RFP issued for Amfleet I replacement

[sttom]

That was my thought and why I wouldn't rule them out. Off-the-shelf proven design. I remember when the Horizons came out and they've lasted way longer than most thought at the time. Are they speed-restricted?

125 mph as far as I know. Like most Amtrak equipment it was built to go fast and doesn't.

 

[Anthony V]

That was my thought and why I wouldn't rule them out. Off-the-shelf proven design. I remember when the Horizons came out and they've lasted way longer than most thought at the time. Are they speed-restricted?

With continued adequate maintenance, the Horizons should have at least another ten years of life left in them. For this reason, they could potentially be used on proposed new corridors in the south, like New Orleans-Mobile, New Orleans-Baton Rouge, and Atlanta-Nashville. Their usage on these proposed corridors would be done to keep startup costs for the new services lower and allow service on them to start up sooner. Once ridership has had time to prove itself, then newer rolling stock could be ordered for the new corridors.

 

[jis]

Same could be done with a cherry-picked group of Amfleet Is that are on an average in better shape than the rest. That would of course be in addition to the Horizons. But somehow I suspect this won't happen. I guess I am just in a pessimistic mood today.

 

[sttom]

Are the 90 or so cars the Midwestern States are getting out of the former bilevel order enough to replace the need for the Horizons based out of Chicago?

 

[jiml]

125 mph as far as I know. Like most Amtrak equipment it was built to go fast and doesn't.

I've certainly been on them (in Michigan) at 100 mph, but have never seen them on routes where higher than 110 was permitted - hence the question.

 

[west point]

Horizons and the Afleet -1s that were rebuilt have much less mileage.

 

[Anthony V]

Are the 90 or so cars the Midwestern States are getting out of the former bilevel order enough to replace the need for the Horizons based out of Chicago?

Yes, there are enough to replace the Horizons used on the Midwest routes.

 

[PVD]

If I recall, the Horizons have manual doors, which is not great on certain routes......

 

[Mailliw]

How big a deal breaker would that by and how hard is it to fix?

 

[PVD]

Tearing out the doors, replacing them with trainlined automatics might be costly, or even impractical, depending on the space in the walls at the doors, and the wiring involved. The fact that the cars are 30 years old is a factor. AM-2 and Superliners are manual I believe, it just makes them less suitable for use on routes with high platforms, lots of passengers getting on and off, and no coach attendants (think NER/Empire/Keystone) since a crew member has to go open and close the door. PITA on a train with just a Conductor and an AC

 

[joelkfla]

Tearing out the doors, replacing them with trainlined automatics might be costly, or even impractical, depending on the space in the walls at the doors, and the wiring involved. The fact that the cars are 30 years old is a factor. AM-2 and Superliners are manual I believe, it just makes them less suitable for use on routes with high platforms, lots of passengers getting on and off, and no coach attendants (think NER/Empire/Keystone) since a crew member has to go open and close the door. PITA on a train with just a Conductor and an AC

What's an AC?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

What's an AC?

Assistant Conductor

 

[PVD]

Assistant Conductor

 

[jis]

Tearing out the doors, replacing them with trainlined automatics might be costly, or even impractical, depending on the space in the walls at the doors, and the wiring involved. The fact that the cars are 30 years old is a factor. AM-2 and Superliners are manual I believe, it just makes them less suitable for use on routes with high platforms, lots of passengers getting on and off, and no coach attendants (think NER/Empire/Keystone) since a crew member has to go open and close the door. PITA on a train with just a Conductor and an AC

Expensive? Possibly. Impossible? Probably not. Worth doing? Maybe not. If they are going to be used in new routes they probably do not need them that much either since it is unlikely that new routes cannot live with a couple of doors opening at each station for the trial period before they get new equipment. New routes in the boonies with a train or two a day are also unlikely to have full length high platforms, at least initially.

The trainlined doors cannot really be used on Amfleet Is at low level platforms stations anyway, even if they have them. For them to be usable at low level platforms they would need to be converted to the full length doors like newer NJT Comets have, or modify them to deploy the stairs automatically with the opening door in the low level platform mode, something akin to what Siemens is attempting to do IIRC.

 

[NSC1109]

That was my thought and why I wouldn't rule them out. Off-the-shelf proven design. I remember when the Horizons came out and they've lasted way longer than most thought at the time. Are they speed-restricted?

Don’t think so. They run 110 on the AML regularly. They could probably do 125 without much of an issue and even if the current ones can’t, a revamped Horizon series probably could with some tweaks.

 

[jis]

Horizons are allowed to operate at 125mph.

 

[me_little_me]

What's an AC?

Something that allows people to live in Florida?

 

[Trogdor]

Horizons are allowed to operate at 125mph.

Indeed. There was even a period about 10-ish years ago where a handful of Horizons actually operated on NEC trains. I don’t recall what the actual reason was. Maybe trying to increase capacity before the last round of Amfleet rebuilds/conversions (where a lot of old Cafe cars were converted to coaches) was completed.

 

[jiml]

Indeed. There was even a period about 10-ish years ago where a handful of Horizons actually operated on NEC trains. I don’t recall what the actual reason was. Maybe trying to increase capacity before the last round of Amfleet rebuilds/conversions (where a lot of old Cafe cars were converted to coaches) was completed.

That was something I'd never seen, which is why the original question if they were limited. I've both seen and ridden on them going very fast in Michigan, but I believe the speed limit there is 110.

 

[jiml]

Like most Amtrak equipment it was built to go fast and doesn't.

Best line ever.

 

[jis]

Something that allows people to live in Florida?

Even more so Arizona and Nevada

 

[sttom]

Best line ever.

Its also true of the new Acela....but its being built to go even faster and probably won't.

 

[me_little_me]

Its also true of the new Acela....but its being built to go even faster and probably won't.

Not true. There is a 100 foot section of track where it can go .001mph faster than the old Acela before it has to slow down to the average speed of the Regionals.
There are millions of people on this forum who exaggerate too much. Don't be one of them.

 

[jis]

Not true. There is a 100 foot section of track where it can go .001mph faster than the old Acela before it has to slow down to the average speed of the Regionals.
There are millions of people on this forum who exaggerate too much. Don't be one of them.

I assume that is a snark

 

[me_little_me]

I assume that is a snark

Well, since my last paragraph had as big an exaggeration as you're going to find, ...