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ACL said:
Just got my ticket to ride 171 from BWI to WAS. First revenue service of an ACS-64 into Washington. Hoooray!!!!
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jis said:
I just got one for a ride on 171 on Friday the 7th of Feb, from MET to PHL. So if anyone else plans to be on please let us know.
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I'll wave at you from the Odenton platform (not really, I'll have my camera stuck to me face). If one of you guys end up sitting on the left hand side, it would be awesome if you took a picture of me taking a picture of you. :)
 
BrianPR3 said:
bgiaquin said:
So if 601 goes in on the 20th, hopefully 602 will be in service by early March. LET THE MASS RETIREMENT OF THE AEM-7s BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!
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the hippos first (HHP 8'S)!
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The way I understand it...

The 18 remaining AEM-7DC units will be the first to be retired, followed by the 29 AEM-7AC units that were rebuilt in 1999 with Alstom equipment.

The 15 HHP-8 units will be "retired" under a different schedule since they are owned by Bombardier and leased by Amtrak. They will be kept around until their lease expires (not sure when that is) likely to be used as backup locomotives and on work trains.
 
They will either have to renumber the HHP-8s into a different block or numbers the ACS-64s leaving a gap in the middle for the HHP-8s. I think they will renumber the HHP-8s since having two classes o0f engines with overlapping number groups will be darned confusing. Or of course they could retire the HHP-8s before the problem arises.
 
Amtrak has posted a press release on the roll-out of the ACS-64s: New Amtrak Locomotives Ready for Service and Set to Power Northeast Economy.

The only new news in the release is that the ACS-64s will be delivered through 2015. IIRC, earlier statements had the ACS-64s delivered through early 2016. That suppports that the report that the delivery rate would be 3 units per month. The AEM-7s and HHP-8s could be gone from revenue service in 2 years.
 
jis said:
They will either have to renumber the HHP-8s into a different block or numbers the ACS-64s leaving a gap in the middle for the HHP-8s. I think they will renumber the HHP-8s since having two classes o0f engines with overlapping number groups will be darned confusing. Or of course they could retire the HHP-8s before the problem arises.
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With the HHP-8 numbers starting at 650, Amtrak could retire the remaining HHP-8s sequentially as the same numbered ACS-64 is delivered. Amtrak will have 50 ACS-64s in house before the numbers conflict, so keep some AEM-7ACs around as the HHP-8s are retired until the production run of 70 units is completed. Probably simpler, though, to renumber the HHP-8s to 750 and up, if those numbers are open.
 
afigg said:
jis said:
They will either have to renumber the HHP-8s into a different block or numbers the ACS-64s leaving a gap in the middle for the HHP-8s. I think they will renumber the HHP-8s since having two classes o0f engines with overlapping number groups will be darned confusing. Or of course they could retire the HHP-8s before the problem arises.
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With the HHP-8 numbers starting at 650, Amtrak could retire the remaining HHP-8s sequentially as the same numbered ACS-64 is delivered. Amtrak will have 50 ACS-64s in house before the numbers conflict, so keep some AEM-7ACs around as the HHP-8s are retired until the production run of 70 units is completed. Probably simpler, though, to renumber the HHP-8s to 750 and up, if those numbers are open.
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Actually, in theory it'd be easiest to re-number them into the 950 series. As of right now there are only 4 road numbers that would conflict, and those will be gone soon. It seems like Amtrak has a "history" of having its electrics in the 600 and 900 series, with the GG-1s and E-60s occupying the series prior to the AEM-7s and ACS-64s respectively.
 
#600 headed to Boston photographed at Edison today

This is not a picture taken by me. It is linked in from railpictures.net
1524264_10151848437292251_420500496_o.jpg
 
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That's a gorgeous shot!

Also, I love the train's "face".

"Get out of my way. I have important train stuff to do."
 
AWWWWW, YEAH!!!!!

Code: 
* Train 171 of 02/07/2014.
* Northeast Regional - Virginia
* Eng: 600 First Revenue Run of an ACS-64
* +---------------- Station code
* |    +----------- Schedule Arrival Day  
* |    |  +-------- Schedule Arrival time
* |    |  |     +----- Schedule Departure Day
* |    |  |     |  +-- Schedule Departure Time 
* |    |  |     |  |     +------------- Actual Arrival Time
* |    |  |     |  |     |     +------- Actual Departure Time
* |    |  |     |  |     |     |     +- Comments
* V    V  V     V  V     V     V     V
* BOS  *  *     1  815A  *     815A  Departed:  on time.
 
First video on Youtube of 600 at Route 128:


Credits to Tcostello105
 
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The estimate of $15 million in energy savings per year got me thinking and adding things up.

Amtrak has a rough 2014 to get through, but there's a lot of things coming down the pike which will improve Amtrak's bottom line. Paying off the Penn Station Mortgage in 2017 is a notable one, as are the great mass of ARRA projects which have a 2017 deadline. And of course the much-delayed Viewliner IIs, and the "corridor bilevels". It's harder to predict the effect of vaguer things like the various news stations and development of urban rail systems which connect to Amtrak or the general "trend" towards train travel, but they all seem to be good. If Amtrak can manage to, well, manage things properly for the next few years (fix the unacceptable pricing bug on the website, put out service alerts promptly when something goes wrong, etc.) the financial numbers which Congress looks at should look very impressive in 2018.
 
:hi: Nice Pic Charlie, that Engine sure looks Pristine! Hopefully they'll be Reliable and Workhorses for Many Years! And ! Wonder if "Amtrak Joe" Biden is the Engineer! ^_^
 
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The Washington Post has a short article on Thursday's media event: Biden helps Amtrak unveil its new electric locomotive. There is a photo of VP Biden and DOT Secretary Foxx looking at the controls. So the article starts with a fun question: "Does this just scream “caption contest”?" ;)

Biden probably wants to ask "Hey, can we take this out for a spin?"
 
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