ApproachMedium wrote: ↑Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:17 pm
The weight matters where it is located. With baggage cars at the rear this creates an issue in a collision or derailment with that weight pushing the train. You want it towards the front. Weight like this towards the rear makes for horrible train handling as well. I know what it feels like to have heavier cars on the hind end of a train vs the front, its like a boat anchor. Also you cannot do your cake adn eat it too idea of hep on during engine changes because splitting a train in any way would require the HEP turned off so that people can work between the train. I dont see where you think a motor can be swapped in 20 mins with some jiber jaber crane or forklift. Ive been in the shop when they swapped motors out on GP40PH-2s and GP38-H3s and it takes A LOT MORE than 20 minutes to swap an HEP plant out. Try more like, 4-8 hours. The real answer here is run two locomotives if you are worried about HEP. If one looses HEP, you run off the other. And on these modern inverter drive AC units this is never an issue unless you loose main engine which you wont be going anywhere, anyhow. If you loose the HEP inverter you steal a traction motor to run HEP. And on the ACS-64 and SC44 its got a dual redundant system so if one inverter fails it has a backup so you dont steal any traction motors.
Also keep in mind having HEP in a baggage car gives the engineer zero control to shutting the HEP down during 3 step protection if the crew needs to go under or between the train for any reason. It gives them zero control of the HEP in a forward collision, or any other circumstances where the HEP must be shut down to prevent any kind of issues. Smoke is another one, if there is a fire along the tracks or heavy smoke killing the HEP from the lead end shuts off all HVAC and fresh air intakes so that cars wont fill up with smoke. There are plenty of perfectly good reasons to keep HEP in the locomotive itself and give engineer full control and none of this baggage car waste of space dragging dead weight nonsense.
This whole answer can be summed up as "we did it this way in 1971 and we're not going to change" which is why Amtrak is the laughing stock of passenger trains. I don't buy any of it.
First, regarding weight and placement of the HEP van. If weight and placement were really a problem, run it up front. But it's not. The trailing NPCU can and sometimes does have an HEP generator at the other end. If it doesn't, it has a huge cement block. Talgo trains also have a HEP generator that trails half the time. Diesel passenger trains in China, Argentina, and Ireland have a trailing HEP van frequently. The reason it's not a big deal is that the generator weighs about five tons, maybe a bit less. That's negligible. How nelgligible? A Horizon car has a ten ton weight difference compared to a Superliner. Somehow nobody complains about the increased weight of running a Superliner on the back of a train. Or an NPCU. The British diesel HST 43-class runs with locomotives bracketing the train all day every day, hundreds of trains, 50 years. Nobody complains about that weight of a prime mover-equipped locomotive trailing.
The concept of running an HEP van at any point in the train is completely proven.
Second, the use of "jibber jabber crane" implies less than expertise on cranes. I'll fill in here, as I'm in the crane business. If the HEP pony motor were mounted in a van with side doors, it could be removed in less than half hour from time of chocking it inside the shop. You have three quick disconnect cables (one for each phase) just like between cars. You have a cock and drain on the fuel line. You have a roof port. You have the whole thing on a skid. Unbolt the skid, unplug the three cables, disconnect the fuel line. Lift three inches off the mounts with a jib crane, which accesses through the roof port. Travel out the side door. Lower (6 feet?) to the ground.
A crane with 5 short ton capacity can lift/lower at 26fpm. Amtrak's standard right now is 15fpm because the cranes are rated at 55 short tons, and that's for new shops like Seattle. At Beech, some cranes are original Alton Box cranes from 1912 and some are Whiting from 1985-ish. The originals likely lift/lower slower than molasses, maybe 6-8fpm. Same for the Shaw cranes that are in Delaware. And don't forget our super special Genesis that requires lifting everything out the top, so the lift cycle is 10' up and 16' down rather than 3" up and 6' down. The lifting cycle time of a 5 short ton crane over 6' is far shorter than a 55 short ton antique over 16'.
TLDR the current and apparent future design of super special engines coupled with current shop protocol means there will be little flexibility in favor of a glamorous speedster that is never used within it's potential.
Adopting HEP vans would greatly increase flexibility and allow for change-out outside shops in case of emergency. It would also allow for freight power substitution or even whole-scale adoption of the SD70 platform.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.