Amtrak GE-AC6000 at McComb, MS depot for National Train Day

[Balrog21]

Well, Amtrak surprised all of us with a stop hop in and walk around this past Saturday for National Train Day here in McComb,MS. To my surprise the lead was a GE-AC6000. They kept it running the whole time, and it sounded just like my BLI undecorated model...sound for sound...and come to find out Amtrak has 5 of these in service running the city of New Orleans route...here is a short vid when it arrived..it may be loud so you might want to turn your speakers down a bit...that baby is HUGE and LOUD...and when it departed...WOW...a rocket would be putting it mildly...more pics and a vid of Canadian National's Lil Obie kid ride to come!
Best,
Bal

http://youtu.be/SpwROv9_v3k

[Balrog21]

Canadian National's Lil Obie ride at the depot here in McComb, MS yesterday! Yeah, I even rode it! 
http://youtu.be/uL52SmCt8Ro

[jward]

that is not an ac6000, which only csx and union pacific have in north America.     it is a b32-8wh. it is a true oddball fro ge, the closest relatives being the b32-8s that only Norfolk southern has. the b32s are the oldest passenger diesels Amtrak currently runs, and are probably running on borrowed time at this point.

here's one at tyrone, pa last summer:

[Balrog21]

hm does it have the same engine as a 6000? Because it sounded just like my bli(the same whoops, clanks and everything)...the engineer even told me it was a 6000...because I asked.

[Balrog21]

oh well, it was a treat for us all...that sucker is loud though..jeesh!

[jward]

hm does it have the same engine as a 6000? Because it sounded just like my bli(the same whoops, clanks and everything)...the engineer even told me it was a 6000...because I asked.

the b32-8 has a 12 cylinder FDL, the ac6000cw had a 16 cylinder HDL as built. the HDLs were notorious problem children, so GE discontinued them and replaced the existing ones under warranty. Thus, as rebuilt, the union pacific units have a 16 cylinder FDL, making them in effect ac4400s. CSX opted for a 16 cylinder GEVO, making them in effect ES6000s. btw, CSX's use of the 16 cylinder GEVO allowed them to keep the full horsepower rating and is the only north American railroad application of the GEVO16.

I am not surprised that the Amtrak engineer said what he did. Having never been exposed to an ac6000, he probably didn't know what you were talking about.

[M1FredQ]

Thanks everyone for the pictures and video WE really enjoyed them!!!!!!!!!!!!