Graham Claytor moved Amtrak from EMD to GE during his term as President of the company. The first test was the order of the converted freight platform, which became designated as the P32BWH. Shortly thereafter a new cab unit unitbody design was developed, which became known at the P40 Genesis AMD-103 series. They were geared to run up to 103 mph, but Amtrak never regularly used them any faster than 79 mph. Amtrak purchased 44 of these, road number 800 through 843. The locomotives were delivered to Amtrak in 1993 and eventually they were all retired and replaced with a refined and updated series, known as the P42. Two hundred seven of the P42s were delivered in two batches in 1996-7 and 2000-1, but that is another story.
The total order of P40's still exist, save three. Just after delivery, #819 went into Bayou Canot just off of Mobile Bay in Alabama, when a negligent tugboat crew hit the railroad bridge and threw the tracks out of alignment. There was an ensuing fire, and it has gone down in history as the worst accident in Amtrak's time of existence. The other two units to be lost were #807 and #829, destroyed in March 1999 when a negligent truck driver pulled a load of steel across the Illinois Central tracks at Bourbonnais, Illinois. A number of Amtrak passenger fatalities ensued. The trucker was later found to be sleep-deprived, and operating with a bogus logbook, among other infractions. What both of these incidents have in common is that as a result of them, major tightening changes were made in the rules and regulations for marine, rail, and highway operators. In one law, Congress capped the amount off damages for a rail passenger incident that could be awarded by a judge at $200 million for the entire event. Some of this was from the rail accicent, annd some of it came from the September 2011 terrorist incidents on the east coast of the United States. Interestingly, Amtrak special-ordered replacement engines for #807 and #829, which were delivered late in 2000 as P42's, and carried the road numbers 121 and 122. They were initially assigned to a pool of locomotives on the west coast, generally utilized on the Coast Starlight. Rumor has it that they were bought with insurance money from the steel company wreck of 1999. In July 2011, #121 was attacked by a garbage truck while working on the Downeaster train in Maine. It appeared she might be a total loss. If so, we have to point out the irony of the replacement unit also being destroyed by a negligent truck driver.
The P40 designation at GE and Amtrak was due to the original horsepower rating of the 7FDL power plant employed in them. The total 4000 horse output is not all available to run traction motors though, since all passenger locomotives now have a headend power generator which converts some of the engine output into electricity to power, heat, and cool, the rest of the train. The P40 and P42, in addition to being of unitbody construction, have the 16 cylinder version of the 7FDL power plant. Over the years, Amtrak updated the P40s to P42 standards, and also made several cosmetic changes.
The original paint job shown here consisted of a platinum mist base coat, with the bicentennial type stripes you see here in the photo. The white stripes and lettering originally had some reflectivity to them, and faded toward the rear, where the large road number was stenciled. The road numbers also were found on the crew doors, one on the nose, and two on the rear. The nose number is the only one of them backlighted. The last holdout of the P40 was the Autotrain, which runs between Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida. Amtrak kept a pool of them based at Sanford, which it used for the Autotrain exclusively. Braking characteristics were said to be better for that train, Amtrak's longest. The Autotrain also has as many as 40 auto carrier racks trailing the inhabited portion of the consist.
Eventually all but #819 were repainted into the dark blue and white stripe "northeastern" variant, which was Amtrak's me and the 2000-era "northeast direct" variant. All of the survivors were overhauled at least once at their midlife rebuild, and eventually most except the Autotrain pool were run out, and stored to rust away at Bear, Delaware. The Autotrain group received the low belt bluenose paint scheme that Amtrak has had since about May 2001. A handful were leased out to other users, and eventually some were sold. The Connecticut Department of Transportation and New York Metro-North acquired several, and New Jersey Transit ended up with four. These were for the most part cherry-picked out of the Sanford group. The group that is being rebuilt in 2010 was a combination of about 3/4 "northeastern" paint units and 1/4 "bluenose" units.
