While reading another Thread in the Forum. I saw this side-bar story in the linked artice. Not being more than just passingly familiar with things and information referencing Amtrak’s North East Corridor; I pulled it up to see what was going on.
I found it to be somewhat interesting, and thought it would be an interesting story to and comment on here.
The premis story [as stated in the RA article]“…Philip Morris Capital Corp.[PMCC} and HNB Investment Corp. have sued Amtrak in New York federal court in an attempt to recover $92.9 million for what they claim is a breach of contract for long-retired electric locomotives used on the Northeast Corridor…”
**For those interested: FTA: "…**The case is Philip Morris Capital Corporation et al. v. National Railroad Passenger Corp.,
Wait for the detail testimony before ‘concluding’ something either way.
The HHP-8s were second only to the Republic Locomotive Starships in the overripe-tomato complexity and relative fragility of their high technology. To this day they are still one of the grandest technical achievements of North American locomotive practice, and deserve considerably more engineering respect than they (and their Acela half-siblings) have received over the years.
One of the ‘hinges’ to watch out for is the precise maintenance records Amtrak provides, and the bankers’-counsel analysis of those records.
Another fun thing that might come out of this is some testimony ‘on the record’ about that timeless topic here, Amtrak’s accounting methodologies.
Part of my understanding about operating HHP-8s was that they were operated at their considerable higher output ‘more of the time’ than parts of their cooling systems were designed (reminiscent, perhaps, of the New Haven EP-5 ‘jets’). The concern was not so much ‘fires’ as it was overheat and consequent failure, perhaps through cumulative heat-related damage, of some of the electronic components and systems on a complex locomotive, That would be Bombardier’s ‘responsibility’, as might have been excessive charging (or outright deprecation!) of key boards or other components – which is a common thing to find in the post-70s world of electronic locomotive controls! Likewise, as we learned during the Krauss-Maffei Amerika-Lok years … merely providing Teutonically-precise levels of required maintenance is no guarantee that actual railroad maintenance or shop personnel will follow the jot 'n tittle of complex instructions in the increasing absence of manufacturer support, or even interest. So pulling parts off something known to be severely sidelined to keep a less-impaired sister going might make full sense… as would not putting parts back i