MORE ON AMTRAK 116

Here is road number 116 from the second 1997 Amtrak Genesis order from the GE Transportation Division at Erie, Pennsylvania. The group of ten remains intact as of 2024, although several of them have had nose rebuilds from "minor" wrecks in the past. Engine #116 was a part of a Coast Starlight pool in Los Angeles at the beginning of its career. Now it seldom goes west of Chicago or New Orleans, and typically stays mostly on the east coast. It can still show up once and a while on a Florida train or Crescent out of Ivy City, although those routes increasingly are being given over to Siemen's ALC-42 "chargers."

All of Amtrak's starting fleet of 207 P42's have suffered injuries, many of them over and over again. Engines 110 and 111 were dedicated to the New Haven regionals, whereas the balance (112-119) originally went to California for the Coast Starlight, where road crossing incursions by agricultural produce haulers victimized several of them. A special "Northeast Corridor" stencil appeared on the nose flanks of 110 and 111, in a "Northeast direct" paint scheme.

Serial numbers for 110-119 are 49962-49971. Sticker dates were August and September of 1997 as GE wound down this order for Amtrak. They are now 26+ years of age, in service longer than any of Amtrak's two prior diesel locomotive fleets. After delivery in 1993 style 1G paint, all were eventually refurbished 2001-2002, getting the now-standard 3G bluenose paint. Later, noses were changed to the bolt-on variety. The Los Angeles pool has been disbanded in recent years, and there is no longer a dedicated Coast Starlight group. Today they are Boston and Philadelphia-based, moved to supplement the Northeast Corridor, the Pennsylvanian, and onto the Lakeshore Limited. Latest assignments for #116 are at the bottom of this page, or on page 110.

THE HARTFORD LINE DANCE AT NEW HAVEN

Typically this group of P42's serves the 62 mile long Hartford Line, between New Haven and Springfield. Because the trip is so short, several flips can be made on the same day. These constitute 400-series train numbers. A "Valley Flyer" extension adds another 41 miles to the route, continuing to and from Greenfield, Massachusetts. Another common Amtrak operational plan has a "regional" with a 100 series train number going to or from Boston, and changing train numbers to become a 400 train or a 50-series Vermonter train at New Haven. From New Haven south, into New York City and beyond, regionals usually employ electric locomotives, so there is a swap of power at New Haven. Regionals from Virginia and Washington DC also can have 100 series train numbers, with locomotive swaps in Washington D.C. on the south end and New Haven on the north end. So even though the train numbers indicate a route of as long as 400 miles, as far as Norfolk and Lynchburg, Virginia, P42's only work south of DC and north of New Haven. There will obviously be different P42's working the end points, with electrics in the middle. Once in a blue moon a regional may bring a P42 through the Hudson tunnels, but this is rare. Slightly more common, but still unusual, is a P42 pulling a regional out of Philadelphia, sometimes with or even assisting an ailing electric, through DC and on further south.


Here are 2023-2024 movements for units #116. To track a particular train's history, you can go to Dixieland Software and the transitdocs.com website. Not all movements were necessarily captured and there can be errors in the reports. The train number is listed with the train assignment date. Note that on east coast regionals, only the date the diesel is assigned to a portion of the corridor is shown. Please attribute to 4rr.com.

May 2023. #116 - Serial 49968(September 1997). T20May9/10(w/146). T19May10/11(w/146). T20May12(w/146). T87May13. T158May14. T185May15. T89May17. T90May18. T79May19. T80May20. T151/66May21. T79May22. T80May23. T151/66May24/25. T89May26. T90May27. T79May28. T80May29. T79May30. T80May31.

June 2023. T171June1. T93/176June2. T88/156June3. T153June4. T138June5. T95June6. T84June7. T89June8. T90June9. T153June10. T88June11. T29June11/12. T30June12/13. T19June14/15(w/60). T20June25/26(w/125). T19June27/28(w/125).

July 2023. T20July4(w/180+84). No reports until T43July13. T42-14. T43-16. T42July17, 2023.

No reports July 17-August 18.

August 2023. T449Aug18(w/117). T281Aug19. T280Aug20. T281Aug23. T280/281Aug24/26. T280Aug27. T63Aug27. T64Aug28. T945Aug29(w/123). Avelia moves to/from Hornell. T944Aug30(w/116). T63Aug31.

September 2023. T64-Sep1. T49Sep3/4(w/103). T48/448Sep4/5(w/103). T449/49Sep6/7(w/103). T48/448Sep7/8(w/103). T449/49Sep9/10(w/103). T59Sep10/11(w/331).

Data omitted September 18-December 10, 2023.

December 2023. SPG T450-409/488/499 Dec10(w/96). T495/470/475-11(w/96). Similar patterns. T55Dec13(w/96+120 tr). T490/473-14 etc (w/96).
Hartford Line in December. T449Dec21(w/101+41+118ld).

January 2024. T49Jan3/4(w/113Ld). T48/448Jan4/5(w/113Ld). T449/49-12/13(w/101Tr). T48Jan14/15(w/101Tr). NR 1-15/23. T281-23. T280/281-24. T280-25. T63-26. T64-27. T63-30. T64-31.

February 2024. T49Feb1/2(w/113Tr). T48/448Feb2/3(w/113Tr). T449/49Feb4/5(w/113Tr). T48/448Feb5/6(w/113Tr). T449-7. T448-8. T449-9(w/88Ld). NR 2-9/24. T281-24. T280/281-FEb25/Mar4.

March 2024. T280-5. T281-6. T280-7. T281-14. T280-15.116 (49968) RSR. T280-15. NR 3-16/26. T148-27. T948-26(RSR-SPG-NHVw/740Tr). T141/56-28. T55-29. T143/140-30. T143/54-31. T55/136-1. T125/148-2.

Could be more on page 110.

April 3, 2024 Update from 4rr.com feedback at 4rr.com