MARC AEM-7s

Yesterday I ran train 80 and of all of the Penn Line train consist, only 2 sets I saw were electric. One set had 2 aem7's 4900-03 and 1 HHP. I even passed a train with an MP36 on both ends probably due to a defect with the cab car.

Amtrak67 of America wrote:Yesterday I ran train 80 and of all of the Penn Line train consist, only 2 sets I saw were electric. One set had 2 aem7's 4900-03 and 1 HHP. I even passed a train with an MP36 on both ends probably due to a defect with the cab car.

I was at Perryville yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) and videoed the three evening MARC trains to arrive and turn there. Trains 532 and 538 had HHP's.

And then came train 544 with twin toasters 4900-4903.

They appear at the 1-minute mark in the video, after the arrival of train 538.

Silverliner II wrote:

Amtrak67 of America wrote:Yesterday I ran train 80 and of all of the Penn Line train consist, only 2 sets I saw were electric. One set had 2 aem7's 4900-03 and 1 HHP. I even passed a train with an MP36 on both ends probably due to a defect with the cab car.

I was at Perryville yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) and videoed the three evening MARC trains to arrive and turn there. Trains 532 and 538 had HHP's.

And then came train 544 with twin toasters 4900-4903.

They appear at the 1-minute mark in the video, after the arrival of train 538.

Nice videos! It's good to see the HHP-8's pulling 7-8 car trains again. At the same time 2 AEM-7's for a 6 car train is overkill.

realtype wrote:

Silverliner II wrote:

Amtrak67 of America wrote:Yesterday I ran train 80 and of all of the Penn Line train consist, only 2 sets I saw were electric. One set had 2 aem7's 4900-03 and 1 HHP. I even passed a train with an MP36 on both ends probably due to a defect with the cab car.

I was at Perryville yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) and videoed the three evening MARC trains to arrive and turn there. Trains 532 and 538 had HHP's.

And then came train 544 with twin toasters 4900-4903.

They appear at the 1-minute mark in the video, after the arrival of train 538.

Nice videos! It's good to see the HHP-8's pulling 7-8 car trains again. At the same time 2 AEM-7's for a 6 car train is overkill.

I should mention that train 532 also had an HHP and 7 cars: three Sumitomo coaches followed by four Kawasaki double-deckers.

It will be a bit more interesting when the Multilevels arrive; I know the 26 non-overhauled Sumitomo cars will become surplus at that point, along with the remaining ex-Metra gallery cars. I would guess a few Kawasakis will migrate onto Camden and Brunswick/Frederick trains at that point.

Silverliner II wrote:I should mention that train 532 also had an HHP and 7 cars: three Sumitomo coaches followed by four Kawasaki double-deckers.

It will be a bit more interesting when the Multilevels arrive; I know the 26 non-overhauled Sumitomo cars will become surplus at that point, along with the remaining ex-Metra gallery cars. I would guess a few Kawasakis will migrate onto Camden and Brunswick/Frederick trains at that point.

Yeah, the two CSX lines will probably be more bilevel heavy when the Bombardier cars arrive. The MTA plans to overhaul the Kawasakis when the Bombardiers arrive though, so depending on how much they take out of service at a time (the MARC IIB single levels were done 3 at a time) and when they start the overhaul, the net increase might not be that great.

realtype wrote:

Silverliner II wrote:I should mention that train 532 also had an HHP and 7 cars: three Sumitomo coaches followed by four Kawasaki double-deckers.

It will be a bit more interesting when the Multilevels arrive; I know the 26 non-overhauled Sumitomo cars will become surplus at that point, along with the remaining ex-Metra gallery cars. I would guess a few Kawasakis will migrate onto Camden and Brunswick/Frederick trains at that point.

Yeah, the two CSX lines will probably be more bilevel heavy when the Bombardier cars arrive. The MTA plans to overhaul the Kawasakis when the Bombardiers arrive though, so depending on how much they take out of service at a time (the MARC IIB single levels were done 3 at a time) and when they start the overhaul, the net increase might not be that great.

I am just surprised they did not elect to overhaul the entire Sumitomo fleet. They just may need them around....

Silverliner II wrote:I am just surprised they did not elect to overhaul the entire Sumitomo fleet. They just may need them around....

The 26 MARC IIA's (built in the late 80's) had already received a minor overhaul in the 90's. Up until last summer The MTA was soliciting bids for a full mid-life overhaul up to last summer, but opted to replace them instead with the Bombardiers. The 34 MARC IIB's (built in the early 90's) just finished receiving a "minor" overhaul (although it looked pretty extensive to me) from Bombardier.

It probably would be a good idea to hold onto the MARC IIA's while they are rehabbing the MARC III's (Kawasaki bilevels). After the rehab I don't think MARC will have the need or the space for all those cars though.

