Amtrak P32AC-DM's.

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I know in the Pentrex Corridor video they said Amtrak tried to limit high priority trains to six cars for pickup time sake. But I'm pretty sure the AEM-7's can't handle HEP past 12 or 13 cars.
 
battalion51 said:
I know in the Pentrex Corridor video they said Amtrak tried to limit high priority trains to six cars for pickup time sake. But I'm pretty sure the AEM-7's can't handle HEP past 12 or 13 cars.
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Well one unit did handle my 12 car Acela Regional train from Boston to Philadelphia back in August 2000 without a problem. In April of 2002 when I was on the Silver Meteor a single AEM-7 took the 11 car train from Washington to New York. The AEM-7s do have 7000hp.
 
I know that, I'm saying the HEP system can't handle too much more than that. Otherwise you get rolling blackouts (bad pun).
 
battalion51 said:
I know that, I'm saying the HEP system can't handle too much more than that. Otherwise you get rolling blackouts (bad pun).
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I see what your saying and I agree that the AEM-7s can't pull more than 12 cars without more HEP. On that 12 car Acela Regional, I can only remember a few blackouts on the New Haven line, then a long black out coming out of New London (I'm going to say 3-4 minutes in the dark).
 
I would agree that an AEM7 probably can't pull more than 12 cars or so, due to lack of hauling power.

However, I find it odd that HEP would be the limiting factor. After all it is an electric engine. One can always pull more power from the wire and HEP is a simple voltage step-down. So with unlimited power available, it seems odd that the engine would be limited by HEP. :)
 
Amfleet said:
I had thought HEP was generated seperately when drawn from the overhead? Also isn't there a limit to how much a locomotive can take from the overhead wires?
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Well you don't need to generate electricity, when you've already got electricity from the catenary. All you need to do is to reduce the voltage from whatever the cat is carrying down to 480 volts. This requires a transformer, along with a few other electrical parts.

As for a limit that the loco can draw, I'm sure that there is one. I have no idea what that limit might be and it probably varies based upon the model. However, the amount needed for HEP is minor vs. that needed for the actual motors.
 
AlanB said:
I would agree that an AEM7 probably can't pull more than 12 cars or so, due to lack of hauling power.
However, I find it odd that HEP would be the limiting factor.  After all it is an electric engine.  One can always pull more power from the wire and HEP is a simple voltage step-down.  So with unlimited power available, it seems odd that the engine would be limited by HEP.   :)
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In regards to this. I have noticed that recently Amtrak has been running them in front of some long distance trains with quite a few cars. I dont know if anyone could tell me if they have seen the Crescent recently in the northeast corridor and if so, what kind of power it is carrying (E60 or AEM7).
 
battalion51 said:
The AC-DM is definitely designed to handle light trains at high speeds, similar to the AEM-7. The LSL's 8-10 car trains is about what the AC-DM will max out at and still be a good hauling engine.
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Well I can't speak as to how well the P32 hauled, but it can pull 12 cars. Back in June when Amtrak ran the funnycide express, they had 11 coaches plus a cafe. In fact the train was longer than the longest platform in the Albany train station. :)
 
I'm sure that one can hook an engine to a Turboliner III set in case of a failure.

However under normal circumstances there would be no reason to put a P32 on a Turboliner. Remember these are newly rebuilt trains, so the motors are all brand new. At this point they should be running without problems. If they are having problems, then they need to go back to the factory.
 
AMTRAK-P42 said:
In regards to this. I have noticed that recently Amtrak has been running them in front of some long distance trains with quite a few cars. I dont know if anyone could tell me if they have seen the Crescent recently in the northeast corridor and if so, what kind of power it is carrying (E60 or AEM7).
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All the E-60's are done, none are in road service, all are either in disabled storage or a pile of metal. The Crescent, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Palmetto bug all run with a toaster or a hippo.
 
My tur guide in Wilmington told us that David Gunn has sent the order out that all E-60s be removed from service. I saw three being debilatated in Wilmintgon with three others with the service already done or waiting to be done.
 
Well the E60's may be heading for retirement, but I can tell you that some are still in service. In fact one was sitting in Sunnyside yard yesterday when I took an LIRR train home from Penn.

Last that I heard five E60's, those with HEP, were expected to remain in service for the foreseable future. The rest are being scrapped.
 
Alan I saw seven of the 11 in Wilmington and I know that a couple have been scrapped. Did you catch the number on that E-60 that you saw?
 
battalion51 said:
Alan I saw seven of the 11 in Wilmington and I know that a couple have been scrapped. Did you catch the number on that E-60 that you saw?
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Nope. Between carrying my luggage and preparing to get off at Woodside, I didn't pay that much attention.
 
Amtrak Railfan said:
Can the Turboliners Can be pull in with P32AC-DMs? :)
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Yes, for a brief period of time following the Auto Train Derailment, the Turboliner II trainset had to be used in service. Because it's engines were broken, it had to be hauled by a P-32-AC-DM. Battalion 51 whitnessed (and photographed) this.
 
Amtrak Railfan said:
So just 5 E60s are runing thats right? B)
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Well that was the last info I had heard. That news is about one month old now though, so who knows. Things change all the time. :)
 
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