SC-44 Siemens Charger Locomotives

With little fanfare, Chargers started revenue service on the Capitol Corridor earlier this month.

Are those LED headlights ever BRIGHT!!

Observed my first a few days ago.

When will the WSDOT/ORDOT Chargers finally be put in service?

Its been mentioned that Siemens said they are capable of adding a 3rd rail ability to the Charger. As of right now MNCR has canceled their M9A order and is looking at buying some kind of double decked car and Siemens is to provide Two Dual Mode charger demonstrators for them to test out.

Further consolidating their potential grip on sales to Amtrak. Amazing to see and really great news in many respects.

Well, what NYS, NYC and Amtrak come to agree upon what will happen with the Empire Connection overbuild, is going to really see what happens with all of that. The city is trying to get it electrified to eliminate the exhaust fumes from coming up into the buildings.

The RFI docs for the dual-mode procurement are available online. MPI (some sort of HSP-46 adaptation), Bombardier (stock ALP-45DP with DC/third rail electrical instead of AC/panto), and Siemens (Charger dual) were the responders. That was January 2015, so the landscape has changed considerably. MPI impaled itself on the HSP and is out of the running...pretty much everywhere. Bombardier still very much in the mix with NJT just announcing a supplemental order of 45-DP's to be voted on in a few months. And Siemens now has a full shipping product in the Charger to work from instead of educated guesstimates.

All of the RFI responders had weight issues to square, and zeroed in on the 125 MPH MAS target as the requirement most problematic for getting within desired weight. Now, with almost 3 years elapsed and a less guesswork required it's likely that Siemens and/or BBD have made some progress on this front and might be A-OK for the formal RFP. If not, then it's not a terribly big ask to the PRIAA committee to lower the target speed to 110 MPH, since the Empire ain't going to see any speedometer readings higher than 110 AT LEAST until the day the Capitol dome freezes over and somebody upstate is willing to pay for wires to be strung up all the way to ALB. I mean, these aren't being earmarked for plug-and-play on some any-state's emerging-speed corridors like the straight-diesel order was. There's only ONE study corridor these things will be running at greater-than commuter MAS on. And it's quite likely they'll be beyond replacement-age before Albany bothers to enact any of their own depressingly modest HSR study recs.

The Bomb units will be no good. They are still capped at 90mph and will most likely be for the rest of their careers at NJT. The high speed testing they conducted was not successful for the ALP45 but it was for the Multilevel, Viewliners, LDSL cars and I think one other piece that went on the test trains. The ALP45 is really a huge turd, with the dual engines needing to be replaced frequently because they tear themselves apart from running at such high speeds under load for so long I dont know why any place in their right mind would buy one and why NJT would even buy more. Something with a single main engine like the Charger would be a better option. The other huge problem with the ALP45 is the massive fuel consumption at idle with HEP running. They consume more than twice the fuel of a traditional GP40 v16 with the 6 cyl 800kW Cat genset at the back running for HEP. When they are moving, they are okay its really only when they are left on layover.

ApproachMedium wrote:Its been mentioned that Siemens said they are capable of adding a 3rd rail ability to the Charger. As of right now MNCR has canceled their M9A order and is looking at buying some kind of double decked car and Siemens is to provide Two Dual Mode charger demonstrators for them to test out.

Where is it written that M9A will not happen for MNCR?

Its not written anywhere, yet. But it will be soon as things are falling thru.

The M9A order never was for MN. It is an LIRR order. (And I don't believe it, nor the MN order is cancelled.)

<COUGH> CHARGERS <COUGH>.

Please see the topics in both LIRR and MNRR. Whatever the railroad or version, they will not be pulled by Chargers.

<COUGH>

ApproachMedium wrote:Well, what NYS, NYC and Amtrak come to agree upon what will happen with the Empire Connection overbuild, is going to really see what happens with all of that. The city is trying to get it electrified to eliminate the exhaust fumes from coming up into the buildings.

Never heard of the city complaining about the fumes. If that is the case is there much more to be debated other than who is going to pay for electrification? It would not surprise me if it is eventually bundled up with Penn Access for Hudson Line.

As for the ALP45s, yeah, they will definitely need a different diesel engine inside to qualify. That might not be impossible though if they get rid of the AC transformer which will not be needed. But of course, that is a new design for all practical purposes.

R30A wrote:The M9A order never was for MN. It is an LIRR order. (And I don't believe it, nor the MN order is cancelled.)

actually part of M-9 order is for MN and they are committed.

In the last week, we have two documented Charger road failures. One incident saw a very delayed Hiawatha rescued by a CP widecab, and one incident, on a lengthened holiday train to Carbondale, saw a rescue by a CN EMD widecab.

Not good.

All this banter about how the F125 is a dog and Charger is an ace? Out the window.

Also: this is the inflection point where midwestern corridor service gets taken seriously or not by business travelers, who are the ones that paid the bills on passenger trains and pay the bills on airlines. Why they're not running these trains with backup power until the teething problems are over is beyond me. If I'm six hours late to Detroit in two weeks because a Charger dies, I'm going to be pissed. This is an easy item to protect against for 3-6 months, as these trains are usually run bracket-style anyway.