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Riding Amtrak’s new electrics
If these new locos prove to be as reliable as they are good looking Amtrak will have hit the jackpot with a worthy successor to the venerable GG1. I like a locomotive with a real windshield and not that tiny peephole on the front of the P-42s.
AEM-7s are right up there on the list of reliable electric workhorses…probably no.3 after New Haven’s EP-3, which the GG-1 is based on.
Thats one ugly locomotive. The Cat Eyes are cool though!
These sleek Siemens units will serve even longer than the GG1s did. My German-born wife says so 
Are the per-station pantograph checks now standard operating procedure, or a temporary precaution limited to this new equipment that will eventually be discontinued once the units have passed a certain amount of testing?
If they were concerned, why not set up a camera to watch the pan.
@Ian Narita: When I used to hang out in Newark, Penn. Station, I remember seeing the engineers of GG1’s would leave the cabs and check the pans as well.
Certainly a good looking locomotive, but today the live span of everything is much shorter. I took
many pictures of the GG1 in the North East Corridor up to now the Acela .
Does anybody know why electric locomotives are always double-ended but diesels never are?
Perhaps diesel-electric locomotives are “never” double-ended in North America but that is not the case in other countries. In Australia there have been many different ways of doing that from double-ended bulldog cab units or double flat faces to one with bulldog cab front but flat faced rear full control station.
In Europe, most diesel locomotives are dual-cab, making it unnecessary to turn them on a turntable. Since train lengths are shorter, locomotives are rarely seen in multiple traction, making it pointless coupling 2 single-cab locomotives together. In Victoria, Australia, there were dual-cab EMD F-units, and the Jersey Central had dual-cab baby-face Baldwins in passenger and light freight service back in the 50’s.
It’s probably too far for the linkage from the gear stick to the gearbox from the “rear” cab, whilst it is fine from the “front” cab. Electric locomotives probably have automatic gearboxes so no problem. Just the diesels still being stick-shift.
Nice looking locomotive but I still prefer the GG1.
OMG
Wow! Looks great. If we can’t have a GG-1, I’ll take this guy.
Slick looking electric. Liked that you showed interior shots, not done that often. At least the birds had the sense to build their nest in a safe place. Had the chance to ride in the cab of a GG1 but at the last minute it was put second in the consist of six engines being run to Phila’s 30th Street Station so had to settle for a consolation ride in the cab of a new AEM-7. Hope this ACS-64 has the durability of the GG1. Sorry Mr. Teed but that’s the shape of locos to come, can’t afford to build the heavy monsters of the past, ( and we don’t seem to have anymore Raymond Lowey’s out there anymore.)
It’s a long technological trip from the days when the engineer had to stick his head out of the side window to see past the boiler.
Duffin: “Gear Box”,“Gear stick” What in the world are you referring to? These are electric locos, no “gears”. Diesels in this country also have no “gearsticks nor gearboxes”; electric propulsion needs none…
I know the Metra EMD’s with the nose being flush with windshields are called motorhomes or Winnebagos; but I think the ACS 64’s should be awarded that title. Many large pusher motorhome’s have adopted a slanted light package on the nose of what is basically a flat as a barn bus nose. Sounds like this beast is powerful and can actually put the power to the rails. Can’t wait to ride behind one.