Short opinion piece on new equipment

[Amtrakfflyer]

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/amtrak-new-equipment-brings-new-challenges/

 

[jis]

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/amtrak-new-equipment-brings-new-challenges/

I wonder why the author did not bother to at least try to read the specification of what is being acquired before writing his screed. Several of his questions are already answered. I guess there must have been a pressing press time deadline to meet as usual?

I am actually not sure if the semi-permanently coupled sets will be assigned to far removed from the NEC services like the Palmetto, Carolinian and Pennsylvanian. There is a small subfleet of non-permanently coupled sets being ordered too, possibly for exactly such services.

I am not quite sure why the author thinks that servicing a new diesel prime mover will be any different from the servicing of current ones. Afterall even the current ones suffer failures from time to time that cannot be fixed in Savannah or Charlotte, though the latter is a bit weird considering NCDOT has a maintenance base there. The electric transmission from the common power bus to the motors stuff should be pretty much the same as in the ALC-42s, and the failure of the E-mode between the pantograph and the feed into the power bus is hardly likely to be noticed in Charlotte or Savannah. It will be noticed only in Washington DC and north. So no one needs to be trained in fixing E-mode in non-E territory anyway.

So I am not quite sure what to make of the article frankly.

 

[dlagrua]

If the new engines can operate on Diesel fuel or from electric batteries there should be fewer breakdowns. If the diesel engine system fails, they can just switch over to the battery reserve to power the motors.

 

[Ryan]

That’s an overly simplistic bit of “analysis” of a quality on par with the linked article.

Actual reliability of the new locomotives will depend much more on the realized reliability of the systems involved.

 

[Acela150]

If the new engines can operate on Diesel fuel or from electric batteries there should be fewer breakdowns. If the diesel engine system fails, they can just switch over to the battery reserve to power the motors.

If only it were that easy..

 

[TrackWalker]

I have no doubt there were steam locomotive hogheads who at one time had similar apprehensions about them new-fangled diesel engines, too.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I have no doubt there were steam locomotive hogheads who at one time had similar apprehensions about them new-fangled diesel engines, too.

Yep, the Good Old Days were Never Good as we Remember!