ACS-64 Heads Up

[Thirdrail7]

If all goes according to plan..................

 

[afigg]

Ok, so a major publicity show for the last ACS-70 unit to be delivered to Amtrak. What it does tell us is that there will not be any announcements about the next gen HSR trainset contract until sometime after June 7 or 8 because upper management is on tour.

Hope #670 gets a nice trouble-free trip eastward....

 

[Acela150]

If all goes according to plan..................

You have to admit you're jealous of that

 

[TylerP42]

For those who are interested... Mr. Boardman and crew are on their way out to Sacramento via SWC to take delivery of the last unit.

He also visited an employee who got career ending injury.

 

[Fan Railer]

That's depressing =/

In other news, 668 has been accepted into regular revenue rotations as of this week. 669 experienced a traction motor failure on her second test run and is out for repairs.

 

[Agent]

The Amtrak business special picked up AMTK 670 from the factory and went to Oakland yesterday. There are a couple small pictures here. Further down that thread there's a post that says the special's cars and 670 will start heading east on Amtrak #6(04), but the special will be dropped off Sunday to spend a day in Denver while 670 keeps going east to arrive in Chicago on Monday. The business cars will then arrive in Chicago on Tuesday, June 7, and then leave on the Cardinal; I'm guessing with 670 on the train as well. Did I get all that right?

Also, is it too much to hope that the stay in Denver will lead to an announcement about Ski Train service?

 

[afigg]

Railway Age article (with photos) on the event celebrating the delivery of #670: Final Siemens ACS-64 for Amtrak rolls out of Sacramento. Excerpts:

On Thursday, June 2, 2016, Amtrak and Siemens marked completion of the 70th and final Amtrak Cities Sprinter (ACS-64) electric locomotive at the Siemens rail manufacturing hub in Sacramento, Calif., when No. 670 rolled out of the plant, bound for the Northeast.

....

Siemens employees spent an average of 7,000 hours building each locomotive, equaling nearly half a million total hours for all 70 ACS-64s. “The locomotives have been designed and built with advanced technology including a state-of-the-art microprocessor system that performs self-diagnosis of technical issues, and takes self-corrective action and notifies the locomotive engineer,” Siemens noted. “In addition, the energy efficient locomotives use a regenerative braking system to feed energy back into the power grid. Together, the locomotives could save over 3 billion kilowatt hours of energy and could result in more than $300 million in savings over their intended lifetime.”

So the last ACS-64 for Amtrak is making its way eastward. Now attention will shift to looking for the first Charger locomotive to be shipped out from the plant.

 

[Agent]

Railway Age article (with photos) on the event celebrating the delivery of #670: Final Siemens ACS-64 for Amtrak rolls out of Sacramento.

I see a couple flags decals were put on one side of 670. I wonder if they were just there for the photo ops.

YouTube user Jim Jackson uploaded this video yesterday of the special leaving Sacramento.

 

[PRR 60]

...

I see a couple flags decals were put on one side of 670. I wonder if they were just there for the photo ops.

...

The flag decals are standard on all the ACS-64's.

 

[CCC1007]

...

I see a couple flags decals were put on one side of 670. I wonder if they were just there for the photo ops.

...

The flag decals are standard on all the ACS-64's.

I think he's talking about the big one in the middle of the unit that appears to be waving in the wind.

 

[PRR 60]

...

I see a couple flags decals were put on one side of 670. I wonder if they were just there for the photo ops.

...

The flag decals are standard on all the ACS-64's.

I think he's talking about the big one in the middle of the unit that appears to be waving in the wind.

I'm not seeing that.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

...

I see a couple flags decals were put on one side of 670. I wonder if they were just there for the photo ops.

...

The flag decals are standard on all the ACS-64's.

I think he's talking about the big one in the middle of the unit that appears to be waving in the wind.

I'm not seeing that.

ACS670.jpg

In one of the pictures in the news article posted earlier today.

 

[PRR 60]

In one of the pictures in the news article posted earlier today.

Ah, I see it now. Since they were gone when the unit rolled through Sacramento on the YouTube video, the extra flag decals must have been pealed off after the photo op.

 

[Agent]

Here's a video report from the local Sacramento news station KCRA. It includes some brief interviews with a few different people. To quote Joe Boardman talking about the performance of the ACS-64s:

“The people of the Northeast right now have a much more reliable service. We've seen the reliability -- and delays down by 20 percent.”

 

[KnightRail]

the special will be dropped off Sunday to spend a day in Denver

Scratch that.

 

[Agent]

the special will be dropped off Sunday to spend a day in Denver

Scratch that.

So the whole kit and caboodle will be sticking with #6(04) then?

 

[Agent]

YouTube user Narodnie Mstiteli filmed Amtrak #6(04) today neat Verdi, Nevada. It met a Union Pacific business special just off-screen.

 

[hermit]

That UP business special :wub:

 

[Thirdrail7]

the special will be dropped off Sunday to spend a day in Denver

Scratch that.

So the whole kit and caboodle will be sticking with #6(04) then?

It doesn't seem like its going to 50 at this point either.

 

[TylerP42]

What train will it be put on to DC?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

What train will it be put on to DC?

I think all the ACS-64s have been put on #30.

As to the special, who says it's going to DC. Maybe they've changed plans (obviously they changed some plans already).

 

[Agent]

What train will it be put on to DC?

I think all the ACS-64s have been put on #30.

Some have gone on #30. Some have gone on #50.

 

[Acela150]

Most of them have used train 30. IINM there was some type of outage on train 30 that resulted in them going on train 50.

 

[Agent]

YouTube user Metra 160 uploaded this video today of Amtrak #6(04) at sunset. It doesn't list a location, but I think I recognize it from other videos as part of the descent down the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. Takes a few minutes for the train to reach the camera for those that like to skip ahead.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

YouTube user Metra 160 uploaded this video today of Amtrak #6(04) at sunset. It doesn't list a location, but I think I recognize it from other videos as part of the descent down the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. Takes a few minutes for the train to reach the camera for those that like to skip ahead.

An interesting set of single-level cars attached at the back. An off-camera voice explains that one is an official business car, custom-built for Amtrak. The others I don't know.