SC-44 Siemens Charger Locomotives

8th Notch wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:23 am I agree however Siemens and the RFE are instructing engineers to leave the throttle alone and let the computer deal with it (similar to running the ACS on wet rail). I personally haven’t ran a Charger on wet rail however someone very high up said that that Amtrak is concerned with running them on the long hauls up the mountains in poor weather because of poor performance on slippery rail.

The ACS-64 seems to handle pretty well in wet conditions doing commuter runs in the Philly region with the frequent starting and stopping. Even on the longer express runs they seem to be okay in wet conditions, but they are not going that fast on even those runs.

bratkinson wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:31 pm In my opinion, most quiet and fastest acceleration trophy belongs to a GG1. I recall 30+ years ago riding the Broadway Ltd to New York. After the power change at Harrisburg to a single GG1, it literally YANKED the train out of the station. I was pushed back in my roomette seat as if I was in a high performance street drag racer (I had one several years prior). All I could think of was WOW! Not even todays' Acelas can lay me back in the seat like a GG1.

I used to marvel, standing on the platform at Harrisburg, at seeing a heavy train from the West pull in behind three E8's, exchanging them for a GG1, and when the train departed, the last car was practically at track speed when it went by me.

rcthompson04 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:17 am

8th Notch wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 5:23 am I agree however Siemens and the RFE are instructing engineers to leave the throttle alone and let the computer deal with it (similar to running the ACS on wet rail). I personally haven’t ran a Charger on wet rail however someone very high up said that that Amtrak is concerned with running them on the long hauls up the mountains in poor weather because of poor performance on slippery rail.

The ACS-64 seems to handle pretty well in wet conditions doing commuter runs in the Philly region with the frequent starting and stopping. Even on the longer express runs they seem to be okay in wet conditions, but they are not going that fast on even those runs.

The only difference is that the NEC is relatively flat and mountains not

as for RFE and notices, just remember most RFE's got promoted when they could not handle the Engineers job.

Has anyone heard of problems with the Chargers and cold weather? The reason I ask, I have watched the Illinois Zepher #380 on the Galesburg Railcam at 7:37 am CT on and off for the past several months. It has always had a Charger on it since they were delivered. Since the cold snap hit last week, the train has been powered with a P32. I was wondering if they were short on Chargers because of the cold or maybe some other reason. Sure seems like a coincidence.

dgvrengineer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:46 pm Has anyone heard of problems with the Chargers and cold weather? The reason I ask, I have watched the Illinois Zepher #380 on the Galesburg Railcam at 7:37 am CT on and off for the past several months. It has always had a Charger on it since they were delivered. Since the cold snap hit last week, the train has been powered with a P32. I was wondering if they were short on Chargers because of the cold or maybe some other reason. Sure seems like a coincidence.

They've reported snow ingress issues and planned to do some winter testing this winter to determine the changes necessary in the ALC-42s (Amtrak LD, Charger, 4200 HP).

It would seem loco builders would learn about snow ingestion. But that problem just keeps cropping up. WHY ?

Not necessarily the easiest situation to try and test for...

east point wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:45 am It would seem loco builders would learn about snow ingestion. But that problem just keeps cropping up. WHY ?

Is this a problem the ACS-64s have in the snow? I haven’t heard of them having issues in the snow.

any piece of machinery will have problems with some kind of snow , snow and snow are not same as snow.
some snow is so fine it can not be kept out be it a GG-1 or charger or even EMU's

Snow seems to have been a problem since the 1950s, when traction motors got popular. It also seems to be a problem in the Chicago and Midwest snow belt in addition to the north east corner. Perhaps there are different kinds of snow in each location that lead to the continual problems. It also seems electric trash and is more prone to problems, perhaps because there are more traction motors especially when using multiple units.

the AC traction motor is a closed motor and not much of problem , but very fine snow during extreme cold temps is a problem for inverters as they do need ventilation. same with compressors. the huge opening in rear of charger is mainly cooling air for radiators and a simple reversing of cooling fan for little while could clear that compartment of snow in minutes .

An older update on the Charger from last year: http://www.highspeed-rail.org/Documents ... Update.pdf

SC-44 is discussed in slides 1-5. Please note that other topics in the slide show have their own, well, topics... and should be discussed there!

http://www.highspeed-rail.org/Documents ... 281%29.pdf

^pertinent slide is slide 4.

The SC 44 snow problem has to do with the radiators, the ACS64s have no real snow issues, at all.

the load dropping out has to do with propulsion control system thinking too hard i guess. its not really a problem on the ACS but the SC i guess has some kind of problem with it.

PrestigeTDI1993 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:40 am Funny, I hated these things at first because I thought they were ugly and I grew up around Gennies. But then I saw one in person and they are decent looking....I kinda want to go back to school and learn to wrench on them.

The SC-44's aren't that bad to look at. Just on the outer fashion, they're up there with the FL-9's. Sleek rounded curves.

But then, I have a soft spot in my heart for GP40's and dumb ugly looking pugs. So stupid it's good.