The eastbound California Zephyr was photographed yesterday in Provo, Utah with a Union Pacific freight locomotive leading. This Amtrak #6 is currently running over six hours late in Iowa.
Or, purchase used freight locomotives and equip them with HEP pass through cables to allow more flexibility in their operations. They would likely need to be regeared for higher speed operations, but it is doable.Amtrak might as well just lease a bunch of UP and BNSF engines and run with them and use the Genesis for HEP. This freight loco rescue seems to be happening way too frequently.
That sounds like way too much work and money for an organization that is disfunctional and broke already.Or, purchase used freight locomotives and equip them with HEP pass through cables to allow more flexibility in their operations. They would likely need to be regeared for higher speed operations, but it is doable.Amtrak might as well just lease a bunch of UP and BNSF engines and run with them and use the Genesis for HEP. This freight loco rescue seems to be happening way too frequently.
File a FOIA and find that the details and the contracts are not public data.This makes me curious....just what kind of payment arrangement does Amtrak have with the various hosts regarding rescue power?
To be clear, this train was using an Amtrak engineer, not a UP engineer (nor a BNSF one for that matter).UP and other hosts don't mind the revenue, but they are using certified engineers that could be running freights.
When your broke and you can't even buy new passenger engines or even maintain the ones you have, and all you can afford is used FREIGHT locomotives, HOW IS THAT LAUGHABLE??? Considering the freight locomotives comes to the rescue anyways, WHY NOT???Purchasing FREIGHT locomotives for PASSENGER service is laughable.
That is why I said in my earlier post to use the Genesis for HEP and use the freight for pulling. No different than when the Genesis needs rescuing. At least this way its consistent and scheduled accordingly and maybe more reliable than counting on 2 Genesis. Been on one train that needed a Freight Rescue and another that had to ditch the lead engine and progress at speeds that would have been faster had I walked on the Southwest Chief.If Amtrak buys these used freight engines how would they handle HEP? Run an HEP capable engine behind one of the used engines? Major reworking costs money.
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