Amtrak ACS-64 Sprinter Discussion

[Tadman]

How does a car get on top of the grade separated NEC?

And yet it seems to happen once a year anyway. Two years ago I was on the Sunset going to Tucson for the holiday. We were held out of the station for two hours plus. Turns out a woman had driven off the parking lot, over the platform, and onto the tracks, where she took a right and drove her BMW sedan a bit before it gave up. HOW THE F DOES THIS HAPPEN???? You can't even go near a platform at most stations without the folks hollering at you, and yet a 4000lb sedan gets over there???

Slavish reliance on GPS?

Yes, and that's nuts. It happened recently again, someone turned too early and went onto the ROW. The car was hit by an Amtrak train. I feel like some people just follow their GPS without looking up. Didn't they make a Michael Scott joke about that? He drove his PT Cruiser into a lake because he didn't look up [and was an idiot]?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOW_kPzY_JY

I fear for America some days if we have that many Michael Scotts driving around.

[amtrakhogger]

it may have damaged plow and some stuff at side of engine but guaranteed not anything in range of scrapping a unit . betya it be back in two weeks .

I struck two trees on the same trip back in springtime and bent the pilot on the motor pretty good. (IIRC, 639) It was back in about a week.

[rcthompson04]

You won't see this unit for quite some time but it will be back.

As a fleet, they still are dropping like flies. Hopefully, the overhauls will help...even though it seems to have made some of them worse.

Yea I have said before Amtrak should take those 3 unused SEPTA ACS-64 options.

[gokeefe]

You won't see this unit for quite some time but it will be back.

WOW ... I figured it was done for but I guess they need them to soldier on for another half decade or so ...

[8th Notch]

You won't see this unit for quite some time but it will be back.

As a fleet, they still are dropping like flies. Hopefully, the overhauls will help...even though it seems to have made some of them worse.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.boston ... 1013321004

They are on pace to catch up to the HHP8s at this rate

[east point]

ThirdRail: Any chance that the 25 Hz power is causing many of these problems to arise even when operating under 60 Hz ?

[8th Notch]

I can answer no that, the biggest issue with these problems is Amtrak! I can count 4 breakdowns within the past month and 3 of them have been compressor issues and the fourth was traction/hep related. It seems like before a quick recycle use to cure almost any problem but as time goes on, the only fix seems to be a rescue engine.

[USRailFan]

You won't see this unit for quite some time but it will be back.

As a fleet, they still are dropping like flies. Hopefully, the overhauls will help...even though it seems to have made some of them worse.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.boston ... 1013321004

They are on pace to catch up to the HHP8s at this rate

Maybe they'll end up replaced by the HHP-8s?

[andrewjw]

Here's an un-AMP-ified version of that link:

https://www.boston25news.com/news/bosto ... 1013321004

[ThirdRail7]

I can answer no that, the biggest issue with these problems is Amtrak!

I'll wait for Approach Medium chime in but what makes you think multiple cases of compressor failures is an Amtrak issue versus a software issue with the equipment?

What is amusing is how this train made it all the way from Richmond to Washington DC with a 20+ year old diesel only to be stabbed by the new, sleek savior.

Oh well.

[gokeefe]

Are there ongoing discussions about solutions? I'm assuming Siemens and Amtrak are still working well together.

[east point]

Maybe it is time for Amtrak to require Siemens to provide cheap or no cost some additional ACS-64s to make up for all the failures ?

[gokeefe]

They aren't lemons ... Just need a lot of shop time. I'm guessing they're still under warranty in most cases.

[rcthompson04]

They aren't lemons ... Just need a lot of shop time. I'm guessing they're still under warranty in most cases.

Yes they are pretty sophisticated locomotives and require a decent amount of shop time considering their operational tempo. What is the average annual miles? 150,000?

[DutchRailnut]

got feeling that that number is at least 4 times higher.