Amtrak HHP-8 Discussion: Use, Reliability, Disposition

Further horse beating belongs in an MBTA thread, a technology thread, a thread about symbiotic relationships between Amtrak & commuter railroads, and threads about infrastructure lost & need to create more of.

As for HHP8s, they would have to go somewhere that has internal & low-cost maintenance capability, and close relationships with Bombardier. I just realized that there were only twenty-one of these suckers. Maybe the stainless-steel body & traction motors can be re-used.

The body is a load of crap.

Also electrics usually cost more than diesels because of the high cost of the power electronics. One power module alone is 20k on the AEM-7. The ACS i think was 6 mil a piece.

I saw one being shoved into the Delaware Car Company a few days ago. A paint job?

Interesting. I think they should at least use them as FEMA housing or something! I'd live in one.

Probably for the truck work maybe. All of them have to get new trucks as part of the contract agreement and a truck mod. Even though they will probably all be scrapped eventually.

ApproachMedium wrote:Probably for the truck work maybe. All of them have to get new trucks as part of the contract agreement and a truck mod. Even though they will probably all be scrapped eventually.

What the heck, it's only taxpayer money, right?!

And the outlay of taxpayer money would be greater if the contract would be broken ...

I wonder if the RR Museum of PA or any other museum would be interested in obtaining an HHP-8 if one was offered?

Tom6921 wrote:I wonder if the RR Museum of PA or any other museum would be interested in obtaining an HHP-8 if one was offered?

They have literally everything else that ran on Amtrak. Im sure one will end up there

ACeInTheHole wrote:

Tom6921 wrote:I wonder if the RR Museum of PA or any other museum would be interested in obtaining an HHP-8 if one was offered?

They have literally everything else that ran on Amtrak. Im sure one will end up there

Doubt it, since they are still owned by bombardier/the bank that bomb did the financing thru. When the time comes their fate will be very similar to that of the AEM-7AC. Amtrak has no interest in any kind of ownership, and they would have to own them first before they could give one to the museum. The buyout is probably fairly high, seeing as how the AEM-7 is 1.5 mil. I can see what I can find out on the cost of the HHP-8.

The AEM-7DC that was given to the museum is still rostered at amtrak as a stored unit the last time I have checked though that may have changed.

A donation of a Hippo(HHP-8) to RRMof PA will most likely be done by BBD,since they own the motors.
Done as a PR move,(save face)due to some public failures worldwide.

Public failures - on the rails:

http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business ... -business/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

Here are five other examples where Bombardier’s rail business ran into trouble.

1. The Toronto Transit Commission: The good news is Toronto’s next-generation streetcars are supposed to begin arriving at a rate of four a month beginning in April. The bad news.....

2. Swiss Federal Railways: The first of 62 double-decker trains built by Bombardier are set to go in service in Switzerland later this year, two years behind schedule.

3. Metropolitan Transit Authority: Delays in the delivery of new Bombardier-built replacement cars means some New York City subway users will ride the same vehicles as Mad Men’s Don Draper did in 1964,

4. City of Phoenix: Bombardier was hired in 2009 to design and build a sky train that would connect travellers at Phoenix’s Sky Harbour International Airport.

5. Amtrak: America’s first high-speed trains were delivered in 2000 by Bombardier and France’s Alstom. But they came more than a year late and initially ran at slower-than-advertised speeds between Washington and Boston

In the air:

http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business ... -c-series/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

It was an astonishing bit of candour, uttered as it was by the president and CEO of one of the largest transportation companies in the world. The Quebec government had just announced a $1.3-billion investment in the C Series, the new line of commercial jets from Montreal-based rail and aerospace company Bombardier. Plagued by technical delays, cost overruns and nagging existential questions about its very purpose, the C Series has long been a source of unwelcome headlines for the company.

Landing on the same day as the company’s ugly third-quarter report—Bombardier had lost nearly $5 billion, mostly having to do with writedowns on the C Series—the $1.3-billion government investment­, equivalent to about $160 for every man, woman and child in the province, was meant to be a bit of good news in an otherwise gloomy day for the company...

A possible outcome:

http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economic ... t-it-fail/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

Without government support, Bombardier may not survive. Or cut loose, it might survive and, with a different ownership structure, thrive. But we’re long past the point when this company’s fate—and this family’s fortunes—should be dependent on the generosity of taxpayers. Trudeau would be doing both taxpayers and Bombardier a favour by saying “No.”

This is the article i shared in the viewliner thread. Good read on their shortcomings.

What is the operational status of all MARC HHP-8s ?

Only 4 of them are showing tracked and i think 3 are actually in service. It seems to change day in and day out though.