Even the Siemens cars are provided with enough battery power to keep lights on through a HEP disconnection for quite a while. Actually the Amfleets and Superliners are a special Amtrak innovation as far as losing basic lights goes at a time when such a feature was not found even in third world countries. It is quite a mystery why they did that. It does not require a dual model locomotive to fix that problem. The solution is well known and much much cheaper.
More like dual mode EDMUs which is different from a diesel locomotive pulling an EMU. Actually EDMUs are easier to build than dual mode locomotives because each individual power unit is much smaller and their components can be spread out across two or three articulated cars
I was there when they first turned up in the Northwest and people doing walk-throughs would invariably exclaim that "it's just like a plane!" In the Christmas season there was a different comment: a UP conductor on the Pioneer looked at the luggage stacked all over the high-capacity Amfleet I and muttered "it looks like a *** **** freight train!"
Transit users of Lexan ran into that cloudiness and customers thought that it meant that the windows were dirty. Actually, the drive through wash was part of the problem.
From the Stadler web site you can get FLIRTs of up to 12 cars but above 4 cars they dom't seem to have the seperate power module, but can still cove all electrical motive systems, not sure about desiel power. I supect that beyond 3/4 cars there is enough room to make the seperate power pack unnecessary.
The single time I experienced it (in 1977), it took the scheduled 30 minutes. (On the way back to Boston, I took the Turbotrain from NYP, which didn't change engines. The next time I took the train to NYC, about 30 years later, it was an Acela and I appreciated not having to wait in New Haven.)
At least they don't have to install "ghetto grilles" over locomotive windshields, to protect the engineer's from refrigerator's(!), dropped from bridges...
A combination of additional safety regulations and reduction in the number of people to carry them out together has had this deleterious effect.
And on my one trip CHI>BOS a couple of years ago I thought I had just come through on a bad day. The SLC crew used to split up Trains 5/25/35 in the dark faster than Albany took to get us moving in the afternoon.A combination of additional safety regulations and reduction in the number of people to carry them out together has had this deleterious effect.
But then Albany is a case unto itself where they simply do nothing for the first half hour to 45 minutes after arrival!
I certainly agree that an MU makes sense on the Keystones, since those consists almost never change. (I had thought it would be an ideal home for the old Acelas, until I learned they were leased.) That said, they draw from the same pool of rolling stock as other trains, such as the Pennsylvanian and Virginia services. An argument could be made along similar lines for the Empire corridor - heck, it was the home of the turbos back in the day and they were about as close to an MU as Amtrak has had outside the NEC. Still, unless a state specifies an MU of some flavor, Amtrak is likely to cite fleet commonality in any decision.
Dont forget the Superliners!!!
