Is CDOT looking into purchasing F40's

I hope the roadforeman does not pull the tapes to see how your making up all that time going uphill to Danbury. The F-40's load faster the the P-32's and they can be trailbraked for a softer stop. The HEP's are loud but the retrofitted ones no longer run off the prime.

My tapes are reviewed once a week just like any other diesel equipment on MNCR.
I don't speed, most you see me exceed the speed is by 2 to 3 mph. and even those are infrequent and by pure mistake.
Power braking on Amfleet and Bombardier equipment is Illegal and can lead to decertification of Engineer as its a direct violation of the Railroad 's timetable special instructions.

Power braking or strech braking is were you keep power on, and bail off on independent brake(locomotives only) and just brake with the train brake on cars.
these days that practice is frowned on since bailing off brakes also gets rid of brended brake on locomotives and un neccesarely overheats the wheels.

Interesting. Some crews on another RR have complained about the lack of it and claim it causes rough train handling, though having been on MN and Amtrak and the LIRR (who I don't think allows it on the DE/DMs), they all seem to do just fine without it. *shrug*

I'd think the GE's could beat an F-40 simply because they have a few extra HP (aren't they really 3600HP, with 400 knocked of for HEP?). And they've got AC traction, which might help out a bit too. Seat of the pants, theydo seem to take a little longer to start rolling, but once they get rolling, acceleration's better than I remember on any F-40 haulled consist

I've noticed dead MUs on the NH line tend to smelly a bit, uh, funny. Are they really *that* reliant on dynamic for slowing down? I know the M-7s are, but I figured the older stuff would be less so.

BTW - I've noticed the LIRR's working in changes to the M-7's braking, and as a single data point, the last one I was on that had the changes seemed to have quieter wheels. You can actually hear the difference between cars because the modified ones have a different inverter sound when stopping. Ahh, the joys of AC inverters They seem to go over entirely to friction at a higher speed - you hear the inverter cut out. I've also noticed they've changed the acceleration (again), because you can hear the carrier frequency shifts are different.

Can you even hear the P-32's inverters from the cab, or do the fans and prime movers drown out that noise?

Do they read the data boxes on MUs weekly, too?

The MU 's get shifted around to much for reliable data logging, they only get pulled for incidents, mech or operation.
yes the Inverters are audible in cab of the GE's. the P32acdm's are only 3200 hp(not 3600) and with an 8 car train its a struggle.
with 8 cars you only got 2400 hp left for traction, but with a 110 mph gearing. its like running a 1850hp FL-9 with 8 cars solo.
But the engineering types figured it out, my opinion is they should have been geared for 75 mph max.
It would have helped with acceleration and deceleration.

I guess this has been getting a little off topic, but let's go with the flow...

If 8 cars is the max a Gennie can pull, would Metro-North ever consider using 2 Gennies for a longer train? Probably not, since most of them run on the Upper Hudson, where the platforms are only 6 cars long. Maybe they'd be lengthened in the future, as the area continues to grow?

Anyway, how many cars would two P32s be able to pull (or push)?

DutchRailnut wrote:The MU 's get shifted around to much for reliable data logging, they only get pulled for incidents, mech or operation.
yes the Inverters are audible in cab of the GE's. the P32acdm's are only 3200 hp(not 3600) and with an 8 car train its a struggle.
with 8 cars you only got 2400 hp left for traction, but with a 110 mph gearing. its like running a 1850hp FL-9 with 8 cars solo.
But the engineering types figured it out, my opinion is they should have been geared for 75 mph max.
It would have helped with acceleration and deceleration.

"Dutch", seems to me that 90 MPH gearing on the GE's would have made
more sense. Parts of the Hudson are good for 90 and their acceleration
would still be better than it is now.
Noel Weaver

When my friend rode the State House from Chicago to SLUT, the train actually had two gennies, and four horizons. The acceleration was not bad for a four car train.