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It seems that Amtrak's take over of T&E had a several reasons.
1. The freight RR's nominal 100 mile day pay could be eliminated by having much longer crew districts and elimination of the then freight firemen for 6 hour or less engineer runs. Second Amtrak engineer is still required even today on scheduled engineer runs more than 6 hours.
2. The addition of HEP by eliminating steam generators in locos and heater cars would have meant many extra board freight crews qualified on operation of HEP.
3. The blended brake systems on Amtrak locos would have also required qualification of many RR engineers and at that time firemen.
4. Then you have Auto train which just has qualified assigned engineers to operate it with HEP and straight freight braking.

Have no idea if retired Amtrak engines have anything special that would require training on their operation by freight engineers. Anything special might be deactivated upon sale.

Now Amtrak has the new Siemens locos that Amtrak engineers have to train on . Wonder if a freight RR engineer could even move one without that training?

<blockquote data-quote="west point" data-source="post: 1060715" data-attributes="member: 10171">It seems that Amtrak&#039;s take over of T&amp;E had a several reasons.1.&nbsp; The freight RR&#039;s nominal 100 mile day pay could be eliminated by having much longer crew districts and elimination of the then freight firemen for 6 hour or less engineer runs.&nbsp; Second Amtrak engineer is still required even today on scheduled engineer runs more than 6 hours.2.&nbsp; The addition of HEP by eliminating steam generators in locos and heater cars would have meant many extra board freight crews qualified on operation of HEP.3.&nbsp; The blended brake systems on Amtrak locos would have also required qualification of many RR engineers and at that time firemen. 4.&nbsp; Then you have Auto train which just has qualified assigned engineers to operate it with HEP and straight freight braking.Have no idea if retired Amtrak engines have anything special that would require training on their operation by freight engineers. Anything special might be deactivated upon sale.Now Amtrak has the new Siemens locos that Amtrak engineers have to train on .&nbsp; Wonder if a freight RR engineer could even move one without that training?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="west point, post: 1060715, member: 10171"] It seems that Amtrak's take over of T&E had a several reasons. 1. The freight RR's nominal 100 mile day pay could be eliminated by having much longer crew districts and elimination of the then freight firemen for 6 hour or less engineer runs. Second Amtrak engineer is still required even today on scheduled engineer runs more than 6 hours. 2. The addition of HEP by eliminating steam generators in locos and heater cars would have meant many extra board freight crews qualified on operation of HEP. 3. The blended brake systems on Amtrak locos would have also required qualification of many RR engineers and at that time firemen. 4. Then you have Auto train which just has qualified assigned engineers to operate it with HEP and straight freight braking. Have no idea if retired Amtrak engines have anything special that would require training on their operation by freight engineers. Anything special might be deactivated upon sale. Now Amtrak has the new Siemens locos that Amtrak engineers have to train on . Wonder if a freight RR engineer could even move one without that training? [/QUOTE]

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