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| Re: Amtrak's ACS-64 (1169749) | |||
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Re: Amtrak's ACS-64 |
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Posted by Jace on Tue Jul 31 13:38:34 2012, in response to Re: Amtrak's ACS-64, posted by Chris R16/R2730 on Sat Jul 28 14:38:00 2012. "something in the design was off"Sure was - they were too heavy for the track! Same problem with the U30CG's and the Amtrak pooches not to mention Amtrak's own E60's. The Santa Fe pulled the GE's off of passenger trains after a major derailment while the pooches had a few big spills of their own before they were restricted to mainly midwest corridor service. Amtrak limited the E60's to 90 mph. None of these units survived very long. None were re-ordered. Some railroads (SP in particular) also had problems with HTC trucks on the dash 2 freight units. The SP units were among the heavier SD's at the time. EMD promoted the HTC on the basis that it offered less weight transfer and greater adhesion than the Flexicoil. Piling more weight on a unit also helps improve adhesion. Conversely, adhesion drops off on poor track. This is especially so for jointed rail. So if you have crap track and want to run big, heavy (low cost) trains, what do you do? Buy high tractive effort, heavy locomotives like the SP and fix the track only when you put one on the ground. Probably not the best long term strategy. On the SDP40's, EMD made some tweaks to the secondary suspension on the HTC's after a bunch of tests but the problems didn't end until the FRA changed how they regulate track structure. Going back on topic, I really doubt the ACS-64's will have any of these problems (or any of the problems that have plagued the HHP-8's)! |
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