Amtrak HHP-8 Discussion: Use, Reliability, Disposition

IIRC, the 654 was one of the last ones in revenue service.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Mr. Vogel, me thinketh one means Warrington, vice Boardman.

Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks for the correction, Mr. Norman.

chuchubob wrote:

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Mr. Vogel, me thinketh one means Warrington, vice Boardman.

Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks for the correction, Mr. Norman.

Bob: I was going to mention the same thing as GBN is that the ill-fated Acela Regional concept
was conceived during the Warrington administration along with striping the Amfleet cars with the
"blobs" back in 1999-2000 or thereabouts. It was David Gunn who would bring back the terms of
"Northeast Regional" along with the color scheme change which is to what we presently have.

MACTRAXX

amtrakhogger wrote:IIRC, the 654 was one of the last ones in revenue service.

Took the bronze. 655 had the silver, and then 651 narrowly by an hour or two had the gold.

ThirdRail7 (and also for ApproachMedium),

Reading your response, when does the lease end for the HHP8s? For a leased, it has to be for a set period, how long was the lease and what year did they get them? This somewhat odd that they don't buy out the lease or renegioate the lease to reflect the non-use of them. Keeping them in running condition seems a waste. Has there been another example of engines being out of service with no future being continually maintained?

Update: I just read where someone else asked the same question on page 2 and it never was answered. This should be a simple question yet it seems to be the one part of the question not answered. I would think when they got them everyone would have been talking about the new engines are leased and for x years. Would not seem to be any controversy on this simple date.

That might be public info, try the google machine.

Tadman wrote:That might be public info, try the google machine.

*googles*

Negative.

*bings*

Negative. There's a ton of results towards the mothballing and "a few years after the Sprinters come" mentions. But no actual purchase order or lease order.

That said, I think I can hash it out a bit. From just googling around, it looks like a standard lease term for locomotives is roughly 20 years. The HHP-8's entered service in 2000, so I'll assume the lease started there. That would mean those hippos would be around Bear for another three years or so, which jives with the "few years" mention since the Sprinters (ACS-64) started in 2014.

For now they are stored "serviceable" with kept current inspections to keep BBD "happy" per lease terms.
BBD should be asked to take them back,end lease.

How then is Amtrak saving any money by not using them?

One of the "spoils" of the Amtrak-BBD legal battles was BBD retained ownership of the Hippos,while Amtrak gained ownership of the Acela trainsets.
Across this forum,the Hippo's up and downs are known,mostly as maintenance "Pain in the necks". While based on the Acela Power car design,
they were built different enough to not share the same parts between them.
BBD's lease has a requirement that they remained serviceable to the end of the lease,they are now stored "serviceable" with current 90 day inspections,
only movement is towed from their yard track to Wilmington shop,inspected ,then towed back to their yard track and sit for another 90 days.
Wilmington used to work on the MARC Hippo's,now it's BBD's problem to keep them running,Amtrak will not service MARC Hippo's.

Matt Johnson wrote:How then is Amtrak saving any money by not using them?

Because it "costs" 60k a day to keep them in service, and 20k a day to not use them but maintain the lease agreement.

Backshophoss wrote:Wilmington used to work on the MARC Hippo's,now it's BBD's problem to keep them running, Amtrak will not service MARC Hippo's.

I won't be surprised if some of the Wilmington staff were down in Ivy City or MSA bapping BBD's engineers on the nose on all the stuff they had to put up with on the MARC Hippo's.

That said, any word on how 4910's been running?

STrRedWolf wrote:

Backshophoss wrote:Wilmington used to work on the MARC Hippo's,now it's BBD's problem to keep them running, Amtrak will not service MARC Hippo's.

I won't be surprised if some of the Wilmington staff were down in Ivy City or MSA bapping BBD's engineers on the nose on all the stuff they had to put up with on the MARC Hippo's.

That said, any word on how 4910's been running?

Word is 4910 is running well and a second HHP-8 has entered the program.

Given that space appears to be at a premium on the corridor yards, I'm a bit surprised the hippos don't get towed to Beech or even Silvis for contract storage and maintenance. The NRE guys at Silvis could do the 90 day inspections under contract, and now they're out of the way.

they got 12.5 Kv and 25 Kv in silvis ?