eb spk-sea, cascades sea-pdx, eb pdx-spk

[yarrow]

we got back from a rt spk-chi just over a week ago and i had a meeting to attend in portland so off two of the kids and i went again. the fare was cheaper to go spk-sea-pdx than spk-pdx. good deal.

left at 2:15am from spokane, right on time. got light just as we left the cascade tunnel. beautiful snow in the cascades. quick a bit of field flooding as we got out of the mountains. lot of herons and bald eagles along puget sound.

got into seattle half an hour early which gave us just time to run over to the international district for food and to admire the refurbishment of king st station which is coming along beatifully.

left right on time on the cascades. requested and got one of the sets of seats around a table at the end of each talgo coach. a really fun train is the talgo train. each coach has tv monitors with maps tracking the trip progress and pointing out interesting sights(they do show a movie for part of the trip but as you need headphones to listen it isn't disruptive). got into portland a half hour late. we were told it was partly because we didn't have a talgo engine but a genesis engine which could only do 70 instead of the usual 79mph.

for the trip back to spokane we arrived at the staion early to admire the wonderfully restored portland union station. got a treat when the coast starlight came through southbound with three old(i believe budd coaches)cars one of them a dome. relaxing trip home along the columbia. into spokane about 10 minutes early last night. for our money, you can't beat it.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Genesis is mechanically good for over 100 mph. Maybe it was a signalling issue.

 

[AlanB]

Genesis is mechanically good for over 100 mph. Maybe it was a signalling issue.

Yup, a P42 is rated for 110 MPH, so that couldn't have been the issue. Either there was something going on with either the tracks or signaling, an issue unique to the P42 connected with the Talgos, or something specific with engine.

 

[AmtrakFan]

Alan,

It is Specific to the Talgo, I am not 100% sure why.

 

[battalion51]

I'm not sure if they've been using it, but it may have something to do with the functionality of the tilting system with the P-42. The 42's may not be compatible with the system, so when they use on the tilting mechanism has to be disabled, limiting the train to 70. Just a theory.

 

[AlanB]

I'm not sure if they've been using it, but it may have something to do with the functionality of the tilting system with the P-42. The 42's may not be compatible with the system, so when they use on the tilting mechanism has to be disabled, limiting the train to 70. Just a theory.

While I'll readily admit that I'm far from an expert in this area, I don't believe that using a P-42 would have anything to do with the tilt issues. The tilting system on the Talgo's is not at all like the active system used by Acela Express trains where a computer in the powercar senses the curve and orders the passenger cars to tilt via a motorized system.

The Talgo system is a passive system that relies totally on gravity to make it work. The simply act of the train going around a curve causes the cars to tilt as needed up to the maximum amount of tilt. The engine itself has no control whatsoever over the amount of tilt, other then perhaps speeding up or slowing down to change the force of gravity as the train enters a curve.