Could Amtrak also haul frieght?

[railiner]

That's a common ailment of what happens when transportation companies (of all modes), diversify, and oftentimes the subsidiaries outperform the core business, financially. Then the money manager's start bleeding the core business to invest in the more profitable ventures, and eventually discard the bankrupted former core business....

 

[KmH]

Amtrak freight cars/trains:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7627029120_12aa608a42_z.jpg

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrEwVlfh8FaBkIAoQ2JzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIzYjJoYmU4BHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAMxYTcwZWRlM2I3MDllY2Y3MGRlY2Q0ZjAxYTFlZTZhNQRncG9zAzcyBGl0A2Jpbmc-?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DAmtrak%2Bfreight%2Btrains%26fr%3Dcrmas%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26nost%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D72&w=564&h=423&imgurl=s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F564x%2F8c%2F2b%2F6a%2F8c2b6a9edce7606dc948c365c688fe94.jpg&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F551198441868810999%2F&size=48.0KB&name=Pinterest+%E2%80%A2+The+world%E2%80%99s+catalog+of+ideas&p=Amtrak+freight+trains&oid=1a70ede3b709ecf70decd4f01a1ee6a5&fr2=piv-web&fr=crmas&tt=Pinterest+%E2%80%A2+The+world%E2%80%99s+catalog+of+ideas&b=61&ni=21&no=72&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11h3i2vp7&sigb=13jnmb7vs&sigi=12f4t3mvj&sigt=11c44r0in&sign=11c44r0in&.crumb=MVU1OV3MUg7&fr=crmas&fr2=piv-web

 

[Thirdrail7]

That was another thing about this operation. They damaged the diesels by slightly stretching the car body of the units. This caused door problems. When Amtrak complained to GE, they stated the original specs were for a passenger engine pulling passenger cars....not freight cars and were not designed or delivered for how they were being used. Therefore, they were not responsible.

Fun times.

 

[Trogdor]

That was another thing about this operation. They damaged the diesels by slightly stretching the car body of the units. This caused door problems. When Amtrak complained to GE, they stated the original specs were for a passenger engine pulling passenger cars....not freight cars and were not designed or delivered for how they were being used. Therefore, they were not responsible.

Fun times.

How did pulling freight cars cause the engine’s body to stretch?

 

[Thirdrail7]

How did pulling freight cars cause the engine’s body to stretch?

All I know is the cause was excessive weight of the equipment being pulled. Those diesel have a some sort of single body (the term escapes my memory) and dragging that much weight put stress on the body. It was discovered when doors wouldn't close. It started appearing on more and more units and GE was called in to assess the situation.

 

[keelhauled]

All I know is the cause was excessive weight of the equipment being pulled. Those diesel have a some sort of single body (the term escapes my memory) and dragging that much weight put stress on the body. It was discovered when doors wouldn't close. It started appearing on more and more units and GE was called in to assess the situation.

Monocoque, I think, where the carbody is load bearing in addition to the frame. Kind of like the difference between a unibody car and a body on frame truck/SUV I would imagine.

 

[cpotisch]

All I know is the cause was excessive weight of the equipment being pulled. Those diesel have a some sort of single body (the term escapes my memory) and dragging that much weight put stress on the body. It was discovered when doors wouldn't close. It started appearing on more and more units and GE was called in to assess the situation.

Monocoque, I think, where the carbody is load bearing in addition to the frame. Kind of like the difference between a unibody car and a body on frame truck/SUV I would imagine.

Yep, that’s a monocoque. In most modern cars, instead of having a body and chassis, the body is the main structural component. Obviously the body is stiffened and has structural elements, but if two much strain is put on the unit (car or locomotive), it can stretch and warp.

 

[Don Newcomb]

Amtrak freight cars/trains:

Help me out here. The semi-trailers at the end of the trains. They weren't on RoRo cars. It was almost like their tires were running on the tracks. Where they running on some sort of dolly system? Sorry if I'm not using the right lingo. I just have never seen semi-trailers carried like that before.

 

[Ryan]

You’re looking at Roadrailers:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadrailer

 

[Trogdor]

How did pulling freight cars cause the engine’s body to stretch?

All I know is the cause was excessive weight of the equipment being pulled. Those diesel have a some sort of single body (the term escapes my memory) and dragging that much weight put stress on the body. It was discovered when doors wouldn't close. It started appearing on more and more units and GE was called in to assess the situation.

So it was more to do with the total weight than that it was freight, per se?

 

[jis]

Sounds like the max drawbar force is the issue. I wonder what the P4x monocoques are rated for. It is not like a monocoque cannot be designed for whatever is specified.

So apparently the drawbar force for some of the Amtrak "freights" turned out to be significantly more than what one typically gets in a 50 car Autotrain.

 

[Don Newcomb]

You’re looking at Roadrailers:

Interesting. I don't think I've ever seen one "in the wild."

 

[cpotisch]

More info about the structural design of cab unit locomotives here.

With both body styles, a bridge-truss design framework is used to make the body a structural element of the locomotive. The body rises above the locomotive frame, and extends the full width of the locomotive and along its length. The service walkways are inside the body.

 

[Lonestar648]

I remember watching the the different modes get attached and dropped. The TR Passenger cars looked out of place struck in the middle of the long train. Some trains had just a few cars on the rear, but others had quite a few. I remember seeing fork lifts loading cars on a siding at Union Station every time I passed through. Coming into Chicago we would stop to the cars on the rears could be dropped. Also remember sitting in the yard waiting for the cars to be brought to the rear of our train, many times at least a 30 minute delay. I remember a few long term SCAs and I talking about the revenue benefits, but they saw more negatives than benefits for the company.

 

[Seaboard92]

Those videos brought back childhood for me. I remember multiple times getting stopped by the silver star in the mornings going to school and it being more of a freight then a passenger train.

The best ever was one time we were stopped by a combined Silver Meteor and Star with both trains express business. The thing must have been thirty cars.