The Acela sets don't have trap doors like the Amfleets do, so they can only serve high-level platforms.
Acela sets interior refresh 2018-19
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Oh I forgot about that. But they could work for express service that stops at high level stations only before continuing to Boston or Washington.
Thirdrail7
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The main reason reason the Acela sets will get benched ASAP is the same reason they had to bench equipment like the AEM-7s, HHP-8s and Heritage Fleet. They are old and finding parts for them is a challenge. A lot of the companies that made parts for the Acela sets and HHP-8s are no longer in business. This makes them expensive to maintain.
I don't expect the ACS-64s to make it much past the 20 year service mark for the same reason.
Thank you third rail. I didn’t think about the shortage of parts and they are now obsolete.
Acela150
Super Buff
For what it’s worth. Yesterday Amtrak posted on their Instagram “story” (which is similar to Snapchat) photos of the new interiors. BC seats are a dark gray and FC a Deep Blue. Seats look more comfortable as well.
Acela150
Super Buff
A quick update on the refresh on the Acela Trainsets...
I found a video on YouTube of what the cars looks like now. The author of the video states that Trainsets 4, 5, 11, and 12 are complete. He believes that Trainset 8 is currently undergoing the overhaul. (List of Trainsets will be posted at the bottom of the post for reference) This video appears to be from the 21st of the Month.. So it's fairly recent. So it's looking like almost 25% of the trainsets are close to being done.
I'm ok with the Dark Blue in First Class, but the Dark Dark Gray in Business Class isn't hitting home with me. I was a fan of the Blue and Gray seats.
http://on-track-on-line.com/amtkrinf-acelaexp.shtml
I found a video on YouTube of what the cars looks like now. The author of the video states that Trainsets 4, 5, 11, and 12 are complete. He believes that Trainset 8 is currently undergoing the overhaul. (List of Trainsets will be posted at the bottom of the post for reference) This video appears to be from the 21st of the Month.. So it's fairly recent. So it's looking like almost 25% of the trainsets are close to being done.
I'm ok with the Dark Blue in First Class, but the Dark Dark Gray in Business Class isn't hitting home with me. I was a fan of the Blue and Gray seats.
http://on-track-on-line.com/amtkrinf-acelaexp.shtml
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tonijustine
Train Attendant
I live in Indy and before our current stadium (Lucas Oil Stadium) was opened, they had to implode the old stadium (technically it was the RCA Dome, but many of us continued to call it the Hoosier Dome). The fabric from the roof was made into purses, wallets, journal covers, etc. I bought one. There were a lot of Indy folks who did.
If they can both make money and recycle, that sounds like a brilliant idea.
west point
Engineer
Is this a complete refurbishment of the original interiors or have they been already refurbished once ? Either way it would now seem that these trains sets will outlive the compllete introduction of Acela-2s ? Food for thought ? ?
from the memo:
The Acela Express refresh is a 14-month program for all of its 20 trainsets, which includes 100 Amtrak cars and 6,080 total seats. Each trainset will be refreshed individually with new cushions and covers for all business class and first-class seats, new carpet for the aisle runner and a deep clean. The total investment is valued at more than $4 million.
The Acela Express refresh is a 14-month program for all of its 20 trainsets, which includes 100 Amtrak cars and 6,080 total seats. Each trainset will be refreshed individually with new cushions and covers for all business class and first-class seats, new carpet for the aisle runner and a deep clean. The total investment is valued at more than $4 million.
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Post #22 above cites this as the fourth refurbishment of the Acela sets. it's intended to bridge the next few years until the new sets are delivered.
The refresh on the Amfleet1s really makes the cars more pleasant to ride in. If this accomplishes the same thing it is not a terribly large amount of money, particularly where spending some of it would be required anyway.
Acela150
Super Buff
This refresh is actually the third different interior that the trainsets have had. The original interior was cloth. About 10 years ago Amtrak changed the interior to leather. And it started with the First Class Cars and then onto Business Class.
