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Until the railroads decide to issue iPads or such to engineers, like airlines have started doing for pilots, paper will still be around in a big way. Of course the flight bag of a pilot is probably a much heavier thing than the equivalent for an engineer, and both space and weight are at much greater premium on planes. So the incentive for going digital on planes is greater.
 
Word is floating around that 612-613 are scheduled to begin their eastbound trek Saturday morning (5/24) on the Zephyr.
 
is #607 in regular service yet? I saw it in the Ivy City engine house, looks like being cleaned or something
 
No further engines are being released for revenue service until the bugs have been worked out, as per what I've read from reliable sources. As far as I remember, 606 was the last unit accepted.
 
According to a Facebook poster, 6(24) was apparently an hour late leaving EMY due to brake problems on the loco. And he didn't say anything about extra engines (which I'm sure he would have noticed).
 
Too many clouds to shoot into the sun when I caught #6(25) east of Ottumwa, Iowa (not that I'm entirely immune to shooting into the sun though).

Anyway, the private car that was on the end of this Zephyr isn't there anymore. I guess it was left in Denver. I wonder if that's related to the Denver sleeping car getting picked up there.

 
ACS-64 Action on 5/29/14:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPFadhq3kNo
600 - 84 (Princeton Junction) / 193 (Cornwells Heights)
601 - 19 (Trenton)
602 - 91 (Princeton Junction) /92 (Cornwells Heights w/ horn salute)
603 - 127 (Cornwells Heights)
604 - 90 (apparently, but I missed it by 30 min)
605 - 20 (Princeton Junction)
606 - 184 (Princeton Junction) / 129 (Cornwells Heights)
 
Well you can scratch 2 new ACS-64s off the list. On may 28th ACS-64s 612 and 613 being towed on the cap had a major issue that non of the crew thought was bad enough to remove them. After ignoring the glowing red hot wheels they locked up 20 minutes out of pittsburge where it tied up the mainline for hours. The problem was noticed out of cleaveland when the wheels were found to be glowing orange but nothing was done about it and the crew continued on untill about 20 minutes after leaving PGH the wheels on the ACS-64s seize up.Damage is said to be in the 6 figures. This is via a post on TO. Caused the cap to be 5 hours late into washington.
 
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Ouch. I'd hope that would be covered under warranty -- or if the crew really screwed up, I suppose it might be taken out of their wages for the next several years.

Reading the post on trainorders, I am really surprised that they didn't put the engines into a siding in Toledo (which really should have enough tracks), or Cleveland (which might have enough sidings), or at least Pittsburgh (which definitely has a suitable siding).
 
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neroden said:
Ouch. I'd hope that would be covered under warranty -- or if the crew really screwed up, I suppose it might be taken out of their wages for the next several years.

Reading the post on trainorders, I am really surprised that they didn't put the engines into a siding in Toledo (which really should have enough tracks), or Cleveland (which might have enough sidings), or at least Pittsburgh (which definitely has a suitable siding).
Click to expand...
Frankly, I have never heard of a car inspector just agreeing to run a train with a glowing hot axle in regular service with a bunch of passengers on board. I have no idea what the circumstances were but this strikes me as truly bizarre. Who was going to be responsible if there was a derailment? How would anyone know for sure how and when the bearing would fail? The NJT Arrow derailment at Portal happened because of a bearing failure after that rain was run with a hot axle that the crew failed to detect because they did not apparently know how to use a Tempel stick.
[shakes his head in utter disbelief!]

Interestingly, how did they manage to run through all those hot axle/defect detectors without anyone raising an alarm?
 
This is the only video I could find of the two newest ACS-64s on the Capitol Limited. The wheels aren't even visible, but perhaps someone that can interpret the jargon over the radio can find something of interest.

 

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