Engines of SEPTA AEM 7

[Music] [Music] [Music] hello everyone welcome to another engines of septa I'm trying to make this series more active than it has been but thanks to college and the documentaries it's not easy now before I start I must announce my go fund me page where you can donate any money you have in support to keep this channel running the link of course is in the description thank you for the love now with that taken care of it's time to talk about the ATM 7 now in order to not copy what was said in the engines of Amtrak episode on this engine only do a brief summary of how the engine came to be but if you want to learn more about the ATM 7 go to the link below to the episode go on I'll wait so you chose to stick with me good man let's get started in 1968 the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York Central wants bitter rivals in their heyday merged together to create Penn Central in order to keep rail travel in their respected areas alive and safe wrong now actually it was a disaster and the government put a gun to the head of the Pennsylvania Railroad in order to make them merge in the 1970s Penn Central was desperate for money in fact between 1968 and 1974 according to a federal funding film Penn Central suffered 649 derailments between that time period the railroad was also suffering from old equipment failing ridership and terrible track conditions in 1971 Amtrak was formed aimed at saving interstate rail travel and Penn Central made the rather silly but desperate choice selling off the northeastern corridor trackage rights to Amtrak Amtrak began to slowly modernize the corridor but wanted some new engines as their four current fleet contained the Budd metro liners which were complete failures and antique jiejie ones which although very reliable and efficient were aging big and parts were rather scarce Amtrak try first with the GE e 60 which promised a speed guarantee of 125 miles an hour however after a series of swaying issues and the derailment of one test run it was found that the three axle Freight style trucks was to blame so the e 60 was limited to 80 miles per hour max on the Keystone service heavier long-distance trains and even mal work which seemed to fit the engine much better than passenger service some GG ones had to be renewed from running from 80 miles an hour to a hundred and ten miles an hour to fit new schedules amtrac through the hat in the ring again borrowing to foreign engines one from France and one from Sweden am tracked like the Swedish design the rc4 and thus the a em7 was born purchasing 54 numbered 902 953 the am7 passed tests of 125 miles an hour with flying colors an Amtrak could finally retire there GG ones thankfully plenty of them are still around to commuter railroads however watched Amtrak closely and were very impressed by the am7 and thought hey let's get some of those engines and put them into commuter operations Marc was the first one to put their foot in the water purchasing for in 1986 number 4900 to 4903 septa would follow in 1988 with 7 number 20 301 through 23:07 the Amtrak bodies are made by bud while the septa and Marc ones were from the Austrian firm simmering grass Parker I hope I pronounced that right the ATM 7s measured 51 feet in length 10 feet 2 inches in width and weighed around 92 tons the m7 s had a top speed of 125 miles an hour or they could go 130 miles an hour if wants it but SEPTA's maximum service speed was around 90 miles an hour they also had 7,000 horsepower obviously that's what these seven stands for with continuous tractive effort of 28,000 100 pounds by force and you probably expected the a.m. 7s all had k5 la horns here's a few samples [Applause] [Applause] am-7 s however weren't the very first engines to be used in push-pull services back in the 70s when regional rail was still operated by con rail and the respective private railroads they used X reading f-7s with one on each end and sometimes a third if needed running on the diesel routes in the areas like Bethlehem Allentown Quakertown among other areas but this was cut in 1981 when diesel service was abolished when the AM sevens came into the picture septa decided due to a rise in ridership to bring this kind of service back but for their electrifying routes they also purchased 25 comma two coaches with ten cab cars in 1987 along with ten comma three coaches in 1999 the comet twos were called septa ones and the threes were called septa twos septa also had one X New Jersey Transit set of common ones of course as we all know the cab cars had tape 5la horns just like the M sevens with the exception of the common one which had but I think we already know how they sound at first they were used throughout the system even appearing on the mania Norristown and the land still Doylestown lines on express services but this didn't last too long as nowadays push/pull sets usually only run on the peyot a Thorndale wilmington newer West Trenton and on some occasions the media