east point wrote:Questions
1. How many spare P-42s might be needed to increase the number of locos on vulnerable trains. Thinking of EB and LSL going into a large snow storm as one example.
2. Circuit boards. Oh what a bucket of worms. What exactly do these boards do and are there more than one type or more than one location / function the boards do.
3. Experience in the aviation business. We had an aircraft that had hundreds of boards with about 5 separate part numbers. The boards were very prone to vibration damage. Often would replace 2 or 3 boards after every day.
4. Could the P-42s board be subject to vibration problems ? Over time many of the new parts were beefed up but still had problems.
1. No idea, but you're dumping 63 new Chargers on right now and subtracting only the F59's and (already mostly work-assigned) Dash 8's so the protect units are already piling up. The P40's already look like a protect fleet-in-wait with how those new numbers balance out. And the Charger options aren't limited to just the 150 national units with the larger fuel tank. There are still 36 un-exercised
statie options in the hands of Caltrans and IDOT (WSDOT has exhausted all theirs) that aren't time-limited yet. Those can either be drained by the states holding the shares as extras or laundered out to other agencies like IDOT already did with 8 option units transferred to MARC commuter rail. Not sure when the final drop-dead date is for the statie options, but it's synced up at least a couple fiscal years out to Siemens factory allowances for the nat'l options and also SEPTA's extended deadline on tabbing-or-laundering the extra options on its 13-base/5-option Sprinter order. At least FY2019 before they have to put up or shut up on extras.
Conceivably New York could gobble up those for the engine-swap half of its self-ownership needs if there's enough leftover Caltrans/IDOT units left...but Caltrans has already signaled it's likely to dip into a few more because that'll ensure enough padding to completely get rid of its protect fleet of self-owned F59's. IDOT's not in mood to spend, but they'll take offers for laundering if anybody else (couple more WSDOT padding, more commuter units?) is interested in draining their share.
2. Like most GE and EMD locos dating back to the 1970's classics (EMD "Dash 2" GP40-2's/SD40-2's/F40PH's, GE Dash 7's, etc.) the control electronics for the whole shebang are organized into electrical cabinets with modular plug-in boards. Makes for easy upgrading and maintenance because you can just swap or add boards to upgrade/downgrade the performance features. Until the 1990's those controls were simple analog circuits. Mid-90's you start seeing some 1st-gen microprocessor-controlled locos coming onto the market. They're built the same way, with modular circuit boards plugged into a cabinet...but instead of simple IC's you can get at Radio Shack now you've got actual custom hard-wired computer chips with proprietary schematics on the boards doing more sophisticated things. The Gennies, being a pretty big technological leap for the time, were one of the first mass-produced microprocessor control locos...but you also had retrofits of older power for processor control showing up like the AEM-7AC remans (and some outright lemons like the ALP-44M production run and GP40MC remans).
In the 2000's the 2nd-generation microprocessor brains transitioned off custom hardware onto off-shelf flash memory. Basically porting a lot of that stuff in the electrical cabinet that used to be analog IC's...then custom computer chips...to software. And that's why makes like the Sprinters had such a long debugging period; the controls were more software than hardware, but the software could be upgraded at any time by flashing the memory to fix issues. The software is complicated as hell, but the hardware that hosts it is now just generic flash ROM. You can load the software on pretty much anything, or even virtualize the software within
other software.
That's going to be great for the longevity of the newer-gen power that can adapt to change by having its software flashed at-will. And you're even seeing old analog stuff like F40PH-3 rebuilds now going the microprocessor route (with much simpler flash software) to fine-tune improve their emissions controls for Tier 0+. But it leaves the hardware-fabricated 1st-gen computer stuff from the 90's in an awkward place. Those custom chips aren't produced anymore, because there's no need to produce them. And because they were hard-wired you don't have the fluid upgrade path of changing a few lines of code to upgrade the software. So those Genesis boards end up a constriction. You can reproduce them verbatim (at GE price!) by porting what once was a bunch of chip schematics into microcode and re-hosting it on flash memory. That's not hard, just pricey because of the proprietary GE IP. But actually
upgrading it from there to do new things is damn difficult because the hardware you're porting was never designed to be reprogrammed...only replaced/augmented with different boards of different GE custom chips (which weren't ever produced). That means doing a reverse-engineer to extend the functionality is a royal pain.
For the Gennies, it means if they're being rebuilt to factory P42 spec (like the CDOT P40 rebuilds) they're either not going to touch the boards at all while refreshing other stuff or just do a verbatim port with identical functionality. Which is why if Amtrak needs
less than 190+ units going forward it's more likely to just scavenge a couple dozen boards from surplus beaters it doesn't need to rebuild rather than try to save every single P42/P40 in existence. So, if 150 national units + 1-2 dozen slack units overhauled for >decade more service is the most they would ever need for a national fleet after the statie Chargers + un-tapped statie Charger options...then they've got their warehouse restocked with boards by scrapping the P40's and a handful of worst-off P42's. It's only if you need to save every...single...unit that it becomes cost-prudent to jump through the hoops of repdroducing the boards. And there really isn't a scenario where they're going to need every...single...unit on the road.
If they opt to rebuild all/most of the fleet to
enhanced functionality--Tier 4 emissions, AC traction, GEVO prime movers, other 21st century doohickeys--then they're going to be building new software from scratch matched to the new parts mix and not porting anything legacy in the GE chips. Simply because at that scope of upgrade these things aren't
really going to be a factory-spec "Genesis" anymore...they'll be something new and different (like a better-executed HSP-46 in monocoque clothing or something like that). But obviously costs for that kind of program are going to much more resemble paying for another all-new design/build than simply doing a straight-up midlife overhaul at current specs.
3/4. The employees who run them would know best, but given that the Gennies have had 20 years of pretty bulletproof rep in service and haven't experienced long dead lines awaiting replacement part backorders this doesn't appear to be an issue. Nor has that risk scared away Class I's from ordering microprocessor freight power in bulk, given the GE Evolution series' market dominance. Those electrical cabinets that have been around since the 70's Dash 2 classics are built rugged right into the frame with shielding around them that can be ultra-heavy overkill in a way aviation electronic bungalows sure can't. Obviously at >20 years attrition is going to slowly start taking a toll on supplies of any custom part that needs special ordering, but there's been nothing to suggest the control hardware isn't plenty long-lasting and ruggedly-built.