Does Amtrak Need a Newer More Powerful Locomotive?

[jis]

My assumption is that the same bodies and possibly even trucks will be used. Because if even that is not the case then I don’t see how remanufacture will be any cheaper than a new unit.

 

[railiner]

Is that sort of like how Pullman-Standard built the Superliners Is but Bombardier built the Superliner IIs, or how Budd built the original Viewliner prototypes, Morrison-Knudsen built the Viewliner Is, and CAF builds the V-IIs? Or is that a different sort of thing because the differences between iterations in those examples are much more significant than what a remanufacture of the Gennies would likely look like?

Maybe more like what Morrison-Knudsen did many years ago, remanufacturing railcars and locomotives built by other's...

 

[cirdan]

My assumption is that the same bodies and possibly even trucks will be used. Because if even that is not the case then I don’t see how remanufacture will be any cheaper than a new unit.

I understand that sometimes remanufacturing is selected because if a locomotive counts as older, it can worm its way aroun having to fulfill newer emissions standards.

This is what RENFE did with their rebuilds of the 333 class. The new 333 was virtually a new locomotive but they somehow managed to include  a token quantity of original parts. If you include the examples built for  non RENFE customers, they are even numerically more of them now than there were before. So the concept of a rebuild was stretched to extremes.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I understand that sometimes remanufacturing is selected because if a locomotive counts as older, it can worm its way aroun having to fulfill newer emissions standards. 

American freight railways are currently blaming urea as the reason why they're refusing to purcahse T4 locomotives.  Which might be a logical complaint if you had to refill the reservoir with every fuel tank service, but since it's closer in schedule to an offline maintenance item than an online consumable this argument makes no sense to me.

 

[katzgar]

since the locos are being purchased with US government stimulus money which requires domestic purchase AMTRAK is just driving another nail in its coffin by buying foreign. 

 

[jis]

since the locos are being purchased with US government stimulus money which requires domestic purchase AMTRAK is just driving another nail in its coffin by buying foreign. 

The LD locomotives are not being bought using stimulus money and they completely meet Buy America requirements. So I believe your conjecture to be not supported by known facts.

 

[cpotisch]

2 hours ago, katzgar said:
since the locos are being purchased with US government stimulus money which requires domestic purchase AMTRAK is just driving another nail in its coffin by buying foreign. 

The LD locomotives are not being bought using stimulus money and they completely meet Buy America requirements. So I believe your conjecture to be not supported by known facts.

Did they intend to post in this thread?





And also, even if this first-time poster is correct that they “are being purchased with US government stimulus money which requires domestic purchase”, how would Amtrak even be able to make this big an order from Siemens. I imagine that an order of 75 new locomotives for the national network, is significant enough that they couldn’t just do it subtly under the table and ignore some big requirement.  h34r:

 

[jis]

Actually I am not sure what was meant by domestic purchase, since the locomotive purchase is a domestic purchase from Siemens Mobility USA denominated in US dollars.

 

[TinCan782]

Actually I am not sure what was meant by domestic purchase, since the locomotive purchase is a domestic purchase from Siemens Mobility USA denominated in US dollars.

Yep ... "Amtrak is paying for the new locomotives through available funds and will comply with Buy American provisions. They will be built at Siemens Mobility's rail manufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif., a facility which uses solar power and employs more than 1,300 people."

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/12/21-siemens-to-supply-75-new-tier-4-locomotives-to-amtrak