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78-804: The Siemens ACS-64 , or Amtrak Cities Sprinter , is an electric locomotive designed by Siemens Mobility for use on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and the Keystone Corridor in the northeastern United States . The design was based on locomotives Siemens created for use in Europe and Asia, but with changes to comply with American standards. The ACS-64 is built at the Siemens factory in Florin, California , located outside of Sacramento . The first 70 locomotives were built for Amtrak to replace

156-494: A $ 562.9 million loan from the federal government's Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program for the new locomotives. The additional funding over and above the $ 466 million will cover capital spare parts and facility improvements to accommodate the ACS-64s. Amtrak and Siemens Mobility unveiled the first three completed locomotives on May 13, 2013. They were tested during the summer of 2013: Nos. 600 and 601 at

234-456: A collision. Additionally, the new locomotives are more energy-efficient than those that they replace, and lack dynamic braking grids in favor of 100% regenerative braking , depending on grid receptiveness. Energy generated from the brake may also be used to meet HEP needs, further reducing current draw from the grid. Each locomotive has two electrical converter units with three IGBT based, water cooled output inverters per converter. Two of

312-452: A combustion-powered locomotive (i.e., steam- or diesel-powered ) could cause a safety issue due to the risks of fire, explosion or fumes in a confined space. Battery locomotives are preferred for mine railways where gas could be ignited by trolley-powered units arcing at the collection shoes, or where electrical resistance could develop in the supply or return circuits, especially at rail joints, and allow dangerous current leakage into

390-429: A ground and polished journal that is integral to the axle. The other side of the housing has a tongue-shaped protuberance that engages a matching slot in the truck (bogie) bolster, its purpose being to act as a torque reaction device, as well as support. Power transfer from the motor to the axle is effected by spur gearing , in which a pinion on the motor shaft engages a bull gear on the axle. Both gears are enclosed in

468-521: A hollow shaft drive. Locomotive braking is facilitated by cheek mounted disc brakes on each wheel. The locomotives are compliant with the " Buy America Act " and were assembled at the Siemens factory in Florin, California , with traction and electrical equipment being manufactured at Siemens facilities in Norcross and Alpharetta, Georgia . Traction inverters were manufactured in Alpharetta, and

546-415: A liquid-tight housing containing lubricating oil. The type of service in which the locomotive is used dictates the gear ratio employed. Numerically high ratios are commonly found on freight units, whereas numerically low ratios are typical of passenger engines. The Whyte notation system for classifying steam locomotives is not adequate for describing the variety of electric locomotive arrangements, though

624-409: A modern locomotive can be up to 50% of the cost of the vehicle. Electric traction allows the use of regenerative braking, in which the motors are used as brakes and become generators that transform the motion of the train into electrical power that is then fed back into the lines. This system is particularly advantageous in mountainous operations, as descending locomotives can produce a large portion of

702-499: A new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives at the Fives-Lille Company. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed the rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via

780-479: A single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high voltage national networks. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a mainline rather than just a short stretch. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz Works . The electrical system

858-410: A smaller rail parallel to the main track, above ground level. There are multiple pickups on both sides of the locomotive in order to accommodate the breaks in the third rail required by trackwork. This system is preferred in subways because of the close clearances it affords. During the initial development of railroad electrical propulsion, a number of drive systems were devised to couple the output of

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936-841: A speed of 13 km/h. During four months, the train carried 90,000 passengers on a 300-meter-long (984 feet) circular track. The electricity (150 V DC) was supplied through a third insulated rail between the tracks. A contact roller was used to collect the electricity. The world's first electric tram line opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany, in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens (see Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway and Berlin Straßenbahn ). Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It

1014-700: Is a program established in the United States by the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Under the RRIF program, funds can be made available for the development or improvement of railroad infrastructure. The Federal Railroad Administration can provide direct loans or loan guarantees of amounts up to $ 3.5 billion to state or local governments, railroads, government sponsored companies, or railroad joint ventures. This North America rail-related article

1092-654: Is common in Canada and the U.S.) but not for passenger or mixed passenger/freight traffic like on many European railway lines, especially where heavy freight trains must be run at comparatively high speeds (80 km/h or more). These factors led to high degrees of electrification in most European countries. In some countries, like Switzerland, even electric shunters are common and many private sidings are served by electric locomotives. During World War II , when materials to build new electric locomotives were not available, Swiss Federal Railways installed electric heating elements in