I do prefer the new seats. The seats in Business Class are much more comfortable then the older seats. And oddly enough I prefer the older coach seats to the new. YMMV.
frequentflyer
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The same reason I expect the Amfleet Is and 2s be retired as soon as possible when their replacements become available.
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Couple of things. I did like the old fabric coach seats, but so many had worn out cushions that you were pretty much obligated to pull off all the covers anyway. It made more sense just to put on new covers at that time, than piecemeal replacement of the really bad ones, and deep cleaning of the others. Probably much faster than looking at each sear separately. Sometimes, even when a unit may be working, it can become impossible to source parts, since manufacturers can no longer obtain components needed to make something. I worked on high end telecommunications equipment where certain systems became functionally obsolete because the manufacturers could no longer source items. streaming tape drives in certain sizes, 8 inch and then 5 inch floppies, 8 bit processors, lots of other stuff...They would stop selling certain cards and modules used for service and expansion, even though they were big money makers. If a customer was forced to buy new instead of expanding existing, you had the potential of them buying from someone else.
I don't know about that...
The Amfleet cars are built extremely well, and like their Budd 'brother' heritage cars, could easily last another 30 years or more with minimal maintenance. And since there are so many of them, it would 'pay' to keep necessary wear parts in production or inventory, and when the day comes to replace them with modern equipment, they should be placed in 'mothball' storage, just in case of another oil embargo or some other event that make having them available a good thing...just my humble opinion...
Sometimes there is nobody that will make certain parts at any reasonable price. As an example, the R-22 refrigeration for the AC gets more and more scarce and difficult to source. There are many other things that not going to be easily obtained.
Bad example. R-22 is outlawed, the replacement is cheaper and easy to replace. That said someone is making R-22 again, and its getting release, causing damage again. When the world community outlaw R-22 the industry was up in arms say it would be impossible to find a replacement. They found one, cheaper and environmental friendly.
Depends on the system. Some really old stuff (like the Amfleets) don't take to change that well)
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jis
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Weren't the AC units converted to non-Freon? I seem to recall a conversation at the Wilmington Shops when they were doing the conversion. The place was covered with new AC compressor/condensers which were being installed as cars came through for servicing.
tricia
Conductor
If a piece of equipment is expensive enough, someone will occupy the niche of fixing it so the equipment owner doesn't need to replace it immediately. For example, one of our family businesses is repairing electronic components of industrial equiprment, which often involves hunting down spare parts in Asia.
HOWEVER, most niche businesses of this sort are too small to deal with the bureaucratic hurdles presented to vendors by government entities or companies as large as Amtrak. Taking our example again, our customers are mostly smallish to medium-sized machine shops. Really large manufacturers have either in-house staff keeping older machines going, and/or newer machines.
So it's possible that Amtrak doesn't have any good options for repairing things for which spare parts are no longer provided by the things' manufacturer. I doubt Amtrak has a crack team who can improvise repairs like this.
HOWEVER, most niche businesses of this sort are too small to deal with the bureaucratic hurdles presented to vendors by government entities or companies as large as Amtrak. Taking our example again, our customers are mostly smallish to medium-sized machine shops. Really large manufacturers have either in-house staff keeping older machines going, and/or newer machines.
So it's possible that Amtrak doesn't have any good options for repairing things for which spare parts are no longer provided by the things' manufacturer. I doubt Amtrak has a crack team who can improvise repairs like this.
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If the cars have already been converted, that would certainly eliminate what I mentioned as an issue.
Thirdrail7
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If Amtrak lacked such a team, you wouldn't see a great deal of equipment that is currently operating (or operated in the recent past) on the road.
Maybe they should 'import' some mechanic's from Cuba....they sure seem to have the knack of making parts for old 'American Iron'....
jis
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The key is good cost effective options for keeping many hundred cars going. Anyone can keep a few cars going if there is willingness to throw any amount of money and volunteer labor at it as it takes.
cpotisch
Engineer
I honestly like the new look. I think it just looks pretty clean and modern - a lot less dated and even rundown than before. Let's just say that I think it's a really fresh and contemporary color scheme.
