ACS-64 Heads Up

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
The consist consists of

P42

Acs-64

P42

Heritage baggage

Transdorm

Coach Baggage

Coach

Coach

Sightseer

Diner

Sleeper

Sleeper
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ah, looking at the train the wrong way round then, last time I did the CZ the sleepers were all at the front....
 
1017763_314726352012720_7059167719907079405_n.jpg


"The controls of Amtrak ACS-64 604 while on display in Washington for National Train Day celebration."

Posted to the Amtrak group on Facebook by Patrick Lynch. Reposted here with his permission.
 
And here is my picture of it, posted on the NTD thread too....

1609999_10204072011505794_8091555784804883782_n.jpg


Of course posted with my permission :)

And here it is as seen from the outside:

10325145_10204072008705724_4382261324985410602_n.jpg


And another one, a view from the other end this time....

1797576_10204072009505744_451948786230084256_n.jpg


It was supplying HEP to a string of Superliners and Amfleets attached to it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The 612 and 613 are heading to Sacramento tomorrow.
Good. There has not been an update posted here in a while on the deployment into service of the ACS-64s, although there have been reports on rr.net. I think maybe 6 units are now in revenue service on the southern end of the NEC? A comprehensive update would be useful if someone has been keeping track.

I did see a report on trainorders that 5 of the 15 HHP-8s have been retired. The 15 HHP-8s may get mothballed before the last of the AEM-7DC units.
 
I did see a report on trainorders that 5 of the 15 HHP-8s have been retired. The 15 HHP-8s may get mothballed before the last of the AEM-7DC units.
General chit-chat on various railroad boards has indicated that the engineers and maintenance people Do Not Like the HHP-8s. It's also a very small class of locomotive (only 15), which creates spare parts headaches. Also, the ACS-64 numbering range is set to overlap the HHP-8 numbering range. So the HHP-8s probably will be retired first.
 
I got my first ride behind one last evening on 188 (#602), and then as we were waiting to leave, I saw the southbound Silver Meteor come in to WAS being pulled by #600. It was a nice ride, we made it to West Baltimore in less than 30 minutes. We might have come in ahead of schedule except that we stopped outside the West Baltimore MARC station and thenvcrawled through part of the tunnel. I think maybe we had run up on the preceding MARC train.
 
The controls of Amtrak ACS-64 604 while on display in Washington for National Train Day celebration.
I find it amusing that pride of place in the very center of the controls is... a clipboard for paper. Sometimes the old ways are best.
Even with the redundancies in place with PTC/ACSES that will only grow in the next few years, I think it will be awhile yet before paper orders go by the wayside (no pun intended). Computer systems can fail, but when it comes to complying with speed restrictions there's no better fail safe than a piece of paper and a trained crew.
 
I did see a report on trainorders that 5 of the 15 HHP-8s have been retired. The 15 HHP-8s may get mothballed before the last of the AEM-7DC units.
General chit-chat on various railroad boards has indicated that the engineers and maintenance people Do Not Like the HHP-8s. It's also a very small class of locomotive (only 15), which creates spare parts headaches. Also, the ACS-64 numbering range is set to overlap the HHP-8 numbering range. So the HHP-8s probably will be retired first.
It's well known that almost everybody can't stand them.
 
The controls of Amtrak ACS-64 604 while on display in Washington for National Train Day celebration.
I find it amusing that pride of place in the very center of the controls is... a clipboard for paper. Sometimes the old ways are best.
Even with the redundancies in place with PTC/ACSES that will only grow in the next few years, I think it will be awhile yet before paper orders go by the wayside (no pun intended). Computer systems can fail, but when it comes to complying with speed restrictions there's no better fail safe than a piece of paper and a trained crew.
Plus I assume special orders can cover more than what can be enforced with PTC/ACSES such as orders dealing with horns, braking method, sand use, general info on what's happening on different tracks etc. I'll admit I'm guessing here, so I hope someone that knows more can chime in, but I'm assuming that such things could be covered. Plus, even in PTC areas, won't form Ds or whatever each railroad uses have to be issued for operating against the signals, or will PTC/ACSES render all tracks effectively bi-directionally signaled?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top