4:43 I really hope that has an sc-44 head, as the cascades motive power fleet is comprised of regular Sc-44's, just want to remind people of that. The new cascades paint looks great on the venture. Looking forward to calling it "Cascades II" I hope that the seven existing chargers get repainted to the new livery. (without the alc-42 nose)
@sjvrailfan Wait what, so those two sc-44's are alc-42e's. That has to be a spelling or classification error. For those who do not know, Cascades is not electrified. Therefore, the "e" function is pointless in those locomotives.
@andrewreynolds4949 I get that they are easy to repair. However, I am hopeful they have learned their lesson with the talgo vi sets and tried to make their equipment look more consistent with each other.
Amtrak ordered only 42Es to keep the fleet as standardized as possible, the additional Cascades units still have connections for battery and APV cars on the rear end even though they won't be used.
The fact that 74001's paint scheme is different on each side means the only Phase VII car in existence right now isn't even really Phase VII. It also reminds me of the early days of Thomas the Tank Engine when they'd have passenger cars painted in different schemes on each side because they couldn't afford to get more cars.
Thank you for the update. I retired two years ago and before that I showed the WisDOT press release to my handlers. They chuckled because, at that time, there was no order. I guess the check cleared. Also, where are the unfinished shells stored offsite? I’d like to do an eye-in-the-sky look and see how many.
Someone else who worked the facility also told me there was no order, so I wasn’t sure if there actually was one or not. Looking back at WisDOT’s public docs it turns out they did say they would order Ventures and cab cars.
@ I’d hate to sound heavy handed but Venture is the only game in town at present. Alstom is to deliver single level coaches to Connecticut in a few years but the Hiawatha trains could really use a cabcar yesterday.
@@maestromecanico597 It’s only realistic that they order Ventures too given that the Hiawatha already uses them. It’ll be interesting to see a cab car in the Midwest scheme.
very back right in the picture, near the road. It's only the roof of a pantograph car, not the full coach yet. You can tell it's missing a bigger section than the AC unit takes up on one end
@MrMarshmallow26 there are cars built for Midwest and Caltrain services that are pretty much the same. Those orders were placed before they are called Airos
@@jnrfalcon Since you were referring to the sets for the Regional that’s what I also referred to. I doubt that holding the other orders will really speed up anything anyway because either way the sets won’t debut until late 2025 or early 2026. Meanwhile those cafe cars for Midwest and San Joaquins look like they are already ready to go.
@@MrMarshmallow26 both Midwest and San Joaquin have venture sets in operation. I believe San Joaquin also got cab cars in service already. Otherwise I do believe Cascades has enough old cabbage for cabs for now. Cafe car is least of my worries... They were only necessary because old sets have WIFI router installed in cafe cars. We have surging ridership in the PNW and suddenly we lost one of the highest capacity sets, at least for a long while. All we have left are 1 Talgo 8 set and several 3-car long Horizon consists. It bears some urgency to get more equipment to Cascades
@ The Ventures for Midwest and San Joaquins are still part of the order nonetheless no matter what’s in operation. If need be, there’s surely older rolling stock left over to supplement Cascades if they think they’re ready to operate a Gulf Coast service.
Nice video! Now that most Brightline train sets have upgraded to 5 coaches, it’s a lot more fun to see how they are able to extend even more into 6 coaches. Although the first of its five coaches to enter service on the first-five sets, the next-5 coaches would later become the 6th coach for the sets?
Why would Cascades get an ALC-42E? I was under the impression that the Es were diesel/OHLE bi-modes destined for the NEC with a pantograph car with its own set of traction motors sitting behind the engine. I also have to wonder how much is going to get cancelled with the new administration. Based on how much half finished stuff is siting out I suspect Amtrak opted to pay for everything up front and get it into build, making it harder for an Amtrak hostile administration to cancel it (can't claw back money that's already spent).
The money’s already processed and Siemens is already building the sets. It won’t be easy to take that money back. Also the ALC-42Es are for simplicity of the order.
Airo is the Amtrak’s branding of their train sets while Venture is the Siemens branding of the product. Airo will have unique configurations though to Amtrak’s requests.
