What If Amtrak Had Bought the ALP-46 and Beefed It Up?

[DutchRailnut]

note I did not single out any single railroad, but French fry was shot after only 3 or 4 test trips, and Alstholm(now Alstom) gave up and send that puppy home.

[Gilbert B Norman]

'And what would you like with those fries, Sir?'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannes-j ... 607973754/

[hi55us]

'And what would you like with those fries, Sir?'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannes-j ... 607973754/

If anyone complains about the new sprinter locomotives looks I'm going to post a picture of that one

[Fan Railer]

Beginning development on the ACS-64 for OpenBVE, slowly but surely. Going to be using the exterior for the Amtrak ALP-46 for the time being. First order of business is installing that new "3rd Generation" K5LA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V17hw59BxU4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gAwdRCh5Fs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-GUzcKUGqI

[Jtgshu]

Lets not forget Amtrak DID run the '46 back when they were new, they leased i believe the last 5 or 6 of them for Clocker service after the E60s were retired or sent out for rebuilding and never came back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMSPPwrR1ew

The '46s are good locos, a little slippery, but good locos, the '46As are much better locos, much more power and tremendously better wheelslip control. Light years better wheelslip.

But more importantly, they are still running quite reliably after 11 years in grueling service, and are starting to get mid life/in house overhauls by NJT and Bombardier. Something the HHP8s are not getting.

There is a bit of a sibling rivalry with regards to Amtrak and NJT, and well, as silly as it sounds, as its quite an expensive game, but one of the reasons for not buying the '46As is simply because "they look too much like an NJT commuter engine" - nothing to do with reliability, components, performance, anything like that, but because they look like a NJT locomotive. Bombardier went out of their way to change the design of the look of the loco, so it would look different, but have teh same internals, and jumped through all their hoops, but Amtrak came up with excuse after excuse and (side doors and AC units were my favorites, among others) decided to go with the Seimens loco instead.

BTW, that info came from a very very very high up in Bombardier who I had a face to face conversation with, so no railroad rumors there, yes, one side of the story, but it jives.....

Im not saying Bombardier is the best thing in the world and that Seimens can't build a great loco. Im just saying that when it comes to our tax dollars which is buying this stuff, egos and personal feelings of decision makers about some thing that happened FIFTEEN years ago, should be put aside and ALL available options explored.

Jeez, imagine if everyone who had a bad experience on Amtrak never came back? There would probably be next to no one riding the darn trains....

[BuddSilverliner269]

Njt worried about taxpayers money? Ha!!! Tell that to everyone after the millions wasted from the Sandy fiasco after they didn't follow there own plans and allowed everything to go for a swim. Also the other thing is that these 46s were being built in Germany and with amtrak, everything NEEDS to be built in america. The fact is we still can't do any comparisons since the 64s aren't even in service yet and the fact that in Europe the Vectron is more widely available and popular then the Traxx platform. I hate to tell you that even Cruiser939 stated that amtrak not wanting the alps because they looked like a commuter engine was a rumor. Bombardier and amtrak have hurt butts and that's all there is to that hence why this so called Bombardier guy made this comment. Amtrak and BBD haven't been in talks with each other for a long time so I doubt this guy ever heard anyone make a statement like that and is pure speculation. Many guys that have been involved with this project since day one never even heard that comment. They look at me crosseyed after I say it. Sorry, I chalk that comment up to pure poop talk by a BBD rep. That's all.

[Fan Railer]

The ALP-46A for OpenBVE is here! Well, at least the Amtrak version. The NJT version should be up some time later tonight:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4lw4n ... k_V1.0.rar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h71tneOAPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6a1Czt8wQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIy76A-i1E

[Fan Railer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOJh57OQ2Q8 - NJT ALP-46A for OpenBVE
This train, along with the next several that I am releasing are dedicated to NJT engineer John Gaughran, (JT), who unexpectedly passed away on the morning August 26th, 2013.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2id03 ... k_V1.0.rar

[Fan Railer]

ALP-46 versus ALP-46A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2zHCQgpzaU