1170-418: Is no easy way to do the voltage/current transformation for DC so efficiently as achieved by AC transformers. AC traction still occasionally uses dual overhead wires instead of single-phase lines. The resulting three-phase current drives induction motors , which do not have sensitive commutators and permit easy realisation of a regenerative brake . Speed is controlled by changing the number of pole pairs in

1248-463: Is now employed largely unmodified by ÖBB to haul their Railjet which is however limited to a top speed of 230 km/h due to economic and infrastructure concerns. An electric locomotive can be supplied with power from The distinguishing design features of electric locomotives are: The most fundamental difference lies in the choice of AC or DC. The earliest systems used DC, as AC was not well understood and insulation material for high voltage lines

1326-414: Is powered by onboard batteries; a kind of battery electric vehicle . Such locomotives are used where a diesel or conventional electric locomotive would be unsuitable. An example is maintenance trains on electrified lines when the electricity supply is turned off. Another use for battery locomotives is in industrial facilities (e.g. explosives factories, oil, and gas refineries or chemical factories) where

1404-483: Is the high cost for infrastructure: overhead lines or third rail, substations, and control systems. The impact of this varies depending on local laws and regulations. For example, public policy in the U.S. interferes with electrification: higher property taxes are imposed on privately owned rail facilities if they are electrified. The EPA regulates exhaust emissions on locomotive and marine engines, similar to regulations on car & freight truck emissions, in order to limit

1482-403: Is widespread in Europe, with electric multiple units commonly used for passenger trains. Due to higher density schedules, operating costs are more dominant with respect to the infrastructure costs than in the U.S. and electric locomotives have much lower operating costs than diesel. In addition, governments were motivated to electrify their railway networks due to coal shortages experienced during

1560-473: The Center City Tunnel . After testing the unit on most of SEPTA's lines, it was returned to Amtrak on March 21, 2016, for completion of its acceptance testing. From July 2016 until April 2017, SEPTA leased several ACS-64 units to pull five Amfleet cars and several MARC Train sets as emergency rolling stock after all Silverliner V cars were temporarily pulled from service. SEPTA's first ACS-64

1638-514: The Ganz works and Societa Italiana Westinghouse , was an electro-mechanical converter , allowing the use of three-phase motors from single-phase AC, eliminating the need for two overhead wires. In 1923, the first phase-converter locomotive in Hungary was constructed on the basis of Kandó's designs and serial production began soon after. The first installation, at 16 kV 50 Hz, was in 1932 on

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1716-617: The Pennsylvania Railroad applied classes to its electric locomotives as if they were steam. For example, the PRR GG1 class indicates that it is arranged like two 4-6-0 class G locomotives coupled back-to-back. UIC classification system was typically used for electric locomotives, as it could handle the complex arrangements of powered and unpowered axles and could distinguish between coupled and uncoupled drive systems. A battery–electric locomotive (or battery locomotive)

1794-659: The Pennsylvania Railroad , which had introduced electric locomotives because of the NYC regulation, electrified its entire territory east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad (the Milwaukee Road ), the last transcontinental line to be built, electrified its lines across the Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific Ocean starting in 1915. A few East Coastlines, notably

1872-632: The Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of

1950-533: The SJ Class Dm 3 locomotives on Swedish Railways produced a record 7,200 kW. Locomotives capable of commercial passenger service at 200 km/h appeared in Germany and France in the same period. Further improvements resulted from the introduction of electronic control systems, which permitted the use of increasingly lighter and more powerful motors that could be fitted inside the bogies (standardizing from

2028-760: The Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado , and No. 602 on the NEC. On February 6, 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden visited 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to tour ACS-64 #600. In his subsequent remarks he stressed the importance of infrastructure investment as well as the important role Amtrak's new locomotives will play in serving the critical artery of the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak and Siemens celebrated

2106-479: The United Kingdom (750 V and 1,500 V); Netherlands , Japan , Ireland (1,500 V); Slovenia , Belgium , Italy , Poland , Russia , Spain (3,000 V) and Washington, D.C. (750 V). Electrical circuits require two connections (or for three phase AC , three connections). From the beginning, the track was used for one side of the circuit. Unlike model railroads the track normally supplies only one side,

2184-531: The Virginian Railway and the Norfolk and Western Railway , electrified short sections of their mountain crossings. However, by this point electrification in the United States was more associated with dense urban traffic and the use of electric locomotives declined in the face of dieselization. Diesel shared some of the electric locomotive's advantages over steam and the cost of building and maintaining

