
659 on Regional 193

chuchubob wrote:Armadillos that I saw on Tuesday:
662 on the Silver Meteor
655 on Regional 95
653 on Regional 86
650 on Regional 125
659 on Regional 193

Great pics!

How many total HHP-8's are there? I think 15 right?
Skull

Skullitor wrote:How many total HHP-8's are there? I think 15 right?
Skull

Right. According to this website, one was out of service, so fourteen were active as of Feb 2.

chuchubob wrote:

Skullitor wrote:How many total HHP-8's are there? I think 15 right?
Skull

Right. According to this website, one was out of service, so fourteen were active as of Feb 2.

Thanks,Bob
Skull

Train 170 northbound out of Washington DC to Boston had a HHP-8 last Friday. I think it is safe to say the HHP-8's roam the NEC. To see an HHP-8 out on the Harrisburg Line, that would be a little extraordinary.

jp1822 wrote:Train 170 northbound out of Washington DC to Boston had a HHP-8 last Friday. I think it is safe to say the HHP-8's roam the NEC. To see an HHP-8 out on the Harrisburg Line, that would be a little extraordinary.

Saw train 170 today, it had an HHP8 on it

According to the logs on www.gobytrain.us....
the long stored out of service HHP-8 #663 which was stored a few years ago is now back in service. This leaves just #664 as being out of service, but under repair.
That's a good sign.

It seems that the HHP8's will stay down south mostly. You dont see that many up north, usually on the weekends, they will put HHP8's on regional trains to Boston.

How's their reliability these days? I read elsewhere about one dying in Metro North territory on Memorial Day and stranding a holiday trainfull of passengers for several hours.

The HHP's are junk. I had one break down on me two weeks ago. I was suppose to have an HHP on friday but it broke down in DC before the train could depart.

I even talked to one of the guys that turns the trains around at the south Hampton yard in Boston, he said that the AEM7's r a lot more reliable and that the HHP8's were not built well