Passenger Trains > New ACE Charger

With word that the new ACE (Altamont Corridor Express) Charger was operating on ACE 8, I decided to make a short trip to Alviso hoping to maybe get a storm light photo. It was pretty easy to maintain a safe distance from the few people at the park, which was open in the iffy weather. The timing on the sun and clouds didn't work out, but here is ACE 3110 pushing North while I discovered how muddy it was on the levee.

A few minutes later Capitol #546 followed and by then I had the light I had wanted for the ACE.

Jim B

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Nice pics, Jim.  Do they still have the shoe scrubbing station near the restrooms at the Alviso parking area?

Rich

>Do they still have the shoe scrubbing station near the restrooms at the Alviso parking area?

Yes they do and I needed them! Walking through that mud made my ankel sore! They seem to be doing some work on the levees and they are very muddy. We also had a lot of rain this weekend, at least by South bay standards.

Jim



 

That last photo is killer! Makes me a little homesick for the Bay Area.

How many Chargers did ACE order?

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Thx.

Per Trains magazine, four. Not a long delivery trip between Sac and Stockton!

atsf121 Wrote:
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> That last photo is killer! Makes me a little
> homesick for the Bay Area.
>
>
>
> Nathan
>
> Posted from iPhone
 Great shot I agree. It does make me home sick for the bay area. I lived in Rodeo. The only 2 things i miss is the traffic and the high cost of homes! just kidding.
Robert  in now in Lagrande Oregon.

Right now their is almost no traffic on the freeways or city streets even at 5 PM - it's amazing. I have only been that one time in the last couple weeks.

Jim

Like it, thanks for sharing the picture.

Would be interesting to see the Siemens unit in the old paint scheme. I think it would be great.

Posted from Android

Cool pics, that's a nice looking locomotive!

Posted from Android

Better weather on Tuesday with 3110 still on ACE 8, this time passing the old Agnew freight house.

Jim

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jimB Wrote:

> Better weather on Tuesday with 3110 still on ACE
> 8, this time passing the old Agnew freight house.

The green building that houses the model railroad club is the Agnew passenger station.  The Agnew freight house that stood just to the south ("east") of it burned down around 1996. 

Thanks for the photos of the new SC44's.

That first picture looks great, starting at the second loco on back!

Its UGLY!  Don't care for it.

What's with the paint scheme?  It doesn't match anything! 

Congrats, Jim, on IOTD— great photo!

When I worked the “Morning Commuter Express”— a short lived ( one year !) SAC-FNO-SAC train in 2018-2019, I had a couple of ACE guys ride w/ me to check out the Charger engine for themselves.
Sadly, they said as part of the buy agreement, they must take their nice locos and basically “put a bullet” to their prime movers and render them as unusable.
A prime example of over- reaching CA emission laws dictating that perfectly good engines go to scrap!

IC_2024 Wrote:
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> When I worked the “Morning Commuter
> Express”— a short lived ( one year !)
> SAC-FNO-SAC train in 2018-2019, I had a couple of
> ACE guys ride w/ me to check out the Charger
> engine for themselves.
> Sadly, they said as part of the buy agreement,
> they must take their nice locos and basically
> “put a bullet” to their prime movers and
> render them as unusable.
> A prime example of over- reaching CA emission laws
> dictating that perfectly good engines go to scrap!

You forgot to state the part that is required to receive the State of California funding that is helping to pay for those new locomotives. 

The emission laws have nothing to do with the requirement to render the engine block unusable.

You want the government's money, then you gotta follow the government's rules.
They're perfectly free to finance the units themselves and that way they don't have to scrap the old units.

It sort of matches these cars that I saw heading west in Oregon back in 2014:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3453991

Did these cars I saw ever make it into service?  I don't recall seeing any pictures of ACE trains since then with cars painted in anything other than their original scheme.

Rich

FloridaTrainGuy Wrote:
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> What's with the paint scheme?  It doesn't match
> anything! 

Those cars were originally suppose to be Cafe cars, but it was decided to just have them be standard coaches.
Soon all coach cars will be painted to match the Chargers, (F40s included). It'll just take awhile since there are only few cars to be spared at a single time.
A coach is already painted in the new scheme and will soon be put into service, over time the other coaches will follow suite!

Also for those curious, only 2 F40s got the engines bored. They will be rebuilt and sold eventually, but they have been taken out of service.