2262-404: The traction motors to the wheels. Early locomotives often used jackshaft drives. In this arrangement, the traction motor is mounted within the body of the locomotive and drives the jackshaft through a set of gears. This system was employed because the first traction motors were too large and heavy to mount directly on the axles. Due to the number of mechanical parts involved, frequent maintenance

2340-532: The 1990s onwards on asynchronous three-phase motors, fed through GTO-inverters). In the 1980s, the development of very high-speed service brought further electrification. The Japanese Shinkansen and the French TGV were the first systems for which devoted high-speed lines were built from scratch. Similar programs were undertaken in Italy , Germany and Spain ; in the United States the only new mainline service

2418-492: The 56 km section of the Hungarian State Railways between Budapest and Komárom . This proved successful and the electrification was extended to Hegyeshalom in 1934. In Europe, electrification projects initially focused on mountainous regions for several reasons: coal supplies were difficult, hydroelectric power was readily available, and electric locomotives gave more traction on steeper lines. This

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2496-541: The B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Parallel tracks on the Pennsylvania Railroad had shown that coal smoke from steam locomotives would be a major operating issue and a public nuisance. Three Bo+Bo units were initially used, the EL-1 Model. At the south end of the electrified section; they coupled onto the locomotive and train and pulled it through

2574-691: The Buchli drive was mainly used by the French SNCF and Swiss Federal Railways . The quill drive was also developed about this time and mounted the traction motor above or to the side of the axle and coupled to the axle through a reduction gear and a hollow shaft – the quill – flexibly connected to the driving axle. The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 locomotive used a quill drive. Again, as traction motors continued to shrink in size and weight, quill drives gradually fell out of favor in low-speed freight locomotives. In high-speed passenger locomotives used in Europe,

2652-509: The First and Second World Wars. Diesel locomotives have less power compared to electric locomotives for the same weight and dimensions. For instance, the 2,200 kW of a modern British Rail Class 66 diesel locomotive was matched in 1927 by the electric SBB-CFF-FFS Ae 4/7 (2,300 kW), which is lighter. However, for low speeds, the tractive effort is more important than power. Diesel engines can be competitive for slow freight traffic (as it

2730-481: The London Underground. One setback for third rail systems is that level crossings become more complex, usually requiring a gap section. The original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad electrification used a sliding pickup (a contact shoe or simply the "shoe") in an overhead channel, a system quickly found to be unsatisfactory. It was replaced by a third rail , in which a pickup rides underneath or on top of

2808-505: The Northeast Corridor, and have a maximum power of 6,400 kilowatts (8,600 hp). The locomotives are designed to be capable of accelerating 18 Amfleet cars to maximum speeds as high as 125 mph (201 km/h) on the Northeast Corridor in a little over eight minutes, with trains of eight Amfleets taking two and a half minutes to reach the same speed. They had advanced safety systems, including specialized couplers designed to keep trains from rolling over, jackknifing, or derailing during

2886-430: The amount of carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons, nitric oxides, and soot output from these mobile power sources. Because railroad infrastructure is privately owned in the U.S., railroads are unwilling to make the necessary investments for electrification. In Europe and elsewhere, railway networks are considered part of the national transport infrastructure, just like roads, highways and waterways, so are often financed by

2964-457: The boilers of some steam shunters , fed from the overhead supply, to deal with the shortage of imported coal. Recent political developments in many European countries to enhance public transit have led to another boost for electric traction. In addition, gaps in the unelectrified track are closed to avoid replacing electric locomotives by diesel for these sections. The necessary modernization and electrification of these lines are possible, due to

3042-530: The completion of the last ACS-64, No. 670, in Florin, California , on June 2, 2016. The celebration concluded with unit No. 670 being towed by Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman's train bound for Washington, D.C. Locomotive No. 670 entered service in August 2016, completing the acceptance of the Amtrak order. Unit 600 entered service on February 7, 2014, on Northeast Regional train 171 from Boston to Washington, D.C. As

3120-445: The design were made to comply with American crashworthiness requirements, including the addition of crumple zones and anti-climbing features as well as structural strengthening of the cab, resulting in a heavier locomotive than the previous models. The body is a monocoque structure with integral frames and sidewalls. The locomotives are able to operate from the 25 kV 60 Hz , 12.5 kV 60 Hz , and 12 kV 25 Hz power supplies used on

