by ThirdRail7
Probably but the duty cycle is still relentless.
I want my road foreman!
Railroad Forums
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ThirdRail7 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:17 pm Aside from laying down on the job, they are now starting to drop out on multiple trains on the same date.One died on 170 just outside of Providence R.I on Mon as well, main transformer failure.... I saw the fault log for the 665 that died on 162 and that one had a HEP inverter 1/2 total failure as well.
Two on Saturday and two for for today.
I remember when the IG complained about buying too many. It's a good thing they did order so many.
gokeefe wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:32 pm Interesting that Amtrak has proven themselves capable of running normally very reliable German engines into the ground.Is Amtrak that low on power that it is running them into the ground?
As usual the Europeans completely underestimate the challenges of North American operating conditions.
gokeefe wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:11 pm I believe the issue is assignments and potentially preventive maintenance cycles (or lack thereof). "Those who know" can speak to it far better than I.I would say you are spot on, the engines and trains are spun around very quickly and do not see any down/shop time unless something fails. The engines do not tolerate any abuse or abnormal conditions well so the first thing they do is go into protect mode and shut things down which sometimes can be fixed by a simple recycle but as of lately it seems like some of the issues have been more severe.
frequentflyer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:13 pm Doesn't the locomotive have predictive mx capability? Doesn't Siemens have some sort of mx contract with Amtrak? I find hard to imagine a Sprinter runs less than a Vectron over in Europe and Vectrons have a good reputation. But I bet Vectrons don't get beaten to death by the NEC track conditions like the Sprinters do.Is it the track conditions, or is it variable-frequency variable-voltage electricity? West of what used to be the Berlin Wall tends to have excellent track, but I’m not sure how far east that condition extends.
frequentflyer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:13 pm Doesn't the locomotive have predictive mx capability? Doesn't Siemens have some sort of mx contract with Amtrak? I find hard to imagine a Sprinter runs less than a Vectron over in Europe and Vectrons have a good reputation. But I bet Vectrons don't get beaten to death by the NEC track conditions like the Sprinters do.It may not be just the track conditions. Could also be voltage spikes, power quality, line noise or just sheer fatigue from running around at 125 MPH pulling equipment that is probably 50% heavier than equivalent European stock (even with modifications for North America).