Do they still run these?

Yes, they, do, though inconsistently. I've had to sporadically ride MARC this summer after being away from it for a couple years. Sometimes the afternoon Perryville trains get an electric - pretty sure I saw an AEM-7 once - but sometimes they don't, and the schedule suffers. Usually by about 10 minutes by the time you get to Aberdeen. Though, really, there's so much slack built into the schedule, they can almost make it with the diesels. Which is a shame, if they had a few more electric locos, they could be assured of availability take some of the slack of the schedule; but there are so few people who commute all the way from Edgewood or points north to DC, that our long trip really isn't a priority. (Though, admittedly, they give us a nice selection of Amtraks to ride to/from Aberdeen...I hardly ever take a MARC in the morning.) Actually to be realistic, I'm sure some of the slack is required regardless due to the vagaries of Amtrak's operations. If an Amtrak is running late, we'll crawl along track 4(?) between Martin St. & the Gunpowder Bridge waiting for it to pass. I also can never understand the seemingly random Baltimore dwell time; sometimes it's a reasonable 2-3 minutes, sometimes we sit there for almost 10 minutes with no obvious reason for the delay.

If they have any sense, they will have an agreement in place with Amtrak to get a few of the healthiest HHP-8s (or even AEM-7 ACs) when those are retired by the ACS-64s. Which Amtrak should offer on very generous terms; for one thing, who else is going to have a need for them? I'm sorry but its ridiculous when the rest of the civilized's worlds passenger commuter trains are electric, that MARC should run diesels all the time under perfectly good catenary. In all my rail riding in western Europe, I've only been diesel hauled once. That was the Glasgow-Oban West Highland line, which covers many miles with almost no signs of human habitation.

dt_rt40 wrote:Yes, they, do, though inconsistently. I've had to sporadically ride MARC this summer after being away from it for a couple years. Sometimes the afternoon Perryville trains get an electric - pretty sure I saw an AEM-7 once - but sometimes they don't, and the schedule suffers. Usually by about 10 minutes by the time you get to Aberdeen. Though, really, there's so much slack built into the schedule, they can almost make it with the diesels. Which is a shame, if they had a few more electric locos, they could be assured of availability take some of the slack of the schedule; but there are so few people who commute all the way from Edgewood or points north to DC, that our long trip really isn't a priority. (Though, admittedly, they give us a nice selection of Amtraks to ride to/from Aberdeen...I hardly ever take a MARC in the morning.) Actually to be realistic, I'm sure some of the slack is required regardless due to the vagaries of Amtrak's operations. If an Amtrak is running late, we'll crawl along track 4(?) between Martin St. & the Gunpowder Bridge waiting for it to pass. I also can never understand the seemingly random Baltimore dwell time; sometimes it's a reasonable 2-3 minutes, sometimes we sit there for almost 10 minutes with no obvious reason for the delay.

If they have any sense, they will have an agreement in place with Amtrak to get a few of the healthiest HHP-8s (or even AEM-7 ACs) when those are retired by the ACS-64s. Which Amtrak should offer on very generous terms; for one thing, who else is going to have a need for them? I'm sorry but its ridiculous when the rest of the civilized's worlds passenger commuter trains are electric, that MARC should run diesels all the time under perfectly good catenary. In all my rail riding in western Europe, I've only been diesel hauled once. That was the Glasgow-Oban West Highland line, which covers many miles with almost no signs of human habitation.

Thanks for the info.

dt_rt40 wrote: If they have any sense, they will have an agreement in place with Amtrak to get a few of the healthiest HHP-8s (or even AEM-7 ACs) when those are retired by the ACS-64s. Which Amtrak should offer on very generous terms; for one thing, who else is going to have a need for them? I'm sorry but its ridiculous when the rest of the civilized's worlds passenger commuter trains are electric, that MARC should run diesels all the time under perfectly good catenary. In all my rail riding in western Europe, I've only been diesel hauled once. That was the Glasgow-Oban West Highland line, which covers many miles with almost no signs of human habitation.

Totally agree. Amtrak would be willing to give away the HHP-8's and AC's for virtually nothing, yet the MTA wants to spend millions on new diesels!

Amtrak does not own the HHP-8's, their leased from Bombardier.

What is the decibel noise level within an AEM-7 Locomotive Cab?

Does anyone have any recent sightings of AEM7's in revenue service? Are they still active, and more to the point, are any inactive?

I've visited Washington a few times since 2002 and have managed to travel on trains with all the GP40's, all the GP39's, all the HHP8's, but only managed the one AEM7, #4903.

I'll be back in mid-September trying to bag some MP36's but would really like to see #4900, #4901 or #4902 running as their revenue turns seem to be a bit rare.

They are still in use as of now. I saw them out and about a few days ago.