Siemens Charger Locomotives Not So Pretty Looking

[Shawn Ryu]

This locomotive would look a lot better hauling Talgos than the current ones

 

[Acela150]

Keep in mind that the "Face only a mother could love" with the new Talgos is a cab car.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

It's time for another Art Deco Era!

You mean something like this?

https://www.google.com/search?q=pioneer+zephyr&biw=1440&bih=813&tbm=isch&imgil=ElIq4Lxl5rtjbM%253A%253BJUpl53Tr29DulM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.wig-wag-trains.com%25252FCon-Cor%2525252520Pages%25252FCon-Cor-Zephyr-Product-Page.htm&source=iu&fir=ElIq4Lxl5rtjbM%253A%252CJUpl53Tr29DulM%252C_&usg=__-c6Au7-nr80NgISFZ7x32Py0tww%3D&sa=X&ei=n7AKVIGSM4TCsASG-4JQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQ9QEwAQ

A beautiful train, no doubt. And the Pioneer Zephyr set a record-breaking time Chicago-Denver in 13 hours.

Today the California Zephyr gets a scheduled 17 hours. I could put with even more ugly if the damn train would connect in less than 17 hours. I'd gladly take 14 hours, be happy to get 15-hour schedules. Instead of leaving Chicago at 2 p.m., leave at 4 or 5 p.m., still arrive Denver at 7:15 a.m. Two or three extra hours in the office, at a museum, or simply shopping adds a lot of your Chicago day. The opposite direction, leave Denver same time, 7:10 p.m., arrive Chicago at 11:50 or 12:50 instead of 2:50 p.m. Opens up the afternoon for that office meeting, or a museum visit, or leaving your money on the Miracle Mile.

We could get that faster schedule if 110-mph tracks extended beyond Illinois, across Iowa to Omaha, where trains could arrive around 8:55 or 9:55 p.m. instead of an hour before midnight.

Tightening schedules by an hour or two or three won't be cheap or easy, or it would have been done. But tweaking the departure and arrivals by even a couple of hours could pay off with big ridership gains. I don't think there's room to tweak in Union Station, already congested with Amtrak's own trains plus METRAs. So the time savings will have to come from hundreds of open miles of upgraded tracks.

I've no doubt gone off topic -- another thread has a call for greater "velocity". But that 13-hour trip time of that Pioneer Zephyr, now THAT was beautiful !

 

[Green Maned Lion]

We are all entitled to my opinion.

 

[seat38a]

This locomotive would look a lot better hauling Talgos than the current ones

The talgos look really odd with the EMD F59. The EMD's look fine and proportionate when pulling bi-level cars but on a single level talgo look horrible. Also those fins for "aesthetic transition" don't help at all. I think it makes it look more odd.

 

[neroden]

We could get that faster schedule if 110-mph tracks extended beyond Illinois, across Iowa to Omaha, where trains could arrive around 8:55 or 9:55 p.m. instead of an hour before midnight.

You know, of course, that these track improvements had a real chance of funding, until the troglodytes in the Iowa legislature killed the fully-funded expansion to Iowa City.