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| Re: Usage of Arrow III (1113530) | |||
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Re: Usage of Arrow III |
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Posted by Osmosis Jones on Mon Oct 31 00:56:08 2011, in response to Re: Usage of Arrow III, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Oct 30 21:00:58 2011. Sure they could have expected it; they knew what kind of games were going on in DC with Amtrak. And even barring that, the MUs that GE were offering still could have been bought with on-the-fly multi-voltage switchover capability; certainly the single-unit locomotives have them, and the MU precedent always existed on the New Haven Line.Thanks for clearing that up, I thought that D.C. taking Amtrak issues lightly was a new thing. Exactly my point. I was talking about 3rd Rail and Catenary though. The M4 and M6 apparently can't go to Penn like the Arrows though since they can't handle 25 cycles 12.5 KV, which is weird because I also read that the older M2 could handle 25 cycles, I guess Metro-North thought that the M4 or M6 would never last to the day Penn-New Haven commuter service starts running. I'm not sure about the M8 though right now. Who knows what goes on at NJT. They junked the Arrow IIs after 23 years without rebuilding them too. The IIIs should have had the voltage-switchover capability built in during the '92-93 rebuild (it's not a new thing), and not left one truck on the MUs without traction motors (don't know if that is the primary cause of the IIIs no longer being able to run at 100 mph, but it seemed to contribute); and since the Comet IIIs proved that the "long door" concept worked (which got retired after 20 years for no good reason), they should have had those installed on the Arrows as well so that they could have had push-button door operation at low platforms as well as high. That is crazy. I rode a train past the MMC the other day and saw a conga line of ALP 44s there, I wonder if NJT is planning on retiring those prematurely too. I always thought it was interesting that the Comet IIs got rebuilt over the newer Comet IIIs since the former doesn't have a center door and shouldn't last as long as the Comet III would if it were rebuilt. The Arrows are great to ride on those Hoboken-Gladstone/Dover/Montclair local runs, but it sucks riding one on the NEC, it's a wonder why Amtrak even asks NJT to use them for Holiday service over those ALP 44s that I saw collecting dust. I read that crews didn't like operating Arrows when the NJCL was all 12kV for that manual door reason, what a shame, almost makes you question why NJT ordered cars it doesn't seem to fond of in the first place. |
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