I would love to see the UK Class 60 Diesel Locomotives get repowered with the Cummins QSK95 power units. These would be a great replacement for the Mirrlees Blackstone MB275T's that are not are reliable.
Could these scenes be imagined scored to Rob EG's "55 Days at Peking," let alone Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" (itself something of a trope for rail videos of late)? (Or, for that matter, "Bumble Boogie" by B. Bumble and The Stingers.)
1:02, I recall NJ Transit having very similar double-decker coaches in service. I wish we had those here in Boston. But, MBTA also has Kawasaki double-deckers, different than MARC’s which were built in 1989-91, 1996-98 and 2004-06, which are 700s, 900s (blind trailers) and 1700s (cab cars). There are also Hyundai-Rotem double-deckers which are 800s and 1800s, built by Rotem in two batches: first-gen 2011-2014 and second-gen 2021-2024. I think those MARC coaches were built by Bombardier, am I right?
SEPTA in Philadelphia also has a fleet of ACS-64’s-15 to be exact-Nos. 901-915, to haul passenger trains on all their intercity electric-powered commuter rail lines since July 2018. Those replaced the very last AEM-7 electric locomotives to ever run in the country, with SEPTA hosting a “Farewell to the AEM-7” excursion trip on the Paoli/Thorndale Line on December 1, 2018, ending 38 years of service, R.I.P May 9, 1980-December 1, 2018. After retirement, a handful were eventually reassigned to SEPTA work service until early December 2021 and sometimes pulled the late-night “wash trains” that blast sticky residue off the tracks from fallen leaves, then on February 1, 2022, they along with single ALP-44, No. 2308, were withdrawn and sold off, according to a procurement notice that put the locomotives up for bid and the seven AEM-7’s, Nos. 2301 to 2307 and single ALP-44 No. 2308, were towed off property by a SEPTA work locomotive for scrapping. The ACS-64’s replaced the electrics in 2018. The sale of the electrics - which also included the ALP-44 - called for the “scrapping and full removal” with the work done at the carrier’s Frazer, Pa. shop. “Dismantling would occur on-site prior to removal,” the bid states. “Removal of the rolling stock was the responsibility of the company awarded the offering and was included in their purchase offer.” As of late 2022, all AEM-7s and the ALP-44 have been scrapped.
I always wonder what happened with Amtrak’s units? Why were they retired after only 15 years of service? Who agrees that Amtrak should’ve rebuilt them like MARC did. It’s going to be sad when the HHP-8’s are gone, given that they’re MARC’s only electric locomotives still in service, all the others are diesel.
You can blame Amtrak for charging huge amounts of money for overhead wire use which has contributed to Marc only using diesels for the most part. As for Amtrak HHP8s, they were highly unreliable and there was not enough of them to make keeping the fleet around worthwhile. At least they'll be cabcars soon to replace the metroliner equipment, which is ancient.
Definitely wish we had more second gen Geeps in the fleet down at the road I work. We have only one so far that, fittingly along with this video, was originally B&O number 4805.