Love the looks of Siemens stuff but hated working on it. Made it 8 months at Amtrak before I went back to freighr most due to how much I disliked working with it. Over-engineer, unreliable junk.
Amtrak Michigan Line with the state corridor SC44’s and Venture Cars. Venture cars require 3 separate keys to operate (doors, steps, PA system). HVAC defaults to 72 degrees after 15 minutes and there is no way to change it. Handbrakes stick, doors have randomly opened at track speed, air reservoirs were painted inside flaked and caused brake pipe issues. Ceilings in the cars leak, even the brand new cafes, seats suck, sliding doors on the coach ends don’t stay latched open during station stops, bathroom door gaskets jam the doors necessitating pry bars to open, list goes on and on. The SC44’s have good acceleration when they work but there are too many sensors and the default for most errors is to shutdown the engine. Always have PTC issues. The windows in the cab open inward so you can’t run with them open or they block the control stand. There was one day we lost almost an hour between Jackson and Dearborn because the traction control was messed up, it was raining and we couldn’t get above 43MPH without the wheels letting loose. All these problems get worse in the winter (AML the past two weeks has cancelled trains almost every day due to failures). Only good thing about Siemens is they look good and they ride extremely well.
I really appreicate your updates on the news trains. Thank you!
Thank you for the updates! It’s great to see Airo progress coming along as well as WisDOT equipment finally getting worked on.
4:43 I really hope that has an sc-44 head, as the cascades motive power fleet is comprised of regular Sc-44's, just want to remind people of that. The new cascades paint looks great on the venture. Looking forward to calling it "Cascades II" I hope that the seven existing chargers get repainted to the new livery. (without the alc-42 nose)
Yeah they're getting ALC-42Es not regular ALC-42s
The ALC-42’s nose design is much easier to repair
@sjvrailfan Wait what, so those two sc-44's are alc-42e's. That has to be a spelling or classification error. For those who do not know, Cascades is not electrified. Therefore, the "e" function is pointless in those locomotives.
@andrewreynolds4949 I get that they are easy to repair. However, I am hopeful they have learned their lesson with the talgo vi sets and tried to make their equipment look more consistent with each other.
Amtrak ordered only 42Es to keep the fleet as standardized as possible, the additional Cascades units still have connections for battery and APV cars on the rear end even though they won't be used.
As of now SF MUNI is testing # 2155 mu with # 2159 and Metro North are testing there new engines right now
The fact that 74001's paint scheme is different on each side means the only Phase VII car in existence right now isn't even really Phase VII. It also reminds me of the early days of Thomas the Tank Engine when they'd have passenger cars painted in different schemes on each side because they couldn't afford to get more cars.
The Phase VII scheme appears to be on the car to me…
@MrMarshmallow26 it is, but only on 1 side. The other has the Cascades scheme, and eventually the Phase VII side will get the Cascades scheme too
@ I was joking but yes, the Phase VII wrap was just for display and for the media to photograph.
@@MrMarshmallow26 Well, it's no longer alone. They just released a Viewliner 1 this morning in Phase VII.
@@TommyBNSF No way! I still have to check since we can’t have our phones in school lmao
Excellent and informative video! 👌 Very cool to see!👍 subscribed!
Thank you for the update. I retired two years ago and before that I showed the WisDOT press release to my handlers. They chuckled because, at that time, there was no order. I guess the check cleared.
Also, where are the unfinished shells stored offsite? I’d like to do an eye-in-the-sky look and see how many.
Someone else who worked the facility also told me there was no order, so I wasn’t sure if there actually was one or not. Looking back at WisDOT’s public docs it turns out they did say they would order Ventures and cab cars.
@ I’d hate to sound heavy handed but Venture is the only game in town at present. Alstom is to deliver single level coaches to Connecticut in a few years but the Hiawatha trains could really use a cabcar yesterday.
@@maestromecanico597 It’s only realistic that they order Ventures too given that the Hiawatha already uses them. It’ll be interesting to see a cab car in the Midwest scheme.
@ It would be interesting to see Minnesota add stock to the Midwest pool but that’s just my druthers.
