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  • Amtrak’s Growing Pains with Siemens Locomotives

  • 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

 #1613134  by Gilbert B Norman
 
ApproachMedium wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2023 10:13 pm Amtrak seats LOOK more comfortable, but in a Brightline train, you will not smell the cattle farm stench from the toilet tank.
Mr. Approach, overseas, i.e. Continental Europe, the "WC" opens from the vestibule, thereby keeping the malodors out of the cabin. Brightline, and apparently the Siemens Amtrak equipment on order open into such.
 #1613139  by scratchyX1
 
R36 Combine Coach wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2023 3:56 pm But there is a "made in PA" builder: Brookville which does streetcars and LRVs. Getting into heavy rail seems something they have yet to do and I'm not sure they have stainless welding/fabrication capability.
They do produce locomotives, but I'm not sure if they aren't using an existing frame for them.
 #1613180  by bostontrainguy
 
bostontrainguy wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 3:23 pm From Trains magazine:

The eastbound Empire Builder, scheduled to arrive in Chicago on Tuesday, Dec. 20, makes its way through CP Morgan near Chicago Union station some 17 hours late on Wednesday, Dec. 21, behind BNSF power after all three Siemens Charger locomotives failed in rural Minnesota the previous day.
Bob Johnston

Image

Looks like there is a (yellow faced???) Genesis there in the fourth engine spot which may have prevented this from being a real catastrophe if the consist lost all power.
Since posting this above photo, it has really bugged me that there appears to be a yellow faced Genesis in this ill-fated lashup. Well what do you know, one does exist:

Image
 #1613502  by eolesen
 
It's convenient to blame the locomotives here, but this seems to suffer from 'sample size of one' statistically, since the Empire Builder under Amtrak has always had abysmal on time performance issues.

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 #1613524  by Railjunkie
 
ApproachMedium wrote: Fri Jan 13, 2023 11:50 am You know, if only we had a bunch of locomotives sitting around that were fixed and ready to go incase of problems like this.
I can think of a place or two perhaps even a railroad with similar equipment willing to lease. But Amtrak suffers from the square peg round hole routine. Guess if you hit the peg enough times it will eventually fit.
 #1613596  by eolesen
 
Trains ran an article saying that there's a software and hardware fix for the ALC42s to deal with sudden temperature changes, so yes, they are trying to figure things out.

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 #1614883  by Emmett
 
This is almost unrelated, but I am pretty sure that the ACS-64's (on the Keystone Corridor) are being completely replaced by ALC-42 and SC-44 locos. Someone tell me if this is correct.
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