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VIA Rail
- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
roger1818
Senior Member
Yup. Even if VIA does build HSR sooner than that, they would still need trains for intercity service, to allow the HSR trains to connect the major cities without stopping along the way. Even Amtrak has chosen to purchase Siemens Venture trainsets for the Northeast Regional trains, replacing some of the Amfleet I train cars
Also, the condition of VIA's fleet required that it be replaced as soon as possible, with minimal risk for delays. As a result, one of the requirements was a proven design in active production. The Alstom Avelia trainsets are still being evaluated today by Amtrak, so are hardly a proven design. Given that the the Avelia trainsets will be delayed by a year for further testing to resolve some design issues, it seems so far like VIA made the right choice. Obviously VIA will need to do their own winter testing and we will have to see the results of that, though Siemens will hopefully have learned some things from Amtrak's testing in the Midwest last winter.
kEiThZ
Superstar
I'm really curious if Siemens has an electric version of the Charger. Or whether they'd just offer up the ACS-64.
roger1818
Senior Member
I am not quite sure what you mean. The Charger is based on the all electric ACS-64, with a Cummins diesel generator added. Because of the Charger’s heritage, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make a hybrid between the two. In fact, In the first article I referenced in my previous post, it says Siemens will be providing “dual-power electric and diesel engines” for use by trains on the Northeast corridor that extend beyond the ttack that is electrified (currently those trains have a 1 hour layover for Amtrak to change locomotives).
EnviroTO
Senior Member
That would be a locomotive, not a Venture cab car.
kEiThZ
Superstar
My mistake then. I thought the Charger and ACS-64 were independently derived from the European Eurosprinter and Vectron. Didn't realize the Charger itself was descendant from the ACS-64.
I'm curious if HFR really requires hybrids if the corridor is fully electrified.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
Assuming that you actually want to take advantage of electrification, how do you want to cross over the transcontinental main corridor of a host railroad which refuses electrification (i.e. the Saint-Hyacinthe Sub between Montreal Gare Centrale and MMC) without hybrid trainsets?
smallspy
Senior Member
Towards the end of its life it did was allowed to get up to 100mph in places - they used the same round speed limit signs as the LRCs were given, only with the word "TURBO" replacing LRC. I can't find when it happened, but earlier in its service career it was definitely limited to 95mph - I've found lots and lots of references to that in the internal documentation and memos.
Dan
kEiThZ
Superstar
Good point. I guess I was assuming electrification means end to end. I guess some kind of supplementary power is required for that.
robmausser
Senior Member
There seems to be some confusion. I did not mean to scrap the Venture trains for the corridor we are already buying and use Avelias instead, I meant to not create an add-on order for more Ventures for the HFR route.
Now that it will be electrified at the get go, we should buy the Avelia trainsets for HFR. The Avelia trains would shave 30 minutes off the times from Toronto to Montreal, just like they have in the north east corridor, because they can go faster in curves. The HFR route is very curvy route.
There are many places we should use the Ventures, like Amtrak is doing, just not on the HFR route imo.
crs1026
Superstar
As late as (Edit: November 1979) the CN zone speeds for Turbo were still limited to 95 mph.
By 1993 there were 100 mph zones both for LRC and in some places for "Other" (sic) passenger equipment. That's interesting because it predated the P42's delivery. So it likely derived from introduction of the LRC, and perhaps the F40. By that date, a 3:59ish schedule was being advertised for one afternoon run in each direction. Those trains only began post 1988ish.
I got those from old employee timetables that were close to hand, I won't go further into the attic to find the actual date where things changed.
- Paul
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crs1026
Superstar
^No rabbit hole is too deep -
The Metropolis was introduced 24-06-1992 with a timing of 4:10
The schedule was reduced to a timing of 03:59 on 25-10-92
One would think the 100 Mph timings coincided with these improvements.
- Paul
The Metropolis was introduced 24-06-1992 with a timing of 4:10
The schedule was reduced to a timing of 03:59 on 25-10-92
One would think the 100 Mph timings coincided with these improvements.
- Paul
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reaperexpress
Senior Member
I think what you're saying is that VIA should get tilting trains (again). What the rest of us are saying is that the 350 km/h Avelia specifically is massively over-engineered for a service which would see at most 230 km/h.
If there were a conventional tilting train available in the North American market then yes, it might make sense, but then again with newly-built passenger-only trackage (i.e. east of Havelock) we can also include much more aggressive superelevation than traditional shared lines. From a maintenance perspective that is far more economical than using tilting trains.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
What you are proposing would severely undermine VIA's efforts of fleet standardization - for benefits which would only materialize in the second half of their usefulness (if ever). I really hope that we will see the day where VIA's Corridor operations become so extensive that having two separate fleets becomes a suitable solution, but we unfortunately are a long way away from that point...
roger1818
Senior Member
I can't find my original source for this information, but Wikipedia says, "The locomotive shares much of its overall design with the Siemens Vectron diesel and electric locomotives used in Europe and the Siemens ACS-64 electric locomotive built for Amtrak and SEPTA." Since Siemens has a dual mode version of the Vectron, that is further indication that it shouldn't be difficult for them to make a dual mode Charger (not sure if it can easily be done as a retrofit or not though).
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