Passenger Trains > Amtrak Engine Failures (Diesel)

There has been a lot of talk lately about how "unreliable" the Siemens chargers have been. I decided to request data from Amtrak about delays from May 1st back to Feb 3rd. This post will be a work in progress as I continue to sift the data in my free time. As for this past week the Genesis locomotives have been the ones that have ended up in the list. At first glance (from yesterday looking back) the California chargers have been popping up the most as well as ACS64 engines and Acela trains. The California engines have fault codes, broken headlights, engine overtemp, boiling coolant and no HEP to name a few. Many trains are cancelled due to "high shop counts on engines". I will focus on the non NEC trains (Amtrak Midwest trains, and the LD trains). The California failures the last few weeks would make this posy way too long. The Documents were sent in PDF format which means I cannot copy and paste the data, rather I will have to clip them and upload each file separate on TO. 

If anyone would like data on California engines or NEC service failures, let me know. I have data on every train going back to Feb 3rd. 

Trainline/HEP issue, engine unable to start, and radio issues. All three were P42s. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/26 13:09 by sethamtrak.

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Engine shut down, HEP trainline issues, engine would not start. All three were P42 issues. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/26 13:07 by sethamtrak.

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PTC and parking brake issue, door signal issues, loading trouble with a hard reset. All three of these were charger issues. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/26 13:03 by sethamtrak.

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Thanks Seth - this is interesting information. I'd love to see a historical metric on the amount of routine mechanical repair and maintenance that the aging P42s etc. go through now days. Is it enough maintenance for these aging P42s to keep them on the road? 

Compliments to Mechanical for being able to diagnose problems and work with crews to resolve issues. Not the easiest thing to do 500 miles away.

You might consider a third category where the problem is unrelated to the locomotive class. This would include issues related to the train line, radio and arguably PTC/CSS.