AEM-7 status

ACeInTheHole wrote:Rumor is 945 is going to IRM. I do not know how true that is.

945 is stored in the back lot of DC at the end of their tail track, usually where they shoved the MARC AEM-7s when they were acting up or any HHP-8s in "time out"

Didn't see this posted yet, sorry if it already was...

http://www.caltrain.com/Assets/__Agenda ... Agenda.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pages 58, 61,95 (Or thereabouts - use search word 'locomotive' to find the good nuggets of info).

Maybe it hasn't been posted because it's just plans of what they might do, and not a done deal yet. A Whitepaper proposing to use "used" electric locomotives for tests and proposal to purchase or lease "used" electric locomotives awaiting Board approval doesn't necessarily mean it will actually come to fruition.

Never-the-less, there are plans to use two "used" AEM7s for testing purposes. They are going to need to use some vehicle to test and maintain catenary wires in the future. Maybe used AEM7s will fill that need?

Used AEM-7s could fill the gaps for the trains they continue to run under wire in diesel because EMU has not replaced them. AEM-7 works with a diesel without wire as a control car, and can work with a diesel as a booster under wire or straight loco with diesel as control car.

Yes, that is a possibility, but couldn’t those same old diesels run under the wire anyways without an AEM7?
Caltrain’s locomotive roster includes 2 MP15DC, 23 F40PH-2, and 6 MP36PH-3 locomotives. The latest link authorizes sending 3 F40PH-2 locomotives off for major refurbishment, so they will continue to run diesel locomotives for a while.
The link also shows they are buying 16 sets of Stadler KISS 6 car EMU train sets. That’s effectively the same as 96 more BiLevel coaches and 16 more electric locomotives. Caltrain’s coach roster includes 93 Galley cars and 41 Bombardier cars. There’s no way 96 brand new BiLevels will replace the capacity of the 134 old BiLevel cars. So some of the older trains will have to run a while after receiving all the new EMUs ordered to date.

With the state of california constantly pushing for cleaner air and fewer emissions its a very nice dangling carrot to have the diesel trains not polluting while they have clean electricity buzzing overhead.

An AEM-7 went west on the Capital Ltd today.

Must have been the 945. It was by the Ivy City enginehouse yesterday.

ApproachMedium wrote:With the state of california constantly pushing for cleaner air and fewer emissions its a very nice dangling carrot to have the diesel trains not polluting while they have clean electricity buzzing overhead.

Please explain how is the electricity clean? Although one can argue that central power plants can pollute less than a lot of small decentralized power plants like those in diesel electric locomotives, nothing says generating the electricity will have no environmental effect.

Electric locos are zero emissions. Half of the NEC runs off Hydropower, and always has. Thats pretty clean to me. I dont know what CalTrans is using for ultilties but with how the country has been moving to cleaner power sources over buring oil and coal and to solar wind natrual gas hydro.

not much power to generate with water in California, the state with perpetual draught, and not enough wind or solar to generate for dedicated power to railroad.

btw the AEM-7 that left on Cardinal is reported elsewhere to be heading to Illinois Railway Museum .

Patrick Boylan: The cleanup of the US Electric Grid is happening shockingly fast (surprising even the Environmental Defense Fund) and if you're planning a 10 year procurement cycle, you should plan for a grid that's even cleaner by the mid 2020s. In 2017, 50% of the grid was natural gas or renewables, up from just 31% in 2008 (that's a freakishly fast change, coming mostly at coal's expense) and there's every reason to believe that this trend will continue for another 10 years.

California may feel its hydro go scarce, but that's going to be nicely offset by lots and lots of sun during periods of draught. Either way, the state is in a nice position to be showered with renewable hydro & wind (when it does snow/rain) or solar & wind (when dry & blistering) at a time when solar+battery is now able to outbid natural gas in places with lots of sun and lots of electric devoted to (sunny peak time) air conditioning (Solar+Battery has beaten natural gas in recent open plant-building procurement competitions in Arizona and Florida). That's going to be California too.

The last ten year's worth of "cleaner" were mostly driven by gas beating coal (and cutting emissions by about 30% to 70% each time they did so). The next 10 years transition will be smaller in Megawatt terms because renewable plants have to be built (whereas the gas plants were there and just needed to be revved up). But even a small(er) megawatt shift from any fossil to renewable will be just as big in emissions terms because solar and wind and grid-scale batteries will emit not just a fraction, but nothing as they replace gas or coal (or transport diesel).

Regardless of where the electricity comes from, electric traction works out around 30 % more energy efficient than diesel traction. I too, am surprised California has not moved to electric faster. Even if is just to move the pollution out of the populated basins , to power plants in the interior.

Id like to see where that engine is going and which one it was. There was another AC motor in Wilmington last week other than the 901 and 929. The silhouette of the 945 looked to still be back in ivy city today when i went by. I will have to check tomorrow if i can during daylight if it is still there. I dont think whatever went west today is going to IRM, or maybe it is... It might be going farther west.

Got confirmation that it was the 945 that went west. Must have seen a Marc unit. There will be quite a bit of AEM-7 movements coming up real soon.