by mtuandrew
How about a Jacksonville-Tallahassee DMU?
Railroad Forums
Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman
Tadman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:29 amDo you mean Sanford? The Lorton facility is a stub-end one, located adjacent to the CSX RF&P Subdivision. Don't think there's any room there, either.west point wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:28 pm DMUs at Tampa instead of the Star ? No way. You realize Tampa Star handles more passengers than even Atlanta on the Crescent ?Perhaps the answer in that case is having a car switch at Lorton where Miami and Tampa sections of the Star combine for the trip north. I suggest Lorton rather than Lakeland as there are plenty of Amtrak personnel on-site that can make connections and troubleshoot equipment. There's a switcher as well.
Rockingham Racer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:01 amYep, totally meant Sanford. It's not so much about how many ends are there as the fact that there's personnel, switchers, and shore power all over there. Even if it is one-ended: northbound Tampa section pulls past and backs in, power pulls off and heads for pocket track. Miami section pulls past and backs in on top of Tampa section. If one section is very late, the other section can sit on shore power. There are plenty of guys to make cuts and joints and deal with HEP, far more than at Spokane.Tadman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 7:29 amDo you mean Sanford? The Lorton facility is a stub-end one, located adjacent to the CSX RF&P Subdivision. Don't think there's any room there, either.west point wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:28 pm DMUs at Tampa instead of the Star ? No way. You realize Tampa Star handles more passengers than even Atlanta on the Crescent ?Perhaps the answer in that case is having a car switch at Lorton where Miami and Tampa sections of the Star combine for the trip north. I suggest Lorton rather than Lakeland as there are plenty of Amtrak personnel on-site that can make connections and troubleshoot equipment. There's a switcher as well.
Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:25 amJason from "the good place" would agreemtuandrew wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:58 am How about a Jacksonville-Tallahassee DMU?I like that!
mtuandrew wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:08 pmwhat's probably important to consider here is the staffing cost. how many cars trigger need for assistant conductor? Car attendants? If an AC is needed after two cars, it makes more sense to do a doodlebug baggage with two passenger car trailers. If not, then do three passenger motor cars with baggage racks. We don't want to get too long and do so at the expense of frequency. Most DMU runs in Britain are two cars, some three. After that, it's a "train" even if the train is a fancy DMU pendolino.
I’ll reiterate my “doodlebug” suggestion of a 1500-2000 hp powered baggage car, capable of towing 3 coaches at track speed. I don’t see Amtrak starting new service with anything less than two coaches and a baggage car, so this ought to be enough.
west point wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:42 pm Will find figures later but more boarding / leaving passengers at Tamp are going south to the SE coast than north.Here are the figures for Tampa.
Tadman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:33 pmwhat's probably important to consider here is the staffing cost. how many cars trigger need for assistant conductor? Car attendants? If an AC is needed after two cars, it makes more sense to do a doodlebug baggage with two passenger car trailers. If not, then do three passenger motor cars with baggage racks. We don't want to get too long and do so at the expense of frequency. Most DMU runs in Britain are two cars, some three. After that, it's a "train" even if the train is a fancy DMU pendolino.I wish I had the answer to when an AC is needed - maybe the Heartland Flyer is comparable? - but yes staffing is a big question. A crew of two would make such a service relatively reasonable, but three crew starts to eat up the revenue and increase the deficit even more.