ge mu'ed with emd problems

[dash7]

One thing is for sure when I am stretching my train back out I use the throttle in corespondance with what a couple of trailing SD40's or whatever. They will be back there getting er all stretched out coming out of a sag or whatever while a GE on the point will still be deciding what to do. If you waited for a GE to respond you would lose a lot of speed coming back up the other side of the sag. Old heads say they used to have a lot of loading problems when they mixed Alco's with other power not so much GE's.

GN599, thanks for the reply!,i guess it's true that the older GE engines load slower than the EMD'S, i was told by another hogger that the newer GE ac units are an improvement over the older dc models,i hope thats true!. thanks again GN 599:-D dash7

[ATK]

A number of years ago when Amtrak still had numerous F40's in service, a frequent problem for them was with a P42DC leading an F40 on an intercity train (this was a common sight around 2000 - 01 time frame on trains 48/49). The trouble would occur when the engineer would use the cruise control feature on the P42. As cruise control is a trainline function, the F40 does not recognize that trainline and hence would drop load. So the P42 would single handedly be pulling the train with the trailing F40 in idle. On train 48, the P42 would typically run out of fuel around Utica - Amsterdam area! This happened a number of times before they figured it out!

[dash7]

A number of years ago when Amtrak still had numerous F40's in service, a frequent problem for them was with a P42DC leading an F40 on an intercity train (this was a common sight around 2000 - 01 time frame on trains 48/49). The trouble would occur when the engineer would use the cruise control feature on the P42. As cruise control is a trainline function, the F40 does not recognize that trainline and hence would drop load. So the P42 would single handedly be pulling the train with the trailing F40 in idle. On train 48, the P42 would typically run out of fuel around Utica - Amsterdam area! This happened a number of times before they figured it out!

wow!, its funny how technology can be our freind and yet be our foe at the same time!,in this case its almost funny! so in the end did they just stop using the cruise control on the P42's?(which i think would be the cheaper option)or did they fit the EMD's with some sort of simular device?. thanks ATK. dash7

[ATK]

Yeah, I think they fixed the problem by retiring all the F40's!