Passenger Trains > LA Metroliink F125 will unveil July 18

Metrolink will unveil July 18 the first of 40 faster, cleaner locomotives that will begin pulling Metrolink commuter trains.

Built in Indiana, the Electro-Motive Diesel F125 Spirit-series passenger-rail locomotives have turbocharged 20-cylinder, 4,700-horsepower engines and are designed to operate at speeds up to 125 mph while pulling 10 passenger cars, enabling them to meet potential speed requirement increases.

The company says it is the fastest diesel-electric locomotive in North America and the first in the world to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new "Tier 4" pollution standards for locomotives.

The new locomotives will reduce particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 85% over current Metrolink locomotives. In addition, they have up to 57% more horsepower.

The first of the low-emission locomotives are expected to begin operating throughout the Metrolink system this year, with the remainder arriving in 2017.

Money for the new locomotives comes from 12 state and local agencies, including part of the $9.9 billion bond California voters passed in 2008 for the state's proposed high-speed rail system and grants from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and Caltrans.

Named for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new pollution standards for locomotives, the new locomotives will reduce emissions over the current fleet by more than 85%, according to EMD.

Metrolink is the first passenger railroad in North America to purchase new transit locomotives designed to meet the Tier 4 standards, EMD says.High-Speed Rail Authority officials said the high-speed rail bond money for the locomotives is part of an $89 million investment of "connectivity" funds allocated to install new engines in existing locomotives or purchase stronger, faster, and "greener" locomotives, and recondition and improve passenger cars.

The new locomotives also have crash "energy management" technology and "positive train control" equipment - a computerized system that assumes control if an engineer violates speed restrictions or ignores signals.

The "positive train control" system went into service across the 341-mile Metrolink network last year, nearly seven years after 25 people, including a Palmdale teenager, were killed in a collision blamed on an engineer sending text messages.

A few shots of the new unit at the Metrolink Central Maintenance Facility where it's been the last two weeks.

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Wow, shot 3 includes almost every engine Metrolink has owned for revenue runs. F40PH, F59PH, MP36PH-3C and the new F125. The only one missing is a F59PHI which is in shot 2. I am not including the 2 GP50s for AFAIK the one operable never ran a revenue run, only work trains.