Purpose of Talgo Employee on Amtrak Cascades

I was recently in the Pacific Northwest and I took a few rides on the Amtrak Cascades trains. In additional to the usual train crew I would expect, each train also had an employee in a Talgo uniform. At first, I thought it may have just been for a maintenance reasons on the particular trip I was on but I noticed that every single trip I took on the Cascades had a Talgo employee present. They would occasionally assist the conductors with opening doors and would walk the train quite frequently with some sort of book, possibly a manual. Does anyone know what the purpose/necessity is of this position?

For what it's worth, I greatly enjoyed the Talgo equipment. It's definitely very unique in the Amtrak system and has a very "European feel" to it.

I believe he/she is a mechanical rider...

The rider is a tech/super tech. The person is basically an equipment specialist. This is not uncommon on speciality or new equipment.

Among other things, I have seen the Talgo tech restock the paper towels in a washroom.

Callling Triley!

They were aboard when I took the Cascades in 2015. Are the Talgos that fragile that a perm tech from the train manufacturer is need aboard?

seat38a said:

They were aboard when I took the Cascades in 2015. Are the Talgos that fragile that a perm tech from the train manufacturer is need aboard?

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and if that is the case, does the economic case for operating such equipment still hold?

If Talgo has contractual responsibility for certain ongoing maintenance programs, it makes sense. I seem to remember that Siemens will have an ongoing involvement with Chargers, predictable lifecycle maintenance provisioning/costing is not uncommon.

Nothing new about this concept. In the Heritage Days, the Broadway Limited had a dedicated Amtrak "handyman" on board a number of times I noticed. And he was kept quite busy! Many a trip had he not been aboard, we wouldn't have had a functioning diner or lounge car.

PVD said:

If Talgo has contractual responsibility for certain ongoing maintenance programs, it makes sense. I seem to remember that Siemens will have an ongoing involvement with Chargers, predictable lifecycle maintenance provisioning/costing is not uncommon.

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Siemens has a maintenance contract with Brightline. That does not imply that a Siemens tech rides Brightline trains all the time. They don't. OTOH, the locomotive operational data is monitored in almost real time via radio link, apparently, and any glitches that occur during the run are fixed when the set returns to the WPB maintenance facility.

I've seen them on about half of my Cascades trips, always sitting in the dining car. Only spoke with them once, on the afternoon train from SEA - PDX on 12/18/17. I asked if he had any info on the morning's derailment, but he couldn't share.

We were on a train up to SEA a few months ago that had a large link bolt come loose (part of the tilting mechanism). Unfortunately, this train didn't have a Talgo employee. The conductor and engineer were able to get the bolt pounded back in, but it delayed us about an hour.

jis said:

Siemens has a maintenance contract with Brightline. That does not imply that a Siemens tech rides Brightline trains all the time. They don't. OTOH, the locomotive operational data is monitored in almost real time via radio link, apparently, and any glitches that occur during the run are fixed when the set returns to the WPB maintenance facility.

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I think similar monitoring eqpt was installed for that type of arrangement with the midwest and cal chargers but not 100 percent sure on that.

VIA Rail on the budd equipment sends a mechanical rider out as well. To get that job one must be either a carmen, electrician, or a plumber with VIA first if I recall.

Thanks for the replies, that clears things up. The cost for such dedicated extra employee must be significant. I assume that an Acela consist is just as complex as a Talgo set and yet a dedicated "Acela tech" is not necessary.

quadrock said:

Thanks for the replies, that clears things up. The cost for such dedicated extra employee must be significant. I assume that an Acela consist is just as complex as a Talgo set and yet a dedicated "Acela tech" is not necessary.

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I’ll chose to disagree with your statement that an “Acela Tech” isn’t needed.

Washington State pays for the Talgo tech. And if Triley is around somewhere he could tell you it comes in handy.

The current Acela fleet especially at the current age of the fleet could benefit from having someone on board. The day that the Farewell to the AEM-7 trip ran I was at Prospect Park to watch the train go by. An Acela set had an issue and held at Norwood for a good 45 minutes. To the point where CTEC 4 was running trains around him. The problem? The ITSU needed to be cut out on one of the cars. The dispatcher told them to Recycle the power, cut out the ACSES, and a whole lot more before the dispatcher saw a note somewhere and asked “Hey are you having issues with the ITSU on car blah blah?” The crew said yes. And the crew mentioned they thought that was the issue and asked to Cut Out the ITSU on that car. Once they cut out the ITSU they were fine. The issue was the Engineer had his Cab Signal drop to Restricting and couldn’t get it to get back up. Once they cut out the ITSU the Cabs went back up to what the wayside signal was. Clear. An onboard tech could have taken the information from the crew and prevented the delay from being 45 minutes to maybe 5-10 minutes.

quadrock said:

Thanks for the replies, that clears things up. The cost for such dedicated extra employee must be significant. I assume that an Acela consist is just as complex as a Talgo set and yet a dedicated "Acela tech" is not necessary.

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There are (or at least were) 2-3 Acela Techs that float up and down the NEC, when not being dispatched to troubleshoot. While floating, they hop on and off trains, make minor repairs and document other items needing repair. Sometimes their schedules will follow troublesome sets.

Most high profile Acela trips have dedicated rider for most/ all of their journeys.

OBS said:

There are (or at least were) 2-3 Acela Techs that float up and down the NEC, when not being dispatched to troubleshoot. While floating, they hop on and off trains, make minor repairs and document other items needing repair. Sometimes their schedules will follow troublesome sets.

Most high profile Acela trips have dedicated rider for most/ all of their journeys.

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Glad to hear that their are some folks around. Even more so these days as they are older.

What is the definition of a high profile trip? VIP such as Joe Biden? Or rush hour trips that always sell out?

Acela150 said:

Glad to hear that their are some folks around. Even more so these days as they are older.

What is the definition of a high profile trip? VIP such as Joe Biden? Or rush hour trips that always sell out?

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Biden, when he was VP,occasionally, he rode so often and last minute they usually didn't worry about him. ....Group of Congresspeople....Large foreign delegations, etc

quadrock said:

Thanks for the replies, that clears things up. The cost for such dedicated extra employee must be significant. I assume that an Acela consist is just as complex as a Talgo set and yet a dedicated "Acela tech" is not necessary.

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OBS said:

There are (or at least were) 2-3 Acela Techs that float up and down the NEC, when not being dispatched to troubleshoot. While floating, they hop on and off trains, make minor repairs and document other items needing repair. Sometimes their schedules will follow troublesome sets.

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To add on to OBS's comment, not only do you have techs riding the trains, you have them stationed in BOS,NYP and WAS. Additionally, the ACS64 fleet has rider techs and stationed techs.

Again, this is not uncommon with specialty or new equipment.If anyone recalls, the Turboliner fleet had a tech on each set.