AEM-7/ALP-44 status

nomis wrote:Rephrase that question ... Will septa be willing to charter an AEM / ALP excursion if an organization organizes it? Both the Philly NRHS and the Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys ran Silverliner II & III farewell tours.

Quite true, thank you for rephrasing.

SEPTA Fan 235 wrote:

nomis wrote:Rephrase that question ... Will septa be willing to charter an AEM / ALP excursion if an organization organizes it? Both the Philly NRHS and the Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys ran Silverliner II & III farewell tours.

Quite true, thank you for rephrasing.

Since Amtrak chartered theirs I am unsure....but I am hoping that the ALP-44 does get preserved. Interested if SEPTA will charter a Silverliner IV excursion in the coming years.

For Amtrak, the AEM-7s were an incredibly important part of their history, and they worked well. SEPTA's have been a maintenance headache and aren't nearly as important to their history. Therefore, I don't think it really makes sense for them to run a farewell trip. They would be the last agency operating the AEM-7, and are already the only ones left running DCs, so I could see a farewell trip based on that at some point.

Do you think that the Philadelphia Chapter NRHS would want to sponsor a farewell to the SEPTA AEM-7 trip? They always seem to be a good organization regarding trips. ( Publications too ). I agree the impact of the AEM-7 ( and F40 ) were instrumental in the stabilization of AMTRAK through the years more than to SEPTA. They were never really used enough or properly at SEPTA.

And today there was a Bombardier set to West Trenton, even though 3 units show out of service at Frazer. 2302, 2307 & 2308.

I've seen the push pulls on 6325 and 6378 in recent weeks. This morning, 6321 had a push-pull set while 6325 had V's. I didn't see the trains yesterday or Tuesday, and on Monday, the train assignments may have been based on what went out on Friday. So this could be a long-term change due to the new schedules that went into effect this week.

2308 was back in service Monday and subsequently died on its first trip in from Frazer.

The Elwyn AEM-7 set has been moved to West Trenton due to the Swathmore work. So 6321-6378 will have a set all summer.

Those toasters just became a whole lot more valuable. Anyone know why they remain out of service?

There's a whole bunch sitting in Amtrak's yard......

On the shop tour that was part of the Amtrak AEM7 trip, we were told that the AEM7AC's that were still on the property were leased, and Amtrak was performing inspections for the owner (the bank) prior to disposition.
I was surprised that so many units were still financed.

Any that Amtrak owned outright were probably the ones that have already been cut up.

Given the current equipment situation, I'm surprised a couple of those haven't been offered for lease....

you still need cars, no matter how many engines you can round up.

Supposed to be all 7 aem-7/alp44 sets available monday with coaches. 1 set may only be 4 or 5 cars.

Since the crisis began, have the P/P sets been getting any additional runs in other than the daily RT?

Looking at the train extra numbers In the morning.
The West Trenton set goes through to it looks like Bryn Mawr and back as a local.
A Newark or Frazer set goes to Lansdale and back.
At night.
A Frazer set does a Neshaminy local before heading back.

Zuccaraillo wrote:Since Amtrak chartered theirs I am unsure....but I am hoping that the ALP-44 does get preserved. Interested if SEPTA will charter a Silverliner IV excursion in the coming years.

Silverliner IV - I'd say yes. These were and are the backbone of Regional Rail for more than 40 years and recent events illustrate how valuable they are. They are also the last "heritage" equipment still running (delivered under the auspices of PC and RDG).

2308 is back in revenue rotations. Saw her no less than THREE times today.