Can anyone give me an update on Amtrak’s turbo trains? I know they were taken out of service after 1 or 2 were rebuilt and now both parties are suing each other. Has anyone ridden the rebuilt trains before they were taken out of service?
Can this equipment ever be operated reliably in service?
Thanks!
Amtrak sent the surviving rebuilt and not (yet) rebuilt Rohr turbos to Bear, Delaware for storage pending resolution of NYSDOT’s suit. The estimated date of the inital hearing is currently “some time in 2009”! The Second circuit of the Federal district court in New York is VERY busy
]
The Rohrs were quite nice to ride in, but they gulped fuel like crazy, regardless of how fast it was going.
The French RTGs and the UA Turbos are but memories, now.
Weren’t some of the French turbos rebuilt with Rohr noses?
Are those gone too?
This is too bad. I recently read “Amtrak” by Brian Solomon and it said the rebuilt turboliners were still in service (it was written in 2004). Sorry to hear the turbo’s are in storage. They were truly unusual. I wish I got to ride one, or even see one for that matter.
Yes, the early French RTG’s were rebuilt, and they looked identical to the Rohr’s. I may have it wrong, but I think they were taken out of service after one caught fire unexpectedly. The Rohr’s continued on for a while after that before they, too, were taken out of service.
Amtrak’s UAC Turbotrains last operated in 1976; they were scrapped shortly afterwards.
As for the Rohr Turboliner RTL-III, the last news was that Super Steel delivered them without technical manuals. It was David Gunn that made the decision to nix their operation.
Ideal operating conditions involve running at high speed over long distances, with as little variable-speed operation of the gas-turbine engines as possible. This is not possible on the railroad line skirting the Hudson River, and made more difficult since these are not tilting trainsets, unlike their UAC counterparts. These trainsets consume a lot of fuel while idling.