Amtrak Downeaster Discussion Thread

From a presentation on the State Rail Plan, January of this year:

The full study is available here. Per that study, they're primarily looking along St. John St. roughly between the Veterans' Bridge and Congress St. My hunch is that the easiest and probably cheapest path forward would be to help the Ferguson showroom relocate (Granite Group, who were on D St., have already moved to the old Happy Wheels on Warren Ave.) and take that spot,

Heads up, Horizon car #54549 will be heading to the DE this upcoming week. Left SHSY tonight 12/14

CSRR573 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 11:28 pm Heads up, Horizon car #54549 will be heading to the DE this upcoming week. Left SHSY tonight 12/14

And it's now on the Portland siding.

Maine legislators hope to glom onto a cool half-million in Feddybucks to finance a study of passenger rail via the Back Road to Bangor.
https://twitter.com/JoeBaldacci/status/ ... 9843402081

Another company has proposed an excursion train from Brunswick to Rockland that would include a fine-dining car, marking the latest attempt to revive passenger service on the 57-mile Rockland Branch.

Delaware-based AmeriStarRail wants to launch its service, MidCoast Maine Central, in May. It would include six daily, roundtrip train runs with stops in Bath, Wiscasset and Newcastle. A locomotive would carry several cars consisting of coach, first-class and fine-dining sections, with a capacity of 200–300 passengers.

https://www.pressherald.com/2024/01/21/ ... ining-car/

Wants to begin this May.

Interesting, multi-modal proposal, with maps. Six daily roundtrips plus separate motorcoach service from Boston to Bar Harbor, with connections to said train. Take train from BON - Rockland, then hop on coach to Bar Harbor (or take ferries to islands), and take coach back to Boston. Great round-trip excursion!

Speaking of service to Rockland, while spending the long President's Day Weekend in the Rockland area, I noticed a Budd Car sitting in the Rockland Freight Yard. The car is branded Coastliner, Mid Coast Rail Service. The company running this service stated the RDC's were proving to be unreliable. I wonder if this was one of those cars. Presidents Day Weekend is a perfect example of a winter season weekend where service to Rockland would be appreciated. Rockland and Camden were bustling, filled with we over worked, stressed out Bostonians.

2003 is the one and only RDC that has been used by Midcoast on the Rockland Branch for its passenger services.

Didn't that RDC break down shortly after the start of service?

Apparently did ok for the early runs, crapped out right before the MBRRE trip.

There is also discussion of this in the Rockland Branch Thread.

https://www.railroad.net/rockland-branc ... 2-615.html

Anybody know if we will get ALC-42s at some point before the airos come in? I know they are long distance locos but I feel like I remember seeing a vid of one on an intercity route (palmetto or something, which has plans for airos as well)

One of the Siemens techs that work with us said that chargers aren't getting equipped with ACSES so that eliminates them from MBTA territory as far as i know

CSRR573 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 11:18 pm One of the Siemens techs that work with us said that chargers aren't getting equipped with ACSES so that eliminates them from MBTA territory as far as i know

The ALC-42's or the ALC-42E's?

Why would you need an ALC-42E on the downeaster route when any old (passenger) diesel locomotive will do?