3198-568: The early development of electric locomotion was driven by the increasing use of tunnels, particularly in urban areas. Smoke from steam locomotives was noxious and municipalities were increasingly inclined to prohibit their use within their limits. The first electrically worked underground line was the City and South London Railway , prompted by a clause in its enabling act prohibiting the use of steam power. It opened in 1890, using electric locomotives built by Mather and Platt . Electricity quickly became

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3276-474: The electrification of many European main lines. European electric locomotive technology had improved steadily from the 1920s onwards. By comparison, the Milwaukee Road class EP-2 (1918) weighed 240 t, with a power of 3,330 kW and a maximum speed of 112 km/h; in 1935, German E 18 had a power of 2,800 kW, but weighed only 108 tons and had a maximum speed of 150 km/h. On 29 March 1955, French locomotive CC 7107 reached 331 km/h. In 1960

3354-508: The expo site at Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km. Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than the DC motors of

3432-585: The financing of the railway infrastructure by the state. British electric multiple units were first introduced in the 1890s, and current versions provide public transit and there are also a number of electric locomotive classes, such as: Class 76 , Class 86 , Class 87 , Class 90 , Class 91 and Class 92 . Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union have a mix of 3,000 V DC and 25 kV AC for historical reasons. Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing The Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program

3510-756: The first main-line three-phase locomotives to the 40 km Burgdorf–Thun railway (highest point 770 metres), Switzerland. The first implementation of industrial frequency single-phase AC supply for locomotives came from Oerlikon in 1901, using the designs of Hans Behn-Eschenburg and Emil Huber-Stockar ; installation on the Seebach-Wettingen line of the Swiss Federal Railways was completed in 1904. The 15 kV, 50 Hz 345 kW (460 hp), 48 tonne locomotives used transformers and rotary converters to power DC traction motors. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed

3588-399: The following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. The first electric passenger train was presented by Werner von Siemens at Berlin in 1879. The locomotive was driven by a 2.2 kW, series-wound motor, and the train, consisting of the locomotive and three cars, reached

3666-1013: The ground. The first electric locomotive built in 1837 was a battery locomotive. It was built by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland , and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Another early example was at the Kennecott Copper Mine , McCarthy, Alaska , wherein 1917 the underground haulage ways were widened to enable working by two battery locomotives of 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 short tons (4.0 long tons; 4.1 t). In 1928, Kennecott Copper ordered four 700-series electric locomotives with onboard batteries. These locomotives weighed 85 short tons (76 long tons; 77 t) and operated on 750 volts overhead trolley wire with considerable further range whilst running on batteries. The locomotives provided several decades of service using nickel–iron battery (Edison) technology. The batteries were replaced with lead-acid batteries , and

3744-512: The inefficiency of generating the electricity). Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking , which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise. The lack of reciprocating parts means electric locomotives are easier on

3822-450: The inverters power the traction motors; the third unit supplies head-end and auxiliary power. The HEP/auxiliary inverters are dual-redundant and identical (rated 1,000 kW or 1,300 hp), allowing the locomotive to remain in service should one inverter fail en route. The locomotive bogies are fabricated steel designs, with low-lying traction links and center pivot pin. The traction motors are frame-mounted, with torque transmitted via

3900-1144: The locomotives were retired shortly afterward. All four locomotives were donated to museums, but one was scrapped. The others can be seen at the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad , Iowa, and at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California. The Toronto Transit Commission previously operated on the Toronto subway a battery electric locomotive built by Nippon Sharyo in 1968 and retired in 2009. London Underground regularly operates battery–electric locomotives for general maintenance work. As of 2022 , battery locomotives with 7 and 14 MWh energy capacity have been ordered by rail lines and are under development. In 2020, Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company , manufacturers of stored electrical power systems using supercapacitors initially developed for use in trams , announced that they were extending their product line to include locomotives. Electrification

3978-697: The new locomotives entered service, they gradually displaced the electric locomotives that Amtrak had previously operated. The extra six ACS-64 units were to be used to increase the number of locomotives available for use at any point, and to add more frequent service in the future. The final unit, #670, was delivered from Siemens on June 2, 2016, and entered revenue service in August of the same year. In May 2015, SEPTA ( Philadelphia 's mass-transit authority) approved an initial order for 13 ACS-64 locomotives for commuter service to replace its 7 AEM-7 and single ALP-44 locomotives on push-pull express trains, with an option for an additional five locomotives to be added to

