ISO 120MPH on MARC

r40slant wrote:The marc bilevels are restricted to 110mph. And the diesels the 39's are 90mph and the 40's are 100mph. Personally the marc trains suck to have to work them and thats why i stay on a was to nyp regular. Oh track 1 is max 110mph although a couple of 90-95 curve restrictions, plus the 60mph from mp 125 to mp 121

What a waste of capability. Guess its nothing compared to the NJT Comet VI/ALP-46 of 100mph restriction though. Does anyone know why the bilevels were restricted?

I didn't know the GP39s could even reach 90; they seem pretty short on power to me.

NJT's electric motors & coaches all have a max speed of 100mph. I think it's just their policy. 125mph would be nice, though....

the gp-39s are geared for 90mph and can achieve it with up to 4 cars. The JERSEY alp 44's can do 125 but held to 100 however the alp46's are only geared for 102mph like the diesels.

realtype wrote:

r40slant wrote:The marc bilevels are restricted to 110mph. And the diesels the 39's are 90mph and the 40's are 100mph. Personally the marc trains suck to have to work them and thats why i stay on a was to nyp regular. Oh track 1 is max 110mph although a couple of 90-95 curve restrictions, plus the 60mph from mp 125 to mp 121

What a waste of capability. Guess its nothing compared to the NJT Comet VI/ALP-46 of 100mph restriction though. Does anyone know why the bilevels were restricted?

I didn't know the GP39s could even reach 90; they seem pretty short on power to me.

I'mma probably take a stab and say that the limit along that strech of NEC between Baltimore and Washington is limited at 110. I think its 125 north of Baltimore. As for the diesels, the 40s run pretty nice especially on express runs. I do want to see the AEM7s but they are undergoing rehab. I think one is still in revenue service. The 6 HHP-8s compensate at times for the rush hour trains (They still suck to this day. 6 million dollar pos)

Maximum speed is 125mph Baltimore to Washington with mostly 120 curve for B class trains. Marc bilevels are restricted to 110mph as are the single level. Oh when i run those MARc trains which i hope is never again i prefer the HHP's.

r40slant wrote:Maximum speed is 125mph Baltimore to Washington with mostly 120 curve for B class trains. Marc bilevels are restricted to 110mph as are the single level. Oh when i run those MARc trains which i hope is never again i prefer the HHP's.

Do you know why the bi-levels are restricted to 110, and is the restriction temporary?

Also, a little off-topic: From your posts r40slant, you seem to hate running MARC trains. Why? MARC probably has the most advanced commuter fleet in the Northeast, you would think crew would want to work on MARC, as opposed to other assignments, VRE for example.

Well there are more to running trains then just the act of actually running a train. management, and layovers and the nature of the stop and go service included, i just hate dealing with MARC service. As do many of the Amtrak Engineers out of WASH DC . You would have to be out there to understand.
As for the equipment NJ Transit CAB cars are actually nicer to run then the MARC equipment, even the new VRE cars are better. And the ALP46 also and i enjoy running HHP's.

Mirai Zikasu wrote:

gprimr1 wrote:Fastest commuter trains in America

And yet, MARC still doesn't even have weekend service.

Mostly because MARC has always been a very commuter-centric service. Note the sentence says "fastest COMMUTER trains in America". I'm not arguing that there *shouldn't* be more service, just pointing out that speed in this case (which is set by maximum authorized track speed, equipment speed restrictions, and station spacing) has nothing to do with the service level, which is set by policy.