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I don't see anyone rushing to model that monstrosity for any train sim any time soon. And the overhang over the trucks is so great I'm having a hard time picturing it not eating out the edges of every curved platform it stumbles upon.
Also, I'm not an American, but I'm wondering why they decided to throw money at a German company instead of supporting good ol GE and EMD.
Nicholas
AEM-7 was going to still be in service on the Keystone Corridor, and that The HHP-8 and ACS-64 will run side by side.
It's not even theoretically possible that they can "pay for themselves in power savings" or come even close. Let's assume for a second that there is no such thing as air, environment, entropy, friction, etc. and each locomotive used regenerative braking to slow/stop the train every time and never, ever used any other form of braking. Even under these theoretical conditions, power output (in the form of braking) cannot exceed power input (in the form of motoring). Therefore, even in theory, these locomotives cannot return more power than they consume, let alone pay the $6.64million per locomotive.
Now, of course, we don't live in an ideal world, and friction, energy loss, drag, entropy and all other problems do affect a locomotive. Plus, locomotives do need to brake using friction brakes. I'd be interested in seeing what best-case scenarios Siemens and Amtrak are claiming, but, realistically, the amount of power returned to the grid would only be a small fraction of what consumed by these locomotives.
Which brings me to another point. Regeneration is nice, but a locomotive in regen in Bowie isn't going to power a locomotive accelerating out of New Haven. As substations are placed about 8 miles apart, it's pretty safe to say that a locomotive in regeneration (i.e. acting as a power source, like a temporary substation) isn't going to be able to power anything much outside its immediate area. Whether the power grid supplying the power to Amtrak will be able to retransmit any regenerated power into the commercial grid, I don't know, but even if it does, it's not going to be a major, continuous source of power. In other words, unless a loco is nearby and in regenerative braking, any contributions to the system or to the commercial grid at large is likely to be minimal.
I honestly like the designs of some of the German locomotives...when they are in Germany. This thing looks out of place in the USA. Oh, and the AEM-7, despite the EMD name, is all Swedish on the inside. Only the bodies were made in the US. You can tell since the maintenance directions inside all end with "bork bork bork"
sticking with the AEM-7s and HHP-8s for the next 20 years.
I talked with an Amtrak engineer back in April an he told me the the AEM-7's would still run on the Keystone Corridor. Even if it is 50 years old, it is still more reliable than the HHP-8.I can't imagine a 50 year old AEM-7 on the tracks.