Over at Trainorders.com, there is a post about an Amtrak water rumor; http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1415509

I have been on many Amtrak trains that have been filled at many different points while in route and never seen or heard anything like this before. By no means do I think this rumor is true.

This weekend, I am in the city of brotherly love, Philly. I have not been out taking any pictures of trains this weekend. But I did get a chance to see an Amtrak train of Amfleet cars but push by a eletric locomotive. I was really impress2d by the speed. It had to be going about a 100 miles an hour. I guessed if I blinked, I would have missed it completely. I have been to Germany and a chance to ride an ICE train. I wonder what it is like to travel at high speeds on Amtrak. Maybe it is time for an adventure.

Natef40Amtrak out

Back in 2000, there was a discussion over at Trainorders about the different models of locomotives used by Amtrak. Somehow, this discussion turned why Amtrak should rebuild it's F40 fleet. I was strongly against rebuilding these machines from a business standpoint. A lot of railfans forget that railroads are in business to move freight in a way that will make them money. One of those ways involves saving fuel. Running locomotives that sucks down thousands of extra gallons a years does not help the cause. To prove this point, the MRL was able to buy 16 new EMD SD70MACe locomotives that saved 20% in fuel over their current SD45. I bet the savings in fuel alone pays for the lease on MRL new locomotives easy.

Back to the F40. Recently, Via rebuilt F40 6400 (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174604). I am not sure of all the upgrades involved in the rebuilding process. It will be interesting to see if Via rebuilds more.

I am still learning how to take better pictures with my camera. My new format to take pictures is RAW. I will let you know how that turns out.