Amtrak Acela Express

By -
This week we take a look at the only true high-speed train service in North America, the Acela Express operated by Amtrak.  It runs over the Northeast Corridor providing services between Union Station in Washington, DC and South Station in Boston, MA with a top speed of 150 mph (241 km/h).  Being the flagship service offered by Amtrak, the Acela Express only offers Business Class and First Class seating, there is buffet service in the Café car, and complimentary refreshments are served throughout the journey.  The Acela Express services have 14 intermediate station stops between Union Station in Washington and South Station in Boston.  The entire trip takes an average of 7 hours over 456 miles (734 km) with an average start-stop speed slightly under 70 mph (110 km/h, note this is slower than Via Rail Train 66/67 between Toronto and Montréal).  The Acela Express is one of the very few Amtrak services that operate with a profit.


The current Acela Express uses tilting push-pull trainsets derived from the Alstom (France) TGV and Bombardier (Canada) LRC.  The development of the trainsets were split 25% and 75% between Alstom and Bombardier.  The power cars at the ends of the trainset output a moderate 4,470 kW (6,000 hp) and a standard Acela Express has 6 trailing tilting carriages in between the power cars and is capable of 165 mph (266 km/h) operation.  Due to stricter crash standards of the FRA, the Acela Express is constructed with stainless steel rather than the more standard and much lighter aluminium alloy for high-speed trains.  Wikipedia has an extensive coverage of this train and the page is linked here.  An open gallery of the interior of the train can also be found on Wikipedia here.  Below is a YouTube video of the Acela Express I filmed in September 2008 in Wilmington, DE and New Carrollton, MD.


If there are no other requests, we will take a look at the fast high-speed railway line in the world right now, the Chinese Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amtrak NPCU

By -
Image
The NPCU or Non-powered Control Units are control cars used by Amtrak that are modified from surplus EMD F40PH locomotives. A control car is a generic term for a non-powered railroad vehicle that can control operation of a train from the end opposite to the position of the locomotive. They can be used with diesel or electric motive power, allowing push-pull operation without the use of an additional locomotive. Control cars first appeared in the USA and France in 1960s. Trains operating with a locomotive at one end and a control car at the other do not require the locomotive to run around to the opposite end of the train when reversing direction. In the United States, most control cars are modified from retired locomotives by removing tractive equipment and adding side baggage doors and have been used on several passenger railroads. The control cars are connected through the consist of the train by standard AAR 27-wire multiple unit jumper cables. The NPCUs at Amtrak are a
Read more

Briefly on the AAR Coupler Part 2

By -
Image
Last week, we've identified the Janney coupler and briefly looked at its elegant design. This week, let's, again, very briefly, look at the different types of Janney coupler that are widely used today. I will only talk about the head of the coupler, and ignore anything that the general public may need to trespass onto railroad property and get in a unsafe situation in order to have a good look at. As far as coupler heads are concerned, there are 3 types in used today. Type E, F, and H. Types E and F are used on freight, and H used on passenger equipment. Since the withdrawal of passenger service in North America by private railroads, the Type H standard is no longer maintained by the Association of American Railroads, a trade group formed of major freight railroads, but is under the control of the APTA, the American Public Transportation Association. Now let me introduce another term, slack. Slack is an allowed gap between two coupled up couplers. In other words, when most
Read more

SD70ACu

By Yi -
Image
After the post on the shiny rebuilt GE road power, it's only fair to have a look into what Progress Rail has to offer on their side of the table. I'm using the company's recently-changed, formal name of course. For those who are not up-to-date on the current state of North American railroading affairs, Progress Rail is the company (owned by Caterpillar) that purchased EMD a few years ago. The SD90MAC was arguably the biggest gong show in EMD's recent memory. It happened at a time when they were comfortably resting on their laurels, unaware the fateful changes that were about to occur in the locomotive market in the not-so-distant future (they got beaten badly by GE). What was supposed to be one of the most remarkable locomotives whose presence is to grace the mainlines in modern history, turned out to be an utter disaster (I'll redirect further readings to Wikipedia). As a result, today, the number of SD90s still in operation on a Class 1 Railroad is, if not id
Read more