Amtrak REPLACED Working Trains With FROZEN Ones скачать в хорошем качестве

Amtrak REPLACED Working Trains With FROZEN Ones

Credits:    / @raildogproductions   Why Amtrak’s New Locomotives Keep COLLAPSING in the Cold Subscribe: ‪@legendarylocomotives‬ Amtrak’s ALC-42 Charger was supposed to replace the aging P42 fleet and drag long-distance passenger rail into the modern era. Instead, its first real winter turned into a public breakdown. Built by Siemens in Sacramento starting in 2020, the ALC-42 was designed with larger fuel tanks, more head-end power for heating and lighting, and a modern Tier-4 Cummins diesel. On paper, it was more efficient and more capable. In reality, it was far more sensitive to cold than the locomotives it replaced. Amtrak assigned the new fleet to the Empire Builder — the railroad’s most punishing long-distance route. That meant running across Marias Pass in northern Montana, one of the coldest, snowiest railroad corridors in North America. This is a line that still uses century-old wooden snowsheds to protect trains from avalanches. It is not forgiving to equipment. During the winter of 2022–23, multiple ALC-42s began failing in extreme cold. Transformer oil systems struggled at low temperatures, limiting the ability to provide both traction power and electricity for heating at the same time. Fine, powdery snow was pulled into dynamic brake air intakes, causing electrical faults that shut down the locomotives. Exterior emergency shutdown switches could be triggered by ice buildup. Even basic crew facilities, like the cab toilet, were not protected against freezing. In December 2022, an Empire Builder train lost power inside the snowsheds near Essex, Montana. A BNSF freight locomotive had to be sent in to rescue the stranded passenger train — a humiliating moment for a fleet that was supposed to represent Amtrak’s future. The irony is that Siemens already knew how to solve this problem. In Finland, the same company built Vectron locomotives specifically engineered for –40°C operation, with special protection against fine snow and cold-weather failures. That knowledge was not fully applied to the ALC-42 design. After the failures, Amtrak and Siemens implemented more than seventy design changes. Reliability improved, but the damage was done. For crews and railfans, the ALC-42 became known not as the future of passenger rail, but as the locomotive that couldn’t survive its first real winter.