Am I blind? Can someone point out the the pantograph car at 4:32? I don't see it.
very back right in the picture, near the road. It's only the roof of a pantograph car, not the full coach yet. You can tell it's missing a bigger section than the AC unit takes up on one end
@@Mike-uw4wn Caught it. THANKS!
I wonder if Amtrak can negotiate moving up the Cascade Airo sets before some other Amtrak regional sets now that we lost one of the 2 Talgo 8 sets...
Cascades is already getting their sets before anybody else because their operations are pure diesel and don’t need an APV or battery car
@MrMarshmallow26 there are cars built for Midwest and Caltrain services that are pretty much the same. Those orders were placed before they are called Airos
@@jnrfalcon Since you were referring to the sets for the Regional that’s what I also referred to. I doubt that holding the other orders will really speed up anything anyway because either way the sets won’t debut until late 2025 or early 2026. Meanwhile those cafe cars for Midwest and San Joaquins look like they are already ready to go.
@@MrMarshmallow26 both Midwest and San Joaquin have venture sets in operation. I believe San Joaquin also got cab cars in service already. Otherwise I do believe Cascades has enough old cabbage for cabs for now. Cafe car is least of my worries... They were only necessary because old sets have WIFI router installed in cafe cars. We have surging ridership in the PNW and suddenly we lost one of the highest capacity sets, at least for a long while. All we have left are 1 Talgo 8 set and several 3-car long Horizon consists. It bears some urgency to get more equipment to Cascades
@ The Ventures for Midwest and San Joaquins are still part of the order nonetheless no matter what’s in operation. If need be, there’s surely older rolling stock left over to supplement Cascades if they think they’re ready to operate a Gulf Coast service.
Awesome video! The for the update!
Nice video! Now that most Brightline train sets have upgraded to 5 coaches, it’s a lot more fun to see how they are able to extend even more into 6 coaches. Although the first of its five coaches to enter service on the first-five sets, the next-5 coaches would later become the 6th coach for the sets?
Why would Cascades get an ALC-42E? I was under the impression that the Es were diesel/OHLE bi-modes destined for the NEC with a pantograph car with its own set of traction motors sitting behind the engine. I also have to wonder how much is going to get cancelled with the new administration. Based on how much half finished stuff is siting out I suspect Amtrak opted to pay for everything up front and get it into build, making it harder for an Amtrak hostile administration to cancel it (can't claw back money that's already spent).
Because of this certain administration you are referring to, Amtrak expansion is gonna be off the table for the next 4 years
The money’s already processed and Siemens is already building the sets. It won’t be easy to take that money back. Also the ALC-42Es are for simplicity of the order.
whats the difference between the airo and siemens venture? is airo just a different cabcar?
Airo is the Amtrak’s branding of their train sets while Venture is the Siemens branding of the product. Airo will have unique configurations though to Amtrak’s requests.
Love the looks of Siemens stuff but hated working on it. Made it 8 months at Amtrak before I went back to freighr most due to how much I disliked working with it. Over-engineer, unreliable junk.
Damn, in what way were the rolling stock at siemens difficult to work with?
And what kind of rolling stock did you work with?
Amtrak Michigan Line with the state corridor SC44’s and Venture Cars. Venture cars require 3 separate keys to operate (doors, steps, PA system). HVAC defaults to 72 degrees after 15 minutes and there is no way to change it. Handbrakes stick, doors have randomly opened at track speed, air reservoirs were painted inside flaked and caused brake pipe issues. Ceilings in the cars leak, even the brand new cafes, seats suck, sliding doors on the coach ends don’t stay latched open during station stops, bathroom door gaskets jam the doors necessitating pry bars to open, list goes on and on. The SC44’s have good acceleration when they work but there are too many sensors and the default for most errors is to shutdown the engine. Always have PTC issues. The windows in the cab open inward so you can’t run with them open or they block the control stand. There was one day we lost almost an hour between Jackson and Dearborn because the traction control was messed up, it was raining and we couldn’t get above 43MPH without the wheels letting loose. All these problems get worse in the winter (AML the past two weeks has cancelled trains almost every day due to failures). Only good thing about Siemens is they look good and they ride extremely well.
Whets up with yhe fake dubbed background train noise . Just narrate in your own voice.