MARC AEM7 Spotted today 5/31/2009 In Philly

Maybe some good news for Marc on the AEM7s:

Engines' return raises hopes for MARC
Baltimore Sun [10/7/09]
According to Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm, the national passenger railroad just recently returned two of MARC's four AEM-7 electric locomotives to the ...

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/tr ... es_fo.html

StLouSteve wrote:Maybe some good news for Marc on the AEM7s:

Engines' return raises hopes for MARC
Baltimore Sun [10/7/09]
According to Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm, the national passenger railroad just recently returned two of MARC's four AEM-7 electric locomotives to the ...

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/tr ... es_fo.html

Excellent news thanks for sharing!

Yep!

4901 was in service this morning, running behind Amtrak 949 on a MARC trainset:

HokieNav wrote:Yep!

4901 was in service this morning, running behind Amtrak 949 on a MARC trainset:

Okay, you won this one Hokie (and I thought I had this one) . I saw AMTK 949 and 4901 early this morning. They were on train #405. It pulled in while I was walking to the station on trk 7 from my (late) inbound train. At first I didn't realize what equipment was on the end, because I didn't bother looking, but when I changed to my Camden train I saw. Even better it seemed like I was destined to take a photograph since my train stopped just beyond the platform waiting immediately adjacent to the electrics waiting for 407 to come in. It was early so it's a little dark:



Full size: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7367453@N0 ... 3/sizes/l/

I was on 407 and didn't get the picture until after I got off the train (and jumped on the Red line up to NY Ave, and then took the picture on the way back towards downtown!), you you win this one, I just got to a computer first. :D

It's good to see 405 with electrics, hopefully that'll become a regular 7-car trainset. Timing wise, it's the train that I prefer to take, but finding a seat at Odenton is a pain since it's only 6 cars being pushed by one of the diesels.

More details from Balt Sun with nice photo here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/co ... 8958.story

StLouSteve wrote:More details from Balt Sun with nice photo here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/co ... 8958.story

Excellent article! Probably the best one I've ever read about MARC. Talk about thorough reporting; they need Michael Dresser at the Washington Post. "Dr. Gridlock" has increased coverage of MARC but not this much. The media really seem to be involved with this return of just 4 locomotives, at least that will hold the MTA accountable. Thanks again for posting!

To operate its Penn Line schedule at full capacity, MARC needs a minimum of four electric locomotives to be fit for service, Cahalan said. But in recent months, he said, there have been times when it couldn't muster that many and had to replace them with diesels, which pull fewer cars.

So the Hippos are that bad... that they often couldn't keep four out of six running?

bbunge wrote:

To operate its Penn Line schedule at full capacity, MARC needs a minimum of four electric locomotives to be fit for service, Cahalan said. But in recent months, he said, there have been times when it couldn't muster that many and had to replace them with diesels, which pull fewer cars.

So the Hippos are that bad... that they often couldn't keep four out of six running?

Yeah, they're pretty unreliable. Apparently they weren't designed for stop-and-go commuter service so that's been wearing them a lot. The MTA was even planning to have them overhauled soon (shocking since they're well under even 10 years old). You have to factor in regular maintenace as well though. The geeps are out of service a lot as well, but MARC has waaay more than enough diesels (not counting the new ones). Also, they lenghtened a 6 car trainset earlier this year to 7 cars, meaning that set requires a electric. Previously they only needed 3 in service, which is why we never had the shortage problems nearly as often before. Technically, MARC won't even need any of the electrics since the new diesels should be able to handle the longest of the sets (9 cars), albeit at a slower speed and acceleration. It would defintely suck to see the electrics go though, so I hope they don't even consider it.

UPDATE ON THE AEM-7:

I saw 4901 and AMTK949 again, this time on train 530, the 4:24pm out of WAS. Also the MARC AEM-7 was at the head this time, with the Amtrak unit behind it. This trainset was also 8 cars (they lengthed it a week or so ago). I also saw a MARC HHP-8 at the back of Ivy City yard, along with some Amtrak units of the same type, but I didn't see one diesel powered Penn Line consist either this morning or this evening.

UPDATE #2:

4901 was again on train 530 this afternoon, but with 4902 behind instead of the Amtrak motor! I passed them on my Camden train under New York Ave where the NEC trains sound thir horn, and 4901's sounded great.

Ok I'm alil late in reporting this, but yours truly had to run train 111 on Monday morning and came across a nb Marc train stopped at Halethorpe with 2 Marc AEM7's. It didn't have an Amtrak unit on it.

A MARC AEM-7 was pulling the northbound late Penn line train, that gets to Perryville at about 9am and back to DC at 11am. All by itself. I didn't catch the number.
The other one was coupled to an Amtrak AEM-7 at Union STATION when my Amtrak train arrived.

BuddSilverliner269 wrote:Ok I'm alil late in reporting this, but yours truly had to run train 111 on Monday morning and came across a nb Marc train stopped at Halethorpe with 2 Marc AEM7's. It didn't have an Amtrak unit on it.

Yeah, they had taken the Amtrak unit (949) off and replaced it with MARC 4902. So the set now has 4901 and 4902 on the head end.

No, he said that the MARC AEM-7 was all by itself on the head end. Haven't seen it yet, but I'll be looking on Monday!

Saw 4901 up close taking a train out of WAS Thursday afternoon while waiting for the equipment from my train to come in from the yard during the craziness that afternoon. I saw both 4901 and 4902 in the yard earleir this week and was worrying that the fix didn't work, but now 4901 is back at the head of a set by its self, so they must be fine.