News & Reviews News Wire News photo: New Acela makes test run in Pennsylvania

News photo: New Acela makes test run in Pennsylvania

By Angela Cotey | May 28, 2020

| Last updated on June 3, 2021


First run takes place on Philadelphia-Harrisburg line

Email Newsletter

Get the newest photos, videos, stories, and more from Trains.com brands. Sign-up for email today!

Blue and white high speed train passes tower
Amtrak’s second next-generation Acela trainset passes through Overbrook, Pa., during a test run on Thursday. The first trainset is testing in Colorado. (Gary Pancavage)

PHILADELPHIA — Amtrak’s next-generation Acela made its first test on Amtrak trackage on Thursday, with the second Alstom-built trainset making a round trip from Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia to Thorndale, Pa., some 35 miles West of Philadelphia on the line to Harrisburg, Pa. The first Acela trainset continues to test at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc., near Pueblo, Colo, and recently reached a speed of 165 mph, faster than its planned top speed on the Northeast Corridor. [See “New Acela reaches 165 mph,” Trains News Wire, May 22, 2020.] Alstom is building 28 of the new Acela trainsets, with the first expected to enter service next year.

16 thoughts on “News photo: New Acela makes test run in Pennsylvania

  1. Well, here’s another passenger car profile tidbit,,,,the Milwaukee, under the guidance of resident genius Karl Nystrom had developed lightweight equipment to match the fabulous A class 4-4-2’s, which were re-equipped quickly due to demand. The Milw. shops turned our a bunch until the Road turned to Pullman-Standard for the Olympian Hi., etc. order. The basic difference is the rounded profile of the P-S compared to the rather flat original Hiawatha. Even more interesting is the efforts the Road went thru to the end to not mix the two profiles.

  2. This looks a little better than the Siemens Chargers. The Siemens Chargers have the mug only a mother could love.

  3. CURTIS – Has anyone explained why the profile of the engine doesn’t match the profile of the cars? What were they thinking?

  4. As in the old days, the PRR used to run with the rear pan up on the GG1’s on the theory that if they ran with the front one up and it got damaged, it might damage the rear one. But if the rear pan was damaged, the front could be used as it would not have been damaged by the rear one. Or so I had been told.

  5. It looks like the headlights are on and it is on track 3 which is normally a westbound track through Overbrook.

  6. I zoomed on the photo and I don’t see the pantograph up. Maybe we’re already seeing the back end of it?

  7. Shimon Pollack, there’s probably pantographs at both ends, the other end might be up in this case.

You must login to submit a comment