High gas prices in 2008 resulted in unprecedented demand for seats on Amtrak trains, and public sentiment at least temporarily resulted in the Bush administration deciding not to totally eliminate Amtrak from the federal budget that year. During 2009-11, economic problems continued to plague the United States, and very little improved with respect to Amtrak under the new Obama administration. One minor blip of improvement was the decision made to rehab 15 of the old retired P40s, for delivery in 2010 and 2011. The repairs were made at Amtrak's heavy overhaul shop at Beech Grove, on the southside of Indianapolis. The engines were deadheaded from Bear to Beech Grove in three batches of five each. Several of the units went back into service in 2010, with the last two or three in 2011. While the addition of 15 rebuilt locomotives could help Amtrak over the next year or so, the company is seriously strapped for working equipment, and the most of its rolling stock will reach manditory FRA condemnation dates within the next five to ten years. So far there is absolutely no long term planning by Amtrak to accomodate either future growth or the routine replacement of the equipment it now has in the western 43 states. All recent procurement deals have been designed to forstall Congress' meddling in the northeast corridor. For instance, Amtrak went to the bank and borrowed $600 million in July 2011 to order 70 new regional electric locmotives for the NEC. Nothing has yet been done to replace any of the 20 damaged P42's that are sitting out, or to plan for the ultimate retirement of the other remaining 180 or so active Genesis series cab units.
In 2010-11, Amtrak had a record years for passenger revenues, and did use some of the money to put down an engineering payment for low level passenger cars and replacement electric locomotives for the NEC. While a vendor has not yet been found or an order placed for engineering on an engine to replace the P40P42 44-state "Genesis" unit from GE, a plan was put together in 2010 to begin replacing these engines over a 40 year period. Amtrak would like to have a few as soon as 2015, at which time it says it would begin to retire more of these "Genesis" engines from active service. Yet, in mid 2011, the Amtrak Board has yet to decide what type of locomotive it wants, or to find a vendor capable of building them.
Builder plates were transitioned from metal to paper at GE by the time these engines were produced in 1993. Each engine received two stickers, one on each front cab side at the beltline. The serial numbers for each unit appear on the sticker along with the build date, weight, and horsepower rating. GE and Amtrak are now adding tier II emissions compliance stickers in this same general location, although generally only on the engineer's side. It is assumed that new reproduction stickers will be added to those rebuilt locomotives as they come out of the shop. This has been the recent practice with P42s that have been shopped. At this time it is not known if the original road numbers will be preserved, or if they will be renumbered. New Jersey Transit renumbered theirs, and is using them for the Atlantic City run, a route that in times past belonged to Amtrak.
Check out our latest reports of P40/P42 whereabouts by looking at the links on our home page. We would appreciate your sightings of P42s, P40s, and P32s. You can report them to us via the email links on every 10th page or so. Hopefully we will be able to start updating some P40's again as they begin to filter back to Amtrak during the coming months. As we update this page at Thanksgiving, 2010, twelve of the fifteen rebuilds slated for return are already back in service. As we look at it again in summer 2011, the last three are also operating.
Here are some recent reports. In mid-July, most of the 15 were operating in the east, with #822 in New England on the museum train. Six were on theAutotrain, #821 #823 and #837 on Silver Service, and #815 and #824 on the Crescent/Silver Service rotations. The only strays were #816 and #817. Slightly more complete reports may be found on the individual pages for each subsequent engine. All of our reports are from unofficial sources, and subject to error. We do not have a record of all movements, only those that are reported to us by third parties.
