Thanksgiving Week Extras

MARC MLV's are clones of the NJT MLV-II's,but needed an air brake mod to work with MARC's Locos.

Backshophoss wrote:Wonder if Amtrak would use a 12 MLV-II set with a pair of ALP-46's as power when the Arrow are OOS.
Should be able to run on the Entire NEC. The ALP-46's already have ACSES gear installed.

Nah, it's gonna be a GP40 and some Comet IIIs

CNJGeep wrote:

MACTRAXX wrote:Each pair (and some of the A3 singles) had restrooms-which was a major factor.

The singles all lost their restrooms in the 1990s rebuild. This doesn't stop NJT from putting single cars on. The last few years have seen three married pairs and two single cars on at least one of the two sets.

MACTRAXX wrote:Amtrak has also
leased SEPTA P/P equipment primarily for either PHL-HAR or as standby - at least two of the cab
cars DO have a working restroom - that is kept locked and not available to the public.

They did not spare a set in 2017, and I don't remember them doing it in 2016 either.

As for restrooms, I can tell you with certitude that no cab car has a toilet. 2401 and 2408 don't even have the cabinet anymore, and the remainder only have a hand dryer and a sink (with no running water.) The last time those cars had toilets was when they went to Altoona, and they were installed and removed before and after the event, respectively. SEPTA does not have any facilities to drain toilet tanks.

Septa has always had a push pull set ready for Sunday after.

I would hope that septa gets a chance to run their sets this year since njt is up a creek

phillymountainrailfan wrote:

CNJGeep wrote:

MACTRAXX wrote:Each pair (and some of the A3 singles) had restrooms-which was a major factor.

The singles all lost their restrooms in the 1990s rebuild. This doesn't stop NJT from putting single cars on. The last few years have seen three married pairs and two single cars on at least one of the two sets.

MACTRAXX wrote:Amtrak has also
leased SEPTA P/P equipment primarily for either PHL-HAR or as standby - at least two of the cab
cars DO have a working restroom - that is kept locked and not available to the public.

They did not spare a set in 2017, and I don't remember them doing it in 2016 either.

As for restrooms, I can tell you with certitude that no cab car has a toilet. 2401 and 2408 don't even have the cabinet anymore, and the remainder only have a hand dryer and a sink (with no running water.) The last time those cars had toilets was when they went to Altoona, and they were installed and removed before and after the event, respectively. SEPTA does not have any facilities to drain toilet tanks.

Septa has always had a push pull set ready for Sunday after.

I would hope that septa gets a chance to run their sets this year since njt is up a creek

Septa hasn't given Amtrak a trainset in quite a few years. Due to the reason mentioned above, a lack of restroom. As well as the unreliable AEM-7's that Septa had that are now nothing but yard goats or assigned to work trains.

what about SEPTA's ACS-64s ? Are they NEC compatible ?

east point wrote:what about SEPTA's ACS-64s ? Are they NEC compatible ?

Considering that Septa has run a few of them on the NEC and run them Monday-Friday on the Harrisburg line, yes.

Some of the BOS <> NYP trains are already sold out. That is even with Amtrak exceeding the 39 train limit on Wednesday and Sunday.

east point wrote:Some of the BOS <> NYP trains are already sold out. That is even with Amtrak exceeding the 39 train limit on Wednesday and Sunday.

And yet they still don't have the schedules out...

As usual the LD trains have many sold out Wednesday and Sunday/Including some Crescents, Carolinian, Silvers Palmettos, LSL capitol. cardinal, CNO. Did not check western trains ?

daybeers wrote:

east point wrote:Some of the BOS <> NYP trains are already sold out. That is even with Amtrak exceeding the 39 train limit on Wednesday and Sunday.

And yet they still don't have the schedules out...

One can find the trains in ARROW. They're normally put into the system for booking in September.

Acela150 wrote:

daybeers wrote:

east point wrote:Some of the BOS <> NYP trains are already sold out. That is even with Amtrak exceeding the 39 train limit on Wednesday and Sunday.

And yet they still don't have the schedules out...

One can find the trains in ARROW. They're normally put into the system for booking in September.

Yes, I know that, but in past years, haven't schedules been out by at least now? I also think for some travelers, it's much easier to look at a timetable (even if it's only a rough guide) than plugging away in ARROW.

They may be waiting for some of the trackwork to finish up. I know the BAL-WAS segment is almost done -- MARC is pushing out a new Penn line schedule effective November 12th.

Acela150 wrote:

phillymountainrailfan wrote:

CNJGeep wrote:

MACTRAXX wrote:Each pair (and some of the A3 singles) had restrooms-which was a major factor.

The singles all lost their restrooms in the 1990s rebuild. This doesn't stop NJT from putting single cars on. The last few years have seen three married pairs and two single cars on at least one of the two sets.

MACTRAXX wrote:Amtrak has also
leased SEPTA P/P equipment primarily for either PHL-HAR or as standby - at least two of the cab
cars DO have a working restroom - that is kept locked and not available to the public.

They did not spare a set in 2017, and I don't remember them doing it in 2016 either.

As for restrooms, I can tell you with certitude that no cab car has a toilet. 2401 and 2408 don't even have the cabinet anymore, and the remainder only have a hand dryer and a sink (with no running water.) The last time those cars had toilets was when they went to Altoona, and they were installed and removed before and after the event, respectively. SEPTA does not have any facilities to drain toilet tanks.

Septa has always had a push pull set ready for Sunday after.

I would hope that septa gets a chance to run their sets this year since njt is up a creek

Septa hasn't given Amtrak a trainset in quite a few years. Due to the reason mentioned above, a lack of restroom. As well as the unreliable AEM-7's that Septa had that are now nothing but yard goats or assigned to work trains.

Septa has provided a set every year as backup in case of a break down and they had to take over. Also Marc trains and njt trains Don t have bathrooms in them that's why Marc adds a cafe car to their sets

phillymountainrailfan wrote:Septa has provided a set every year as backup in case of a break down and they had to take over. Also Marc trains and njt trains Don t have bathrooms in them that's why Marc adds a cafe car to their sets

I can tell you the whereabouts of each AEM-7 last year over Thanksgiving weekend, and I can assure you none of them were on Amtrak Standby.
MARC trains DO have bathrooms, but usually it is just one in the cab car (unless they put one of the five lavatory trailers in).
NJT Arrows DO have bathrooms, just not the single cars.

phillymountainrailfan wrote: Septa has provided a set every year as backup in case of a break down and they had to take over. Also Marc trains and njt trains Don t have bathrooms in them that's why Marc adds a cafe car to their sets

MARC cab cars have restrooms. Did MTA Maryland not send any cab cars last year?