MBTA's MPI HSP-46 Locomotives

One thing I have heard about from several people and personally seen is that the engineer's seat in the cab of the 2001 is two feet away from the side window. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly so well if all 40 production units were like this.

sery2831 wrote:The main difference the production units will have all the modifications done right from the factory as opposed to in the field during testing. Remember there are two other units going through tests currently as well.

Oh, I didn't know that. Never been "inside" the works of this stuff, so still learning. Thanks for this

So we're still a long way from these being in service.

ck4049 wrote:One thing I have heard about from several people and personally seen is that the engineer's seat in the cab of the 2001 is two feet away from the side window. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly so well if all 40 production units were like this.

I didnt think the 2001 was that bad, the MP units are worse IMO. I'm sure with crash requirements now we won't be siting close to the side window anymore.... My only gripe about the unit so far is the clipboard is on the right hand side of the cab (no love for us left handers....)

Looks like MPI isn't messing around, as many as 18 units built with the plan to have all 40 delivered by the end of the year....

8th Notch wrote:Looks like MPI isn't messing around, as many as 18 units built with the plan to have all 40 delivered by the end of the year....

Great news, but will mbcr deal with accepting them and putting them into service given the contract situation?

While MBCR is under contract for the T, they are still subject to whatever terms the T calls for. Remember the T will be the owner of the new equipment so the vendor and the T are the ones investing resources not MBCR. MPI paid for the first training class while the rest will be covered by the T, MBCR just has to handle the scheduling..

8th Notch wrote:Looks like MPI isn't messing around, as many as 18 units built with the plan to have all 40 delivered by the end of the year....

while thats great news.. For MBTAs sake, i really hope they dont send all 18 at once. I dont think the yards with the Rotem clusterfest to put it politely would be able to handle it.

The plan was to only send around 2 a month but from what I was told that could change. They probably won't pile up at BET as much since P&W will handle setup and possibly shakedown testing. If all goes according to plan we could see the 2001 in action over the next week or 2.

beanbag wrote:

8th Notch wrote:Looks like MPI isn't messing around, as many as 18 units built with the plan to have all 40 delivered by the end of the year....

while thats great news.. For MBTAs sake, i really hope they dont send all 18 at once. I dont think the yards with the Rotem clusterfest to put it politely would be able to handle it.

At least the MBTA picked a reliable loco manufacturer. The same can't be said about the rotem order but that's for a different discussion.

Mbta fan wrote:

beanbag wrote:

8th Notch wrote:Looks like MPI isn't messing around, as many as 18 units built with the plan to have all 40 delivered by the end of the year....

while thats great news.. For MBTAs sake, i really hope they dont send all 18 at once. I dont think the yards with the Rotem clusterfest to put it politely would be able to handle it.

At least the MBTA picked a reliable loco manufacturer. The same can't be said about the rotem order but that's for a different discussion.

This sums up Rotem's Kindergarten cl... I mean engineering department... Quite nicely.



couldnt resist, Josh's post set me up too good. Anyways back to the HSPs.

You sir have made my day hahahahahaha thanks for tossing me under a bus.

For anyone that is interested, HP rating with HEP being supplied to passenger cars is only 3800.

8th Notch wrote:For anyone that is interested, HP rating with HEP being supplied to passenger cars is only 3800.

Is that with full load or will each car draw more power? Because if thats the full load, 3800 horses isnt too bad. And AC traction, no chewing gum, no bailing wire, oil wont be thicker than wet asphalt etc. so they should have some good pull.

3800hp should be max load, not 100% on that yet since they haven't given us any material to keep on the units just yet. I'm anxious to see how well these things will be cared for now since there is virtually almost nothing for us to troubleshoot on the road if components start failing.

8th Notch wrote:3800hp should be max load, not 100% on that yet since they haven't given us any material to keep on the units just yet. I'm anxious to see how well these things will be cared for now since there is virtually almost nothing for us to troubleshoot on the road if components start failing.

Well, if the HEP inverter is rated at 600 kW (I doubt MBTA would need a higher rated inverter for HEP), then assuming a 90% transmission efficiency, then take the following:

3740 kW (4650 hp) * 0.9 = 3123 kW (4185 hp)
3123 kW - 600 kW (HEP) = 2523 kW (3400 hp) traction horsepower.

Assuming a 7 car bilevel set draws ~65 kW of HEP per car during the winter (455 kW for total train set), you're still left with 2668 kW (3575 hp) of traction hp.