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What is often called a Diesel locomotive is primarily an electric locomotive. The diesel engine is simply a means to generate electricity to power the electric traction system and motors. General Electric is not unlike Siemens - primarily an electric equipment company.
 
Acela150 said:
EMD has been out of the passenger locomotive business for quite a while. They wanted to focus on the competition with GE in the Freight Locomotive industry.
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EMD would be surprised to find that they are still out of the passenger locomotive business. Here is their 2 page flyer on the EMD F125, their 125 mph candidate for the Midwest & CA Next Gen diesel locomotive order. According to the wikipedia EMD F125 entry, Metrolink has placed an order for 10 units with 10 options.

I should point out that this is a thread on the ACS-64. We have threads on the Next Gen diesel RFP and bid process that is underway which are more suitable to discussing P-32 and P-42 replacements.
 
afigg said:
Acela150 said:
EMD has been out of the passenger locomotive business for quite a while. They wanted to focus on the competition with GE in the Freight Locomotive industry.
Click to expand...
EMD would be surprised to find that they are still out of the passenger locomotive business. Here is their 2 page flyer on the EMD F125, their 125 mph candidate for the Midwest & CA Next Gen diesel locomotive order. According to the wikipedia EMD F125 entry, Metrolink has placed an order for 10 units with 10 options.
Click to expand...
Last I had heard this was a while ago, was EMD quit making passenger locomotives to focus on freight units.
 
As far as I can tell, it is GE which does not have a new passenger locomotive in its stable at this moment. That is not to say they could not spin one up in short order, but the last one they did basically used European trucks (from Krupp Verkehrstechnik currently part of Siemens Mobility) and European monocoque carbody. So it is not like it was really an all GE in house thing either.

Incidentally our guide at the Amtrak Chicago Locomotive Facility consistently overstated the weight of the P42 as some odd trumped up 300klb plus number which has nothing to do with reality. Actually they weigh something around 268klb.
 
Acela150 said:
Mechanics don't know the weight of their own equipment?? Serious?
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He wasn't a mechanic, he was the safety officer at the shops. And I'm sure he was just rounding up to make things easier to remember.

In fact, based upon some of what he said, I don't think he truly realized that he was speaking to a group of railfans.
 
Acela150 said:
afigg said:
Acela150 said:
EMD has been out of the passenger locomotive business for quite a while. They wanted to focus on the competition with GE in the Freight Locomotive industry.
Click to expand...
EMD would be surprised to find that they are still out of the passenger locomotive business. Here is their 2 page flyer on the EMD F125, their 125 mph candidate for the Midwest & CA Next Gen diesel locomotive order. According to the wikipedia EMD F125 entry, Metrolink has placed an order for 10 units with 10 options.
Click to expand...
Last I had heard this was a while ago, was EMD quit making passenger locomotives to focus on freight units.
Click to expand...
Well that obviously is not true anymore.
 
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AlanB said:
Acela150 said:
Mechanics don't know the weight of their own equipment?? Serious?
Click to expand...
He wasn't a mechanic, he was the safety officer at the shops. And I'm sure he was just rounding up to make things easier to remember.

In fact, based upon some of what he said, I don't think he truly realized that he was speaking to a group of railfans.
Click to expand...
How many of the AU'ers corrected him? :p
 
Don't forget though, that just because EMD or GE isn't the end manufacturer of a unit that they aren't supplying components. For example, the MPI MPXpress series which has been tremendously popular with commuter agencies (MARC, VRE, Metra, SunRail, CalTrain, Sounder, Metrolink, RailRunner, GO Transit, FrontRunner, NorthStar, MBTA) all have EMD Prime Movers in them. Likewise, MPIs HSP46 series which is being built (at least initially) for MBTA has a GE GEVO Prime Mover in it.
 
Things get really mixed up these days:

  • Alstom PL42 has EMD 16-710G3B-T1, V16
  • Bombardier ALP45DP has 2x Caterpillar 3512C HD
  • EMD F125 has Caterpillar C 175-20 (note EMD does not use EMD engine and Caterpillar owns EMD)
  • MPI MP36-PH 3S, 3C has EMD 16-645F3B
  • MPI MP40-PH 3C has EMD 16-710G3B-T2
  • MPI MP32PH-Q has EMD 645E3
  • Seimens Vectron Diesel has MTU 16V 4000 R84
Actually, the old EMD prime movers are now built only for specific orders, other than 710s for use in some SD60 models. The direction appears to be to move over to use Caterpillar engines except perhaps in high end heavy haulage diesels. The GP series has already done so apparently.
 
battalion51 said:
Not so much. The P-32-8s are older having been introduced in 1991 IIRC. While there are some that act primarily as switchers in places like Sanford and Miami, there are others that are working regularly on the road out of places like Philadelphia and Chicago. The P-40s are also older having been introduced in 1993. Now, the P-40s did spend a few years in storage, but I'd be willing to guess that the P-40s still probably have more miles on them since they work on long haul trains, whereas the P-32 AC-DMs are pretty much captive to short haul service.
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Oooh, I forgot about the revived P-40s. I did not know that the P-32-8s were still in road service, either... they'll probably be replaced by the 125 mph diesels being ordered by the Midwest consortium, though.
 
Its possible they may have briefly paused production while the current units are testing. Whatever bugs that they're shaking out now will need to be resolved, why build more things with bugs until all the testing is complete?
 
Big Iron said:
I saw one in PHL on 11/3, I didn't catch the #. Tucked in between two p-42's.
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That was the 603 you saw, they recently finsh the training in Philadelphia. Now that motor resides in N.Y. for a couple of weeks so engineers and mechanical can get familiarized with it.
 
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