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4056-411: The order. On November 11, 2015, Siemens announced that it was awarded the $ 118 million contract for the initial 13 locomotives. The total contract value, including the option for additional locomotives, is worth $ 154 million. On February 29, 2016, Amtrak unit 664 began test runs on SEPTA Regional Rail branches to test the height of the locomotives on SEPTA territory, and to ensure clearance through

4134-434: The other side(s) of the circuit being provided separately. Railways generally tend to prefer overhead lines , often called " catenaries " after the support system used to hold the wire parallel to the ground. Three collection methods are possible: Of the three, the pantograph method is best suited for high-speed operation. Some locomotives use both overhead and third rail collection (e.g. British Rail Class 92 ). In Europe,

4212-424: The performance of AC locomotives was sufficiently developed to allow all its future installations, regardless of terrain, to be of this standard, with its associated cheaper and more efficient infrastructure. The SNCF decision, ignoring as it did the 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of high-voltage DC already installed on French routes, was influential in the standard selected for other countries in Europe. The 1960s saw

4290-495: The period of electrification of the Italian railways, tests were made as to which type of power to use: in some sections there was a 3,600 V 16 + 2 ⁄ 3  Hz three-phase power supply, in others there was 1,500 V DC, 3 kV DC and 10 kV AC 45 Hz supply. After WW2, 3 kV DC power was chosen for the entire Italian railway system. A later development of Kandó, working with both

4368-573: The power required for ascending trains. Most systems have a characteristic voltage and, in the case of AC power, a system frequency. Many locomotives have been equipped to handle multiple voltages and frequencies as systems came to overlap or were upgraded. American FL9 locomotives were equipped to handle power from two different electrical systems and could also operate as diesel–electrics. While today's systems predominantly operate on AC, many DC systems are still in use – e.g., in South Africa and

4446-552: The power supply infrastructure, which discouraged new installations, brought on the elimination of most main-line electrification outside the Northeast. Except for a few captive systems (e.g. the Deseret Power Railroad ), by 2000 electrification was confined to the Northeast Corridor and some commuter service; even there, freight service was handled by diesel. Development continued in Europe, where electrification

4524-544: The power supply of choice for subways, abetted by Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. Surface and elevated rapid transit systems generally used steam until forced to convert by ordinance. The first use of electrification on an American main line was on a four-mile stretch of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting the main portion of

4602-400: The quill drive is still predominant. Another drive was the " bi-polar " system, in which the motor armature was the axle itself, the frame and field assembly of the motor being attached to the truck (bogie) in a fixed position. The motor had two field poles, which allowed a limited amount of vertical movement of the armature. This system was of limited value since the power output of each motor

4680-740: The railroad's fleet of aging AEM-7 and unreliable HHP-8 locomotives. The first ACS-64 entered service in February 2014 and deliveries continued until August 2016. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Southeastern Pennsylvania operates a fleet of 15 ACS-64s since August 2018, on the agency's Regional Rail Lines. The design is based on the EuroSprinter and the Vectron platforms, which Siemens sells in Europe and Asia. Significant structural changes to

4758-420: The recommended geometry and shape of pantographs are defined by standard EN 50367/IEC 60486 Mass transit systems and suburban lines often use a third rail instead of overhead wire. It allows for smaller tunnels and lower clearance under bridges, and has advantages for intensive traffic that it is a very sturdy system, not sensitive to snapping overhead wires. Some systems use four rails, especially some lines in

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4836-439: The state. Operators of the rolling stock pay fees according to rail use. This makes possible the large investments required for the technically and, in the long-term, also economically advantageous electrification. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen , and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Davidson later built a larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at

4914-399: The stator circuit, with acceleration controlled by switching additional resistors in, or out, of the rotor circuit. The two-phase lines are heavy and complicated near switches, where the phases have to cross each other. The system was widely used in northern Italy until 1976 and is still in use on some Swiss rack railways . The simple feasibility of a fail-safe electric brake is an advantage of

4992-442: The system, while speed control and the two-phase lines are problematic. Rectifier locomotives, which used AC power transmission and DC motors, were common, though DC commutators had problems both in starting and at low velocities. Today's advanced electric locomotives use brushless three-phase AC induction motors . These polyphase machines are powered from GTO -, IGCT - or IGBT -based inverters. The cost of electronic devices in

5070-607: The time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1896, Oerlikon installed the first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking and are thus well suited to steeply graded routes; in 1899 