l wouldn't line why is that well septa has one of if not the shortest distance between stations this would mean that the am7 would have to be accelerating and decelerating back to back a lot that puts a lot of stress on the brake shoes of the engine and of course an ATM 7 with coaches can't accelerate up to speed as fast as something like a silver liner for set also you got a cake take consideration of the fleet size you only got 7 ATM sevens and 1 LP 44 we'll talk about that later so one or two of the engines would have to be sitting out of service for maintenance work and you've got the rest of the engines doing all the Express runs it's a pretty small suite size and then you've got hundreds upon hundreds of silver liners doing everything else so it's these two reasons why you only see the 8 M sevens on these certain lines during the rush hour periods septa would add an ALP 44 to the push/pull fleet number 20 308 in 1996 which complemented the way of the am7 very nicely but that engine has a totally different story which will be covered in the next episode none of the am sevens officially ever got a rebuilt like its Amtrak counterparts but 2305 is an exception as it was severely damaged by flood waters in 2011 while in Trenton Yard thanks to Hurricane Irene which devastated the Northeast and boy did it really screw up my area but the engine was later rebuilt as if nothing had happened sadly as we all know the engines wouldn't last forever as they all would enter over 35 years of service and it was clear that time was catching up to them in 2010 Amtrak ordered seven ACS 64 locomotives from Siemens to replace the ATM sevens and their new Bombardier h HP h which were also deemed a failure the ACO 64's began entering Revenue Service for Amtrak in February of 2014 and soon the fleet was retired with the last two a.m. sevens 942 and 946 making their final run on June 18 2016 on a farewell excursion that ran from Washington to Philadelphia to Amtrak's have been preserved so far 9:15 going to the rear of Museum of Pennsylvania which I plan to revisit in the future and 9:45 going to the illinois's Railroad Museum some DC's were scrapped while others mainly the ACS are awaiting their fate in Wilmington Delaware mark was next replacing their ATM sevens with Siemens chargers around 2017 the hhp eights however got a second chance with rebuilds in 2018 but the AM sevens are currently in storage septa then became the last railroad in North America to have ATM 7s and an AOP 44 in operation on their fleet and use them on occasion during accept the gettin her sign lined for some rest in favour of the least a c64 and a least a LP 46 from New Jersey Transit still even cept a new retirement of the AM sevens was in their future - on December 19th 2013 the catching up plan was announced by general manager Jeffrey Connell and the AM sevens were listed for replacement in phase one of the vehicle replacement section of the plan Amtrak's 664 was leased to Septon in 2016 for testing the locomotive before buying them tests were completed with success and in 2014 septa ordered fifteen ACS 64's from Siemens number nine oh one through nine fifteen nine oh one entered service on July 11th 2018 running its first train on the Great Valley flyer on the Paoli Thorndale line eventually as more and more entered service septa decided it was time some were used on late night gel trains in the fall as like a sort of second retirement job but soon all were retired by late November 2018 with a farewell excursion taking place on December 1st 2018 running from Paoli to suburban station with ALP 4420 308 and a m7 2301 yours truly was on board that day it was had a fun time but the story doesn't really end there as after that excursion all the a.m. 7s and a LP 44 were transferred to New Jersey Transit due to them still struggling to implement positive train control with the exception of 23:02 being used as a part source and they are all still sitting in Mooresville New Jersey yard awaiting their new retirement life where the future will take them next as unknown yet but they definitely were an important part in the history the southeastern pennsylvania transit authority serving septa since 1964 and regional rail operations since 1983 [Music] thank you so much for watching I would like to thank the people who appear in the credits for photos and videos on these engines including myself of course I'd also like to thank those who had donated to my GoFundMe page if you wish to support my channel please consider donating below or sharing it with others even if you can or can't donate I'll progress further in the history of septa when I talk about the Am sevens cousin the ALP 44 so until next time [Music] [Music] [Music] don't forget I'm with you in the dark [Music]

Channel: Thunderbolt 1000 Siren Productions

Views: 29,353

Rating: 4.9126363 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: OD4C6D6_nXc

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019