The Meteor is a much heavier train with its Heritage baggage (which weighs more than an Amfleet empty, and much more if its carrying a good sized load), Viewliner sleepers (which are heavy the way only poorly production engineered things can be), the Heritage diner (which has an entire kitchen in it), and the Amfleet II lounge (which because of its enormous water tanks, is also much heavier than an AmCafe). They run it with either a HHP-8 or two AEM-7DCs. The pair of DCs are needed since they don't have the traction control equipment that the other two engines have, not to mention reduced tractive effort, and therefore need to distribute power over more wheels. And it seriously actually needs more than 7000 horsepower to move, particularly through the North River tunnels.About how common is this? When we were on vacation, I took a pic of the Silver Meteor through BWI with two toasters, and saw another doubleheader. I think on both trains the pantographs were up.
Theres always been a view in the UK that American consists tend to have more than ample power available for the task. Maybe its just been a tradition to ensure reliabilty? Ie why 'thrash' one loco hard and increase the chance of failure when you can run a pair more gently and increase their service intervals?When I was in NJ for few months, I always see double header many times mostly during AM and PM rush hours, its pretty cool but indeed too much power lol
The biggest reality is these trains have to get up the insane grade coming out of New York Penn. If not for that grade, Amtrak could probably get by with 1500 hp less on their electrics, with the same strain and acceleration most of the time.Theres always been a view in the UK that American consists tend to have more than ample power available for the task. Maybe its just been a tradition to ensure reliabilty? Ie why 'thrash' one loco hard and increase the chance of failure when you can run a pair more gently and increase their service intervals?
HEP? IIRC to make those cars longer they have to up the HEP cables that run between the cars... its not an engine issue, its a car issue. If the trains get longer the current 480v cables would be unable to handle the load.Alright, somebody needs to set me straight on this once and for all: Why is it that electric locomotives require so much more horsepower to move a much smaller train? If two Dash-9s (a combined 8800 hp) can handle a 100+ car long manifest over rolling terrain, why is 8000hp just barely cutting it to move 11 heavyweight cars in the NEC? Just another basic concept I haven't been able to grasp yet, since I know next to nothing about electrics.
Hmm... I still recall hearing that you can only put about 15 cars together before you start having HEP issues.Hokie pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's not that it takes more power to do it, it's just how quickly you want to accomplish what you're trying to do. You can get an 8 car set up to 110 MPH with a single diesel. But if you put an electric powered train on a parallel track the electric train will be at 110 MPH much faster than the diesel powered set.
if thats the case how do the canadians do it sense the Canadian can get up to 30+ cars. are all the locos providing hep or do they have a transformer or something to boost the power in the cars.Hmm... I still recall hearing that you can only put about 15 cars together before you start having HEP issues.Hokie pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's not that it takes more power to do it, it's just how quickly you want to accomplish what you're trying to do. You can get an 8 car set up to 110 MPH with a single diesel. But if you put an electric powered train on a parallel track the electric train will be at 110 MPH much faster than the diesel powered set.
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