809 - Hoosier State May 27-July 5, Cardinal July 6-7, Silver Service July 7-13, Carolinian July 14-15
814 - Autotrain May 13-July 18
815 - Crescent March 8-13, Capitol Limited March 17-18, Sunset Limited March 25-27, Silver Service April 10-14, Southwest Chief March 29-April 18, Lincoln Service April 25-May 3, Hiawatha May 3, Texas Eagle May 4-7 and May 17-24, Empire Builder May 24-29, Empire Builder June 17-22, California Zephyr June 25-30, Mini Empire Builder MSP July 3, Capitol Limited July 6-7, Silver Service July 9-18
816 - Empire Builder May 28-June 1, Empire Builder June 17-22, California Zephyr June 25-30, Mini Empire Builder MSP July 3, Lincoln Service July 13-14
817 - Silver Service May 30-June 7, Crescent June 7-11, Capitol Limited June 14-15, Crescent June 15-17, Capitol Limited June 17-20, Silver Service June 20-22, Crescent June 23-July 5, Capitol Limited July 5-6, City of New Orleans July 16-17
818 - Downeaster February 12-March 18, Lakeshore Limited March 19-26, Capitol Limited March 25-26, Autotrain March 26-July 18
821 - Lakeshore Limited March 10-11, Lakeshore May 4-5, Capitol Limited May 5-10, Crescent May 11-13, Capitol Limited May 13-15, Silver Service May 15-18, Crescent May 19-22, Lincoln Service May 26-30, Capitol Limited May 30-31, Capitol Limited May 30-31, Lakeshore Limited June 2-4, Capitol Limited June 4-5, Silver Service June 5-15, Crescent June 16-18, Capitol Limited June 18-20, Silver Service June 20-July 18
822 - (Painted in Retro-1979 style bicentennial stripes) - Hoosier State February 20-April 22, Saluki April 23-24, Capitol Limited April 27-28, With Museum Train since May 2, Moved toAlbany via Chicago June 27- July 1
823 - City of New Orleans March 9-10, Southwest Chief March 10-31, California Zephyr April 3-9, Southwest Chief April 19-May 4, Empire Builder May 6-15, Lincoln Service May 17, Empire Builder May 23-27, Cardinal May 28-29, Capitol Limited May 30-June 2, Crescent May 2-7, Capitol Limited June 7-8, Lakeshore Limited June 8-9, Lakeshore Limited July 1-8, Capitol Limited July 12-16, Silver Service July 16- 19
824 - Downeaster February 12, Lakeshore Limited March 26-April 2, Silver Service April 7-10, Capitol Limited April 14-16, Crescent April 17-18, Texas Eagle April 22-25, Empire Builder April 26-May 1, Lincoln Service May 3, Southwest Chief May 5-12, Coast Starlight May 13-June 23, Sunset Limited June 24-29, Crescent June 29-30, Silver Service June 30-July 3, Crescent July 3-6, Silver Service July 6-9, Crescent July 12-16
830 - California Zephyr February 8-12, Capitol Limited March 3-4, California Zephyr March 12-13, Texas Eagle March 14-17, Lincoln Service March 18-21, Southwest Chief Albuquerque Protect March 28, Southwest Chief March 22-May 15, Lakeshore Limited May 17-18, Lakeshore Limited June 16-17, Capitol Limited June 17-18, Crescent June 21-23, Autotrain June 24-July 16
831 - Autotrain March 10-11, Capitol Limited March 11-14, Virginia Regional March 15-16, Silver Service March 26-31, Silver Service March 26-31, Autotrain April 9-May 19, Autotrain May 29-July 18
832 - Capitol Limited March 3-4, Lincoln Service March 6, Lakeshore Limited March 14-20, Albany Shop March 20-April 2, Lakeshore April 3-4, Capitol Limited May 4-5, Silver Service May 7-15, Crescent May 15 -19, Silver Service May 20-29, Autotrain May 28-June 4, Autotrain June 8-July 18
835 - Lakeshore Limited Marh 10-11, Capitol Limited March 11-12, Silver Service March 12-29, Lakeshore Limited March 31-April 3, Lakeshore Limited May 3-4, Hiawatha May 6-13, Texas Eagle May 15-22, Autotrain May 27-July 18
837 - Texas Eagle March 11-14, Hoosier State April 6-10, Southwest Chief April 14-15, Albuquerque Protect April 15-20, Southwest Chief May 1-2, Albuquerque May 4, Southwest Chief May 17-19, Empire Builder May 22, Texas Eagle May 25-27, Lakeshore Limited May 27-29, Lakeshore Limited July 4-5, Maple Leaf July 5, Lakeshore Limited July 11-12, Capitol Limited July 12-13, Silver Service July 13-19
July 18, 2011 Update