CHICAGO — After a much-delayed arrival in the city, Amtrak’s “Day One” Siemens ALC42 Charger locomotive continued toward its official handover to Amtrak on Tuesday evening, heading east on the Capitol Limited. Trailing P42 locomotive No. 142 were ALC42 No. 301 and a six-car consist including a dormitory car, sleeper, Cross-Country Café, baggage-coach, and full coach. The new locomotive had arrived from Sacramento on the California Zephyr, which finally limped into Union Station at 3:28 a.m. Tuesday, more than 12½ hours late, after mechanical problems that required the addition of a BNSF locomotive in Nebraska. Amtrak will officially take possession of the Charger in Wilmington, Del.
normally would not be run until delivery is accepted at Wilmington, there are always exceptions, but short consist and need to add the BNSF engine in Nebraska are indicators
That’s a very abbreviated consist for the Capitol.
Article says ‘six-car consist’. I count 6 in the photo. But only describes 5 cars. What was the 6th car? (Coach I would guess)
Was the new charger DEAD IN TOW or was it part of the reason the train from the west was so late?
Don’t know the answer to that one, but I would say that if the Capitol Limited usually has two units, it was working in the Cap photos.
They might want to work on that 12 1/2 hour delay.
I hope the rest of the order has better success.