Well, that is an increase of 2.4%. Given inflation and rising operational costs, I'd say Amtrak will be barely treading water for another year.
I'm not questioning the little birds lack of knowledge, but if Amtrak can afford anything I would think they need more basics like locomotives and coaches so they can add services in cities like Atlanta (hello? the city with the busiest airport in the world!). I'm not sure they really need new sleepers, I mean of course it would be nice, but they have the trains covered, I'm not sure how many more they really need (i.e. have to have).
Amtrak put 37 P40 locomotives into mothballs a few years back because they didn't need them, so I can't imagine why they would need to buy more locomotives.
Aren't there a stack (or whatever the plural is) of Amfleets in storage somewhere? Could they be rebuilt as sleepers?
There are 24 Amflleet I's in storage. However Amtrak could really use them in normal service right now as coaches.
I think somewhere in prior posts someone heard the Amfleet I's rolling after they left New Orleans. They said the wheels sounded square. Trucks and wheels are very expensive items and you would have to literally start from the ground up with these cars to achieve anything useful coupled with the fact that you would have to have wheel barrels full of money. But who knows, stranger things have happened in the past, especially at Amtrak.
Yep. I saw one of the videos, and it would have been a pretty bone-jarring ride based on the sound as they went by. They probably ought to have one of those "Honk if parts fall off!" bumper stickers on the rear.
The standby cars did indeed leave the NOL and are back in Delaware. I seem to recall reading that they each required around $100,000 in work to be returned to normal service. That I can justify, assuming that Amtrak can find the money. But again, converting them into sleepers is an expense that I don't think is justified.
My understanding is that the Senate passed this bill (S.294) by a veto-proof majority a couple months ago. It was for six years and $11.4B. The House is expected to take up a companion bill early in the new year. This contrasts with the recent past, with the G.O.P.-controlled House and transportation committees neglecting to make a start on companion bills to similar funding authorizations that the Senate has passed in the last few years. Pres. Bush I believe hasn't taken a public stand on the bill yet, but it looks likely for him to promise a veto.
This week's NARP Hotline News takes a more optimistic view. http://www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/hotl...re/hotline_532/
It is just an expression. It means that the wheel has a flat spot on it. These are usually caused by the brakes locking up and the wheel sliding along the rail. You therefore hear a "clunk" every time the wheel goes around. How loud the clunk is depends upon how long the flat spot is. For a 36 inch diameter wheel this means a clunk every 9'-5", or at 79 mph, 12.3 clunks per second. Generally there are rules on them, below a certain length, full speed OK. Above that 10 mph to the nearest place where the vehicle can be taken out of service. Since railroad wheels are fixed on their axles, invariably you will have a flat spot on both wheels of the same axle.
Same here.
