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Siemens SC-44 Charger seen rolled out across country to replace some older locomotives for corridor work.
https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/11/20/16683002/amtrak-cascades-new-train-model
The new Siemens Charger locomotives, with 16-cylinder, 4,400-horsepower engines, are both lighter and quieter, and meet EPA emission standards. The trains will travel the same speed as before—79 miles per hour—but they'll reach the top speed faster.
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2017/11/16/plenty-of-horne-amtrak-rolls-out-new-locomotives/
The new locomotives can also take you to from Chicago to Detroit, or Chicago to St. Louis, for example, and they can do it using one-third the fuel, emitting one-tenth the pollution, and at speeds up to 125 miles per hour. (The Chicago-St. Louis route has been cut from 5-1/2 hours to 4-1/2 hours thanks to the new engines and track improvements.
"A lot of our customers care about the earth and about pollution, and these are so much cleaner to operate, and they're better for our partners at IDOT and the customers because they're going to cost less to operate in that they get better mileage," said Marc Magliari, Amtrak spokesman.
Just saw one while I was out for a cigar and thought it was pretty cool, I figure others might find it interesting as well. I have been taking my kids to go watch them do trackwork on the north-south line in Oregon and was wondering why they were so extensive in replacing all of the old ties. Although the speed limit is 79 I wonder if this will be increased with updated track and new locomotives. Here is hoping someone models it soon so I can waste money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Charger
4400 horsepower, top speed of 125, and meets EPA Tier VI emission standards.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday December 06 2017, @09:38PM (1 child)
The US also does a lot of the track type stuff, at least when I was in school. I wasn't allowed to take the vocational classes because my test scores were too high and "you have to go to college!".
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday December 06 2017, @10:29PM
Yep. The deal in the US is that things aren't very standardized at all, since schools are locally-run, with some direction from their state, but very little from the federal government. So as you found out, some school systems had systems that resembled Germany's in some ways, though other people will have different experiences. The high school I went to had several different tracks too, one for AP classes (only for some subjects), one for college-bound kids, one for kids bound for trade school, and one for special-ed kids. It wasn't impossible to take vo-tech classes if you were college-bound, but it was very difficult because of the requirements you had to meet to graduate, and the availability and scheduling of various classes, made it difficult to actually fit them in.