I can't speak to Amtrak or any of the commuter agencies, but freight railroads only want to see their engines in the shop every 92 days for their required Quarterly Inspection that is required by law. Other than that they just want to put fuel and sand in the locomotive and dump the toilet holding tank. Anything else is considered at maintenance queen - lounging in the shop.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD I can't speak to Amtrak or any of the commuter agencies, but freight railroads only want to see their engines in the shop every 92 days for their required Quarterly Inspection that is required by law. Other than that they just want to put fuel and sand in the locomotive and dump the toilet holding tank. Anything else is considered at maintenance queen - lounging in the shop.
Dump the toilet hold tank . . . every 92 days? Ewwwww!
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Paul Milenkovic BaltACD I can't speak to Amtrak or any of the commuter agencies, but freight railroads only want to see their engines in the shop every 92 days for their required Quarterly Inspection that is required by law. Other than that they just want to put fuel and sand in the locomotive and dump the toilet holding tank. Anything else is considered at maintenance queen - lounging in the shop. Dump the toilet hold tank . . . every 92 days? Ewwwww!
Service truck that supplies fuel and sand also dumps the holding tank. 92 days for holding tank would be ripe.
Paul Milenkovic Paul MilenkovicDon't know, maybe they could partner with an overseas source on the trucks and quill drive for low track impact at high speeds, and the Genesis has a European truck design, no? But going with anything but EMD or GE sounds scary. I don't care how big Siemens is or how many people they employ in the U.S.. I was asking about reliability. ... But I am skeptical of Diesel prime movers without proven railroad experience, even if they come from a U.S. supplier. Maybe my concerns are unfounded, but they have nothing to do with "American trains need to be built here."
Paul MilenkovicDon't know, maybe they could partner with an overseas source on the trucks and quill drive for low track impact at high speeds, and the Genesis has a European truck design, no? But going with anything but EMD or GE sounds scary.
I don't care how big Siemens is or how many people they employ in the U.S.. I was asking about reliability.
...
But I am skeptical of Diesel prime movers without proven railroad experience, even if they come from a U.S. supplier. Maybe my concerns are unfounded, but they have nothing to do with "American trains need to be built here."
Posters have shown how both the GE and EMD/CAT high speed engines have had problems. What prime movers that have proven railroad experience are you suggesting to use? It's apparent from this thread the application of high speed rail diesel is so new and developing, that there is no history from which to draw comparisons.
What are the horsepower requirements for a diesel locomotive of this type? I can't imagine much more than 5000, and the GEVO-16 will get you close to 6000. A 16-710 will produce about 4300.
With these, weight and size may be issues, but these can be mitigated through an effective suspension.
NorthWest What are the horsepower requirements for a diesel locomotive of this type? I can't imagine much more than 5000, and the GEVO-16 will get you close to 6000. A 16-710 will produce about 4300. With these, weight and size may be issues, but these can be mitigated through an effective suspension.
By the way in Cummins introductory announcement they claimed that the QSK95 was "the highest horsepower high speed diesel" at 4200hp @ 1800 rpm. I guess they are fixated on MTU ignoring the CAT C176 at 4700 hp @ 1800rpm
Okay, so around 4200-4700 HP. Thanks for the information, it will be interesting to see where this all goes.
creepycrank...but it uses a CAT C175 diesel that has only been tested for a couple of years on some NS locomotives.
They are "hanger queens" that never get far from their home in Birmingham, AL.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
The technical spec that was put out is the Amtrak PRIIA spec-which appears to have been generated internally. It can viewed on the web.
One would think that EMD had a built-in advantage on the IDOT bid, given that they have an order in hand...and are no doubt well along on set of shop drawings for the Cal DOT order.
It will be interesting to see what transpires when the IDOT order hits the rails-given the lack of institutional product knowledge in the field.I wonder how the field service function will be divided up between Siemens and Cummins.
CPM500
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