Passenger Trains > Amtrak Chicago Engine Meltdown

The second unit at KCY was probably set out by No.4 this morning.
Its been done before !

RFandPFan Wrote:
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> You made me look up "schadenfreude"!!!

I thought it had something to do with Volkswagens but Mr Google said that's Fahrvergnügen, which didn't fit the context.

The one thing I don't understand is Amtrak is running fewer trains with more locomotives and they are having power shortages?

Are the Genesis engines that much less reliable than the F40PH?

GenePoon, please keep posting your news alerts and opinion. You usually post info not being provided by anyone else, and that is appreciated.

ColdRainAndSnow, don't bother. All opinion and no news? Not interested to hear what you think of others. Let's stick to railroading and skip the histrionics.

usa4624 Wrote:
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> The one thing I don't understand is Amtrak is
> running fewer trains with more locomotives and
> they are having power shortages?
>
> Are the Genesis engines that much less reliable
> than the F40PH?

The most significant difference is that the F40 was maintained much better. The Beech Grove shops had an extensive locomotive overhaul program in place for them. No more program. Boardman doesn't care and won't beat down the doors in the halls of the congress to get the needed funding for such a program. There is no excuse for Mr. Boardmans actions. He should have plenty of friends on Capitol Hill, after all he is a Republican.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/15 02:40 by EDog535.

VIA Rail doesn't have any friends in the Harper government, and its President is a yes-man.
So are their Rebuilt F40's and GE P42's dropping likes flies, or is it warm and balmy in Windsor and Quebec City ?

Boardman refused to install RCM maintenance procedures on the P42's, forgetting that the "N" in NRPC stands for "National". Even Warrington made a case for, and got, new engines. Boardman has no money, but has made no case in Congress either. Thus far in Year 7 of the Obama Administration, we have all of 3 new baggage cars if that.

Amtrak's Lacky, NARP, in its Hotline #900 mentions All Aboard Ohio's public complaints about service through Ohio the past several weeks. NARP itself does nothing as usual except tell its Council and Board to fill out "Trip Reports", and not to make them too wordy.

Highspeed Wrote: another post not worth the pixels it required to display it.
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Bit of advice for you speedracer...when you decry that others express opinions here, try not to do it in a post where you're doing that very same thing yourself. Pretty foolish stuff.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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>
> Boardman refused to install RCM maintenance procedures on the P42's, forgetting that the "N"
> in NRPC stands for "National".

Bingo. But according to recent TRAINS article on ACS-64, it is installed on those engines...which only run on electrified sections of NEC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/15 10:23 by hazegray.

EDog535 Wrote:
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>Boardman doesn't care and won't beat down the
>doors in the halls of the congress to get the needed
>funding for such a program. There is no excuse for
>Mr. Boardmans actions. He should have plenty of
> friends on Capitol Hill, after all he is a
> Republican.

This has been baffling to me as well. It is part of his job to raise Congressional awareness to severe operational challenges facing Amtrak whose solutions require additional funding. With the current mood in Congress, he will have to be very assertive to attain their attention and influence them to act. But you can't hit the ball if you won't swing the bat. We need a slugger up there. And a slugger who knows what the "N" stands for.

With all the continued engine failures, if they go one engine on the Chief it will be a disaster! It can't hardly make it through Ratan with two much of the time.

rswebber Wrote:
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> Just another circuit around the drain.
>
> People on this board have sugar-plum visions of
> new car orders (with a whopping $12M saved by not
> performing Amtrak's duty as landlord).
>
> Forget it. Just forget it. Amtrak *MUST* reverse
> the death-spiral of deferred maintenance. On
> locomotives, on cars, on infrastructure - on
> LEADERSHIP.
>
> Anything else is money down the drain and yet
> another trip around the spiral. Those trips
> become shorter and shorter as the object moves
> down the spiral toward the drain. Amtrak's
> doomsday clock is at 12:59:45. And that's being
> charitable. But...I am convinced that is exactly
> where the "leadership" (sic) prefers to be.

Did you mean this drain?

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Boardman asking Congess for money for new engines = Joe out on the streets back in Rome! LOL! You would think at some point, even leasing engines would be more cost effective, than paying the freights for all the rental units. If the public perceives that long distance trains are too unreliable, ridership could really dry up. Maybe that's the end game in all of this?

The Amtrak loco problem (P42's) has been a problem for a while. This is nothing new. And now winter sets in causing more problems to maintain these engines. Obviously adding around 15 P40s wasn't enough to meet Amtrak's needs. Sending trains out with one unit is not the answer either - at least for the LD trains.

I don't understand why Amtrak is not turning to NJT for loco power - particularly to lease back the P40s they sold to them for the now defunct Atlantic City Express train.

I know the VIA diesels are wired a little differently, but I thought they could still power a train set if it were all Amfleet, for example. Hence if VIA power was used on the Maple Leaf and Adirondack - you'd have four P42's freed up.

The Cascade Corridor between Seattle and Vancouver, BC could be operated with freight units.

And where are the F59's? If they were operating, it would free up P42's.

Under the remote change a State came to Amtrak right now and asked for service to be started up, Amtrak couldn't deliver because they wouldn't have an engine to operate the train.

And operating LD trains over terrain that has "increased grades" is only going to wear that engine out and likely send it to Beech Grove.

Pretty pathetic.

Milw_E70 Wrote:
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> A3 has the 816 as sole power tonight and should
> pick up a second unit at KCY.

Train 3 arrived into SoCal this morning running 4.5 hours late, lead engine BNSF 1755 followed by two P40/P42's the second of which was facing east.

I take it the 816 took the train to KCY where they grabbed a unit left behind by train 4. Then at some point the 816 or other unit died, forcing them to get BNSF 1755?

Amtrak's road power is so unreliable maybe the Class I's would welcome Herzog or Koalis instead.
Perhaps that is the plan.

David.Curlee Wrote:
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> Train 3 arrived into SoCal this morning running
> 4.5 hours late, lead engine BNSF 1755 followed by
> two P40/P42's the second of which was facing east.
>
>
> I take it the 816 took the train to KCY where they
> grabbed a unit left behind by train 4. Then at
> some point the 816 or other unit died, forcing
> them to get BNSF 1755?

Indeed is true, they picked up the 180 off of A4 (25) at KCY on Friday night.