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Amtrak begins testing new electric locomotives
Does anyone know for sure when this ugly/handsome locomotive will be testing on the Keystone Corridor? Currently? Soon? Hours of testing?
It’s been some time coming. I believe many americans and myself are optimistic about good high speed rail passenger service for america, and it will eventually become a mainstay
for travel all over this country. KUDOs for th all that support it.
Still ugly
Might be ugly, but the railroad doesn’t cater to railfans. It’s a business.
The new locomotives are sleek, efficient, and handsome. I cannot say the same for the gross late-model Ford Mustangs with the profile of sitting frogs.
They could have worked on looks somewhat instead of utilitarian.
Mr Allenovitch Amtrak is a business? I thought a business was supposed to make money. Amtrak acts more like a government agency jumping thru congressional hoops. Still it is nice seeing money spent on the operation.
Electric breadbox on wheels? Why is it only American diesel locomotives in freight service have any sense of styling? Yes, they are boxy. But in a good, practical, yet appealing way.
The shell design is about aerodynamics. These motors will operate at 125 mph on the NEC, 110 mph on the Keystone Corridor. Those aren’t HST speeds, but they still call for mostly smooth or rounded surface area.
You want ugly? Try the new Talgo cab cars! ACS-64s are positively pulchritudinous in comparison.
@JEFFERY GUSE - Be honest, if they’d hired the modern equivalent of Raymond Loewy and threw a few hundred thousand his way to design an awesome looking locomotive shell, would you not have been just a little bit annoyed that your taxes were going on that?
I agree that, for example, the whole “Exhaust/Heatsink fins on the back and top, comfort cab on the front, walkways all around” look of a modern freight locomotive is stunning, but in some ways it’s a style-follows-form thing. It’s a visual testament to the stunning industrial might of such a thing simply because it is that stunning mighty industrial thing with no apologies. Nothing about a modern freight locomotive looks that way because it’s stylish.
Given the different requirements for a passenger locomotive, it’s hard to see what Amtrak could do that wouldn’t involve paying someone to make a locomotive look like something it isn’t.
The Northeast Corridor gets nice looking locomotives, while Amtrak’s Cascades gets ugggggggly ducklings for locomotives. Come on, Amtrak. What gives?
Those new Talgo cab cars look like smirking rabbits.
Esthetics aside, is it really necessary to take eight Amfleet cars out of service to test the locomotives at Pueblo? Couldn’t they be out on the railroad carrying paying passengers, while something less valuable is used for train dynamics testing? That’s an entire Northeast Direct trainset.
They needed the stylists from the 1930s to make it look better… Raymond Loewy’s GG1 design, or EMD’s E5, were capable of 100+ m.p.h. AND looking a lot better while doing it!
What we really should be looking forward to is the testing of the new Viewliner II cars that are presently being built. It’s my inderstanding that six or so prtotypes will be arriving this fall for testing. Now if there could just be some way money could be made available for that 70 car option to be exercised.
I have to agree with my fellow Jerseyite Mike Allenovitch about the new motors. However, they probably could have put a little more thought into its looks. But, as I said before, I will get a sprinter t-shirt.
Looking foward to seeing the ACS-64s in revenue service. I live within a half a mile from the NEC, so will be in a position to see them. In my opinion, the AEM-7s have served Amtrak well, as did the famous GG-1s. I hope the new electrics will perform as designed. Guess it is time for a electric locomotive with the latest technology. I wish long and faithful service for the ACS-64s.
Can’t wait to get back up to the North East Corridor to see these guys in action - or better yet ride behind one.
Has there been any word on whether any of the AEM-7’s will be perserved in museums? Having served a thankless task following a classic locomotive for decades, I consider them to be an underrated locomotive and hope that some of them get saved - while I am too young to have seen them other than in musuems, even in sad condition, a GG1 looks like it should be fast just sitting still (as do the Acelas), the AEM-7 doesn’t look like it should be fast (especially now that many are dirty and have old cracked paint) until you hear the catenary cracking and see one approach at 100+ miles per hour seemingly defying physics. Got a great close up look at one of the AEM-7 when they did the locomotive switch at Union Station while taking an early morning Northeast Regional from Richmond.