Train of the Week

The China Railways HXD2 family locomotives are mainline electric freight locomotives designed by Alstom of France based on the Prima line of locomotives. Three variants of this type of locomotives (A, B, and C) have been built with an order of 810 units in total from the Chinese Ministry of Railways. The 10 MW 6-axle HXD2A All of the HXD2 locomotives have AC propulsion with regenerative braking systems and all have an axle load of only 25 tonnes (55,100 lbm). The A variant is an 8-axle locomotive with two 4-axle sections permanently coupled together, the B and C variants are 6-axle single section twin-cab units. The output/max tractive effort ratings of the HXD2A, B, and C are 10 MW (13,400 hp)/760 kN (170,900 lbf), 9.6 MW (12,900 hp)/584 kN (131,300 lbf), and 7.2 MW (9,700 hp)/570 kN (128,100 lbf) respectively. 12 HXD2A and 100 HXD2B have been built in France by Alstom and the rest of the HXD2 locomotives are built in China under license by CNR Datong locomotive works. Film...

The CRH380A is a very high-speed EMU designed by China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock based on the reverse engineering of current import high speed trains. It is the fruit of the continuation of the CRH2 (Chinese manufactured Kawasaki E2-1000 EMUs under license) programme and looks distinctively different from the E2, unlike the earlier variants of the CRH2. More powerful traction motors and higher performance bogies are equipped on the CRH380A. As the name suggests, the design maximum speed in service of the CRH380 series trains is 380 km/h or 236 mph. The EMU comes in two flavours, 8-car 6M2T CRH380A and 16-car 14M2T CRH380AL. Only the end cars of the EMUs are not powered and they have a total power output of 9.6 MW (12,900 hp) and 20.44 MW (27,400 hp) respectively. Like all modern electric trains, regenerative breaking system is equipped on the CRH380A along with electronically control pneumatic breaking. On 26 November 2010, an unmodified trainset, the CRH380A-6041L...

The Amtrak Cities Sprinter ACS-64 is the upcoming 4-axle motive power for the Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor . Seventy of these locomotives are on order from Siemens Mobility and they are to be assembled domestically in the United States. The ACS-64 will replace all electric locomotives currently serving the Northeast, namely the ASEA /ElectroMotive AEM-7 (5,800 hp DC and 6,700 hp AC versions) and the Bombardier/Alstom 8,000 hp high horsepower HHP-8 . Vectron on display at the InnoTrans , more images here The ACS-64 belongs to the new Vectron family of locomotives developed by Siemens Mobility. Vectron is the successor to the tried-and-true EuroSprinter series (See ES64U4 ). They are designed to be modular and easily re-configurable through pre-designed mounting points to accommodate different service needs. As the name of the ACS-64 suggests, the locomotive packs a total power output of 6,400 kW or 8,600 hp at wheel rim. Like all modern electric locomotives, the ACS...

The Hitachi TEMU1000 is operated by the Taiwan Railway Administration as the Taroko Express in Eastern Taiwan. It is Taiwan’s first tilting EMU , with a design based on the Series 885 operated by JR Kyūshū . The TEMU1000 has been in service on Taiwan’s existing narrow gauge (1,067 mm or 3.5 ft.) railway network since 2007. The TEMU1000 utilises active-tilting technology. It tilts up to 5 degrees and can negotiate curves 25 km/h (16 mph) faster than existing trains in Taiwan without compromising passenger comfort. The body of the TEMU1000 is constructed with aluminum alloy and each car only weighs around 38 tonnes (42 short tons, based on the Series 885). Standard consist of the TEMU1000 is 4M4T (4 motor cars and 4 trailer cars, arranged in T-M-T-M-M-T-M-T, with two pantographs mounted on top of cars 3 and 6) with a maximum power output of 3,040 kW (4,075 hp). The train is designed to have a maximum speed of 150 km/h (93 mph) but only reaches 130 km/h (81 mph) in scheduled...

If you are looking for a film of the Acela Express zooming by Kingston, Rhode Island on the Northeast Corridor, this is not it; however, in this little film below, you will be seeing the some of the fastest trains of Canada. I filmed these trains with my cellular phone (and bare hands, no tripod, sorry...) in the morning of 7 March 2011 while I was waiting for my train to Toronto in the beautiful city of Kingston, Ontario, former capital of the Province of Canada. Kingston Station is situated at mile 176.1 on the Kingston Subdivision of the Canadian National Railway, the fastest stretch of railroad on the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor . Kingston Subdivision runs a little over 300 miles along St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario between Dorval in Montreal and the east end of the Union Station Rail Corridor in Toronto. The entire subdivision has at least two mainline tracks and permissible speeds of up to 70 mph for freight trains and 100 mph for passenger trains (125 mph for the Turbo T...