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  • Acela II (Alstom Avelia Liberty): Design, Production, Delivery, Acceptance

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1574720  by Fan Railer
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 6:10 am Over at the Disposition topic, Mr. Approach notes:
ApproachMedium wrote: Just as little tiddys of info here. The new trainsets it has been confirmed that due to the single pan operation, they can now do 165mph with non constant tension wire. So much more of the railroad that currently offers only 135mph max operations can now run close to 160. Single pan ops eliminates the rear panto bounce at higher speeds as well as the rear panto bounce from two trains passing at high speeds.

Also the max curve speed for the new set is now 150mph vs 130mph of the old sets. Likely the rollout of these trains will be in current time slots, with trains that see the most ridership.

As far as speeding up service goes until you get rid of the station area slowdowns, you wont see any major decrease in time to travel. 30mph thru balimore for a few miles, 30 for about 3 or 4 in Philly, Wilmington, Shore curve etc. Thats what really kills the running time for anything.
Now could this apparently positive development mean that an Acela-II could be inaugurated in revenue service sooner than the one year delay earlier noted?
Doubtful that this changes the rollout schedule. They still have yet to receive the fully outfitted trainsets required for training of onboard crews and maintenance personnel. In his interview, Chris was pretty solid about the early 2022 date for full FRA certification, which is required before revenue service can begin.
 #1574726  by John_Perkowski
 
This copied from bookface

Amtrak Extra 854 (29) is in the system. Scheduled to run from NYP to BOS tonight with the following times:
NYP - 2000
NHV - 2150
BOS - 0600 (arr)

The extreme delay between NHV and BOS implies more wire work overnight.

Also, additional information available:
"The new trainsets it has been confirmed that due to the single pan operation, they can now do 165mph with non constant tension wire. So much more of the railroad that currently offers only 135mph max operations can now run close to 160. Single pan ops eliminates the rear panto bounce at higher speeds as well as the rear panto bounce from two trains passing at high speeds.

Also the max curve speed for the new set is now 150mph vs 130mph of the old sets. Likely the rollout of these trains will be in current time slots, with trains that see the most ridership."
 #1574766  by Fan Railer
 
Matt Johnson wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:56 pm Great news regarding Acela II. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that they spent all that money putting up new constant tension catenary in the Princeton Junction area before figuring that out, haha!
Probably still a good investment. Constant tension still provides better performance through a wider variety of temperatures vs the standard catenary setup.

On a different note, over in the Disposition thread, the question was posed about how much extra mileage would be rated for 160/150 with the new trainsets, so I broke out the employee timetable and did some math:

Current 150 Territory:
[17.4] MP 154.3 to MP 171.7 (Kingston to Davisville)
[5.6] MP 174.5 to MP 180.1 (TF Green area)
[10.5] MP 194.5 to MP 205 (Attleboro to Mansfield)

Total: 33.5 miles

Future 150/160 Territory (inclusive of above):
[22.9] MP 32.8 to MP 55.7 (COUNTY to HAM)
[21.3] MP 29.7 to MP 51.0 (RAGAN to BACON)
[6.3] MP 51.0 to MP 57.3 (BACON to PRINCE)*
[13.5] MP 205.0 to MP 218.5 (Mansfield to RTE 128)*

*Currently 130 mph (non-curve restriction), may only upgrade to 145 mph or 150 mph.

Total (inclusive of current 150 territory): 97.5 miles (77.7 miles without * territories)
 #1574779  by west point
 
Reliable AX-2 service will need at least 4 fully functional train sets. Amtrak will not want any thing to tarnish the roll out. Even then it would only operate a single train each way with an AX-2 at WASH and SSY. Also have an AX-1 on standby in PHL. 6 - AX-2s would allow a thru run to BOS with an AX-1 on standby at BOS.
Wonder if Amtrak will just book the AX-2s to limits of AX-1 until maybe 10 or 12 units in full operation ?
 #1574780  by 8th Notch
 
We are still a ways off before this thing enters service… They are sending the set back up to Boston for more testing, very limited number of engineers are even qualified/allowed to run it.
 #1574782  by Fan Railer
 
west point wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:18 pm Reliable AX-2 service will need at least 4 fully functional train sets. Amtrak will not want any thing to tarnish the roll out. Even then it would only operate a single train each way with an AX-2 at WASH and SSY. Also have an AX-1 on standby in PHL. 6 - AX-2s would allow a thru run to BOS with an AX-1 on standby at BOS.
Wonder if Amtrak will just book the AX-2s to limits of AX-1 until maybe 10 or 12 units in full operation ?
I believe that was the original plan to begin with. That being said, by the time these things receive certification from the FRA next year, I'd wager there would be at least 8 trainsets on property, if not more. There are already 7-8 trainsets in various stages of completion including the first two prototypes. TS3 and 4 are being prepped for delivery and should be on property by end of this summer.
 #1574832  by rcthompson04
 
Acela150 wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:13 pm
rcthompson04 wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:06 pm Is the train being tested tonight the one that was sitting at 30th Street for at least the last three weeks? The train that was there is not there this evening.
Yes. The trainset went to Boston earlier in the week. It's been running overnight on the NEC.
I have a photo from the upper level of 30th Street of the trainset on Monday around 5pm. Not the best, but if I can figure out how to get it on here we might have an answer to the modification questions.
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