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rlkitterman — Amtrak P32 No. 512 at Culpeper
Published: 2012-08-19 03:09:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 1636; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 47
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Description
Amtrak P32/B32-8WH diesel No. 512 creeps up to the station platform at Culpeper, Virginia with the "Northeast Regional" passenger train. This locomotive is hard to classify because General Electric (the builder) and Amtrak (the operator) have given it different designations, but I like "P32" myself.Related content
Comments: 6
I've mostly seen people use the Dash-8 designation for them. Probably because Amtrak operates a completely different locomotive with a different purpose under the designation of P32, a designation shared by the thirty P32AC-DMs owned by Metro-North.
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Is that P32 more like the Genesis engine?
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It IS a Genesis engine. The Genesis line covers three different models, just as Dash-8 covers five B-B models and six C-C models. Amtrak uses the model designations of the Genesis engines while sticking to just "Dash-8" for the freight-styled engines because it only owns engines from one of the eleven Dash-8 models, but owns some of each of the three types of Genesis engines:
P40DC: The original, 1992 engine that was dubbed the AMD-103 until Amtrak started picking up multiple types of Genesis engines and they begin referring to them by model number. Diesel operation only, maximum of 4000 horsepower when not running in HEP mode. Some retired, some sold to NJ Transit, some still in service on the "Knowledge Corridor" (New Haven, CT to Springfield, MA) and other short run service.
P42DC: Became the main road engine of Amtrak in 1997. Maxes out at 4250 horsepower when not running in HEP mode, and can get up to 110 mph in areas with compatible trackage (P40 maxes out at 103). Interestingly enough, a number of P40s were rebuilt starting in 2009 using stimulus funding to be as powerful as the P42 but maintain their old designation. Seen everywhere.
P32AC-DM: Built in two batches (1995 and 1998), the P32 replaced the antique FL9 engines running up and down New York's Empire Corridor. They have a maximum horsepower of 3200, can reach 110 mph (although I don't believe anywhere in that corridor allows it), and are capable of running off third rail power so they can enter New York City's tunnels and stations. Amtrak uses them for trains in and out of Penn Station while Metro-North owns a horde of them for trains out of Grand Central Station that go out past where third rail ends in Croton-Harmon. Watching them in operation is kinda fascinating; I sat there as a P32 on a southbound MTA train rumbled its way out of Croton-Harmon, cut the diesel and seem to coast a bit, and then there was a pop and a hiss as it switched to third rail and continued to power along almost silently as it accelerated away.
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I'm not really picky about how a builder classifies their locomotive vs how the operator classifies it. This is a very practical locomotive. It can readily handle switching/shunting chores in the coach yard then haul the coach consist it just assembled down the main line.
I like this model. A lot of railroads used what would otherwise have been called freight locomotives on passenger trains back in the 1950s and 60s. Southern Pacific continued to use GP9s until they handed commuter train operations over to the state of California in the 1970s (I think).
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