TDowling wrote:With Njt's five year plan to scrap all the single levels will there even be any of the older locomotives left? I ask this under the assumption that only the pl42s and the dual modes can haul multilevels...
Not sure why the older power would be restricted. The MBTA's Geeps and F40's haul as many as 8 fully loaded Kawasaki and Rotem bi-levels today. Granted...it's not a real pretty sight watching them wheeze out of a station stop hauling that much weight, but they do it day-in/day-out on engines with the same power rating as NJT's. So unless it's a different in-house maint standard on the strain they're willing to put on the 3000 HP engines there shouldn't be any functional restrictions to hauling all-MLV's on those routes.
The fleet plan allows for some reductions in equipment. Keep the total car numbers static (except maybe on the EMU side...right now they're thinking the fleet numbers are finally going to increase again and take somewhat higher % of the overall fleet). Then let all the capacity gains come in extra seating capacity instead of extra cars. And simplify the fleet assignments so there aren't so many push-pulls that have to supplement the Arrows on the NJCL and M&E's, since the new EMU's will be frequency-agile for on-the-fly switching between 25 Hz/12.5 kV and 60 Hz/25 kV power and have equal seating capacity as the MLV's. That'll take the ALP-46's off those lines and boost the NEC assignments, reassign some ALP-45 pinch-hitters, and allow for a general territorial consolidation of push-pull trainsets. Moreso if closing the electrification gaps on the M&E and NJCL ever becomes a priority. There will be more trainsets available for pure diesel territory, and a less-stretched diesel fleet.
Still not going to be enough to float diesel territory on nothing but PL42's and ALP-45's. There's going to have to be another modest-sized pure diesel order to make the numbers square because right now there's still too many Geeps required to float daily service.
MNRR probably isn't going to order anything new for WoH because they just finished rebuilding their F40's. This combo order of new replacement dual-modes with LIRR is probably going to be a 100% duals-for-duals buy for MNRR, with LIRR only needing the 50/50 split of duals vs. straight diesels. The MTA only needs 6 BL20GH's to run shuttle service to Wassaic; everything else in Hudson/Harlem diesel territory runs direct to GCT on P32's, with the remaining 6 Brookvilles owned by CDOT for Waterbury/Danbury shuttle service. In fact, I could even see them transacting their Brookvilles to CDOT and going 100% duals in MTA territory (whether they're running direct or just in shuttle) to unite the fleet under a common make for optimal scale and maint efficiency. The duals fleet is going to swell in size out of present-day necessity and future padding for Penn Station Access via the Hudson Line, so the economics of maintaining such a tiny Hudson/Harlem pure diesel fleet just won't wash like it used to. Since those Brookvilles are woefully underpowered for WoH service, that's either going to mean maintaining the F40's for awhile or buying into NJT's next purchase. 3rd rail duals are wasted out there for obvious reasons, so it certainly won't be the same clean-roomed power they're buying EoH.
