Rare~ 1993.19.01 - X2000 Demonstration on NEC / BOS-NHV

[Mmchips1]

The x2000s are crap at wintertime here in sweden...

[RIRRmuseum]

@Mmchips1

Sorry to hear that opinion.

One of the positive aspects that was highly impressive and incorporated in the design of the Amtrak Acela's units was the tilting technology of the X2000. The Acela's are still considered prototype even though they have been running successfully for a decade now here in the US. They are a big hit with the traveling public and especially now that wifi is also a feature on them as some of the Regionals as well.

[johangardin89]

@Mmchips1 They're not crap, it's our government cutting the funds to the railway network making everything break down

[RIRRmuseum]

Howard. Your comment indicates how little you understand about Amtrak's history. Blaming Amtrak is easy. However Amtrak can only accomplish what congress allows. And unlike other countries, ours has not put passenger service at high priority over the last half century. By the way, Amtrak Acela does 150mph at Kingston RI. I rode it during testing in 1997 from East Greenwich to Kingston at 167mph. If the entire corridor was designed to run at high speed the trip time could be much less.

[howardkevinm]

Amtrak is pitiful. even at 135mph it STILL manages to take Amtrak 6hrs to handle the 460 miles between Boston and Union Station. only real fast time is between Wilmington and Baltimore where it does 68 miles in under 50 minutes. everything else is like 30mph turtle.

[theshugchannel]

@howardkevinm are you that stupid?

[howardkevinm]

@theshugchannel 458.6 Miles Divided by 6.67 hours = 68.75 Miles per hour average speed. TGV Paris to London 280 miles Travel time 2:25 Average speed 124.4mph so ya even with Acela its 3 times slower than anything Europe has.

[RIRRmuseum]

@howardkevinm

You're factoids may be correct but are a moot point. The amount of support France and Germany provide to rail passenger service is so exponentially greater than what we give Amtrak that it is amazing we even have high speed service at all.

[RIRRmuseum]

@howardkevinm

Railroads cost money, lots of money! But are still cheaper than building miles of more freeway, unfortunately there are factions in this country that do not want to support passenger rail and do their best to starve Amtrak, so what you get is what you got dude.

[kjrehberg]

Look at the tilt system!! These trips were used also to gather data on the tilt system for all the bad track they'll be riding on.

[RIRRmuseum]

@kjrehberg

Correct.

Tilting was required due to the characteristics not so much bad track.

The track is curvy because it runs along the coastline, marshes, rocky areas along the east coast. The track is not in bad shape comparatively as it was converted to concrete and welded rail at the start of the North East Corridor Improvement Project started in 1976. However, it is not "dedicated track" for high speed trains like the TGV. It serves other train traffic as well.

[bjc111571]

Boston to New Haven was converted to electric power in 1999, and began running trains in 2000.

[RIRRmuseum]

@bjc111571

The Acela started service on December 12th, 2000 to be exact.

The first part of the electrification north of New Haven was in Rhode Island from Kingston Station to just past Davisville and was used for testing purposes. The testing group teams met at the Kingston Station in the now Rhode Island Railroad Museum room on the south end of the station as early as 4:30am each morning.

[nyshortline]

Compare how Kingston looked before and after electrification.

[RIRRmuseum]

@nyshortline

Yes, the way Kingston Station looked during the X2000 run was the result of the fire there in the winter of 1988. The north waiting room was boarded up but the south waiting room was used for shelter and ticketing. The station restoration began in 1994. It was moved 20 feet back from the tracks and raised three feet. It was also moved 40 feet north of the original location.

[mrksvideos]

From 0:06 - 0:10 I believe those are turboliners 154 and 158 pushing as ABB traction never had a diesel version of the X2000. After the touring the NEC, the rest of the X2000's US tour used F40's (376 and 281 at least for the WA, OR, and CA part) for motive power. Also, did they really bring over and run concurrently two train sets from Sweden? I thought there was only one train set consisting of Power car 2013, Coaches 2719 and 2718, First Class Buffet 2609, Coach 2810, and Cab Car 2511.

[RIRRmuseum]

Yes sir, you are correct.

I double checked on it and your facts are accurate.

My good friend Mike concurs with you.

---- East of NHV it was powered by two Turboliner power cars. On the electrified portion of the corridor it was self-propelled. Elsewhere it was pushed by regular F40's. (There was only one trainset.)

The German ICE train was powered by Amtrak's (actually EMD's) two F69's, 450 and 451. Those were the two slant-noseds that the F59's are modeled on.

[mrksvideos]

OK, cool. It was too bad the F69's and the ICE train didnt follow the X2000's tour. It would have been nice to compare and see the different types of trains and those neato AC F69's.

[RIRRmuseum]

@mrksvideos

Two sets, check the Amtrak Roster site.

[RIRRmuseum]

Yep. That center platform was replaced with the track 1 platform you see today, which was not there at all back then. Eastbound trains had to stop and wait for the westbound train to service the station until the overpass was built in 2005.

[TrainGuy247]

OMG thats AMAZING

[RIRRmuseum]

It was pretty amazing in 1993 for sure...

Thanks for coming by!