Passenger Trains > 4 engines, 4 cars... Boardman's special today, MP 78 MTZ sub

Thanks to engr "YMP", I had a heads up for a 1630 Sacramento departure for Boardman's special headed for Oakland today.
So, here they are, at MP 78 east of Davis, CA, with 2 P-42's, the final Siemens electric and the 156 on the head-end and a 4-car consist... a "here she comes, there she goes" brief moment if there ever was one.
No idea what any further scheduled moves are for the train so would be curious if any T.O.'s members have any addt'l info.  

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What is the trapezoid-shaped window on top of the Beech Grove?  Is there a camera in there?

Proamer Wrote:
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> What is the trapezoid-shaped window on top of the
> Beech Grove?  Is there a camera in there?

It's right there in the middle of the glass. Can't you see it?

Wow, I love how cordial and welcoming everyone is on this site!  Just seemed like an odd piece of engineering to house a very small camera.

PHall Wrote:
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> Proamer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What is the trapezoid-shaped window on top of
> the
> > Beech Grove?  Is there a camera in there?
>
> It's right there in the middle of the glass. Can't
> you see it?

Supposedly, all this equipment will leave Oakland on #6 Saturday, with Boardman's cars on the rear.

Proamer Wrote:
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> Wow, I love how cordial and welcoming everyone is
> on this site! 

It's been a complaint of mine for years...  Yet somehow I keep renewing

Proamer Wrote:
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> Just seemed like an odd piece of
> engineering to house a very small camera.

The car was designed as a catenary/track inspection car, with cameras pointed both fore and aft...  Forward looking up at the catenary, aft pointed down at the track.   If you look carefully you can see that the forward facing window on the blister also has a window wiper.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/16 22:59 by OTG.

Proamer Wrote:
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> Wow, I love how cordial and welcoming everyone is
> on this site!  Just seemed like an odd piece of
> engineering to house a very small camera.


It's a small camera, but it can be aimed by its user inside the car so a larger housing is
required.  Some of the photos of the 10001 on the various rail photo sites show the camera in a
position other than straight back.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> It's a small camera, but it can be aimed by its
> user inside the car so a larger housing is
> required.  Some of the photos of the 10001 on the
> various rail photo sites show the camera in a
> position other than straight back.

That makes sense then...  Rather than two cameras it's one camera which can look either direction

*Also looking back at pictures from 30 years ago, the camera used to be a lot bigger.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/16 23:03 by OTG.

IC_2024 Wrote:
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> No idea what any further scheduled moves are for the train so would be curious if any T.O.'s
> members have any addt'l info.  
=====================================

What I've got:

The junket cars and the Boardman entourage will lay over in Oakland and the San Francisco
area. They depart on Train 6(4), with the AMTK 670 deadheading. On June 5 the
Boardman junket cars and the Heritage unit AMTK 156 will be set out at Denver.

Train 6(5) picks up the junket cars and the 156, heading for Chicago where they will
be interchanged to Train 50(7).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/16 23:58 by GenePoon.

IC_2024 Wrote:
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> with 2 P-42's, the final Siemens electric and the
> 156 on the head-end and a 4-car consist...

Great pics! Looks as though they were prepared for any eventuality of mechanical failure. I guess they didn't want to stall on Cannon Hill!

So they can find four locos for this but only one for the Eagle and C of NO?  Nice.  Also, thanks to the poster who commented on the "welcoming" attitude of some here. While I find most TO posters to be very helpful if a question is asked, some always have to include some sort of snarky reply if they think you have asked a stupid question or they don't agree with your POV. 

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> So they can find four locos for this...

I suspect the 3rd loco in the consist is not making much of a contribution to the tractive effort.

Ray

The 11 car LSL has to make do with 1 unit also while the 4 car Royal Train gets 3.
Claytor must be turning in his grave. 

I don't suppose the ACS-64 has anything resembling ordinary MU, even to pass through.  So I presume the consist shown has the two leading GE's doing the pulling while the heritage unit is probably just making HEP. 

Do the Genesis units have an HEP-only mode like F40's?   On an F40 you can do an HEP-only mode where the 10-pole traction generator supplies HEP and the engine speed can drop to 720 RPM which will produce 60 Hz with a 10-pole machine, instead of just under 900 RPM normally.   (Just under because the normal 4-pole HEP generator needs to spin at 1800 RPM and the gearbox that drives it is slightly more than 1 : 2 ratio.)

The ACS64 operated in MU with the P42 unit on the Pennsylvanian while the company was finishing the installation of PTC on the Keystone Line in PA, I believe.

Still, four cars + four engines sounds like somebody didn't care to see a breakdown on their watch.  I wonder if the locomotives received a fine tooth comb review before they hooked up?

I'm confident that the ACS-64 has passthrough connections, as in other ferry moves from the west coast eastward it's been tucked into the train behind the two engines of #6 and ahead of the baggage car, with no engine behind it. 

When the Beech Grove was built, it was intended to use the car for catenary inspection on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) - supplementing the Corridor Clipper inspection car. The large housing was necessary given the size and cost of camera equipment at the time. I'm not sure when the car was last used for this purpose.

Curious how the electric's controller (throttle) is arranged.  I am presuming more power notches than the 8 on a diesel.  Even if that is correct it would not be that difficult for the design engineers to program things so the 8 diesel type indications are mapped onto certain power notches on the electric.  But it is worth noting that the electrics have only one MU connector (physically two since there is one on each side).  Whether that is in fact a diesel type 27 pin (they could make use of some of the unassigned pins for things) or something completely different I do not know.  But at least from looking at the front of the engine, there is no special pass through connector.  So if it was used that way either it's the usual 27 pin (probably) OR if it is something else some sort of adaptor cable could be used (probably not but possible in theory).

GenePoon Wrote:
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> What I've got:
>
> The junket cars and the Boardman entourage will
> lay over in Oakland and the San Francisco
> area. They depart on Train 6(4), with the AMTK 670
> deadheading. On June 5 the
> Boardman junket cars and the Heritage unit AMTK
> 156 will be set out at Denver.
>
> Train 6(5) picks up the junket cars and the 156,
> heading for Chicago where they will
> be interchanged to Train 50(7).

Thanks for the info.

I'd like to photograph #6 along San Pablo Bay tomorrow but I only have experience shooting afternoon/early evening. Any recommendations for good morning light?

 Agree so much with friend Andersonb109 comment regarding replies.  I have always tried to keep my comments respectful although at times there are many things I could have said but did not just out of respect. AND, many of you know so much more than do I and therefore while a question of mine may seem stupid to some, it may be important to me.
As  far as Boardman's train is concerned, guess I have softened my previous view a bit now that I see he is mainly hooked on behind regularly scheduled trains. Still gotta be expensive.  But believe that if I had been invited (not a chance!), I would have taken the ride, too.