Passenger Trains > Truck Set Exchange for Amtrak 92

Exchanging trucks on Amtrak Locomotive 92 in Niagara Falls...Four sidebooms and Mantis wrecker made short work of it.....

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Trucks or axles ?

Brand New Truck Sets....

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Thanks for your answer and photos .

Great photos, that's so cool to see.

Nathan

What happened ? 

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> What happened ? 

Someone left the pizza in the oven too long?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Why 4 side booms cats? You only need 2 to lift up the front or rear. But cost to Amtrak must be a lot of dollars with all the equipment there? Did they install a new traction motor wheel or a dummy wheel with no traction motor?
If they scrap the engine out in place Amtrak could have made some money instead paying for all the cats and equipment cost.
Dennis

Posted from iPhone

guess they dont know how to change one truck at a time.....

cajon Wrote:
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> Why 4 side booms cats? You only need 2 to lift up
> the front or rear. But cost to Amtrak must be a
> lot of dollars with all the equipment there? Did
> they install a new traction motor wheel or a dummy
> wheel with no traction motor?
> If they scrap the engine out in place Amtrak could
> have made some money instead paying for all the
> cats and equipment cost.
> Dennis
>
> Posted from iPhone

Perhaps it cost less to have the equipment and labor out for a shorter time.

Speaking as someone who has used Winters service before (and Hulcher, Corman, Cranemastets, etc) over my 35+ years in this game, cost is calculated portal to portal, that is, from the time they leave their yard to the time they get back to the yard.  Plus, the mobilization cost is not proportionate. The big cost is the first unit - adding more units to the convoy is easy after that.  I'm sure they have a master contract with Winters that essentially has a price chart - I know I did for spread side gondola transloads and emergency repairs when I was managing a couple thousand gondolas. It should have been fairly easy for someone at Amtrak to calculate the least expensive option that meets their needs. Could very well been than it was cheaper to send 4 booms and a crane and do job in 8 hours vs send only 2 booms and a crane and doing it in 14. 

The four side booms allow you to lift and lower the unit  once . Disconnecting the TM leads , air hoses and sanders can be done prior to and after the side booms are needed .  Wonder if there was one person to handle making and breaking the TM leads  ?    Hot , dirty work and if you've got the temps and humidity to go with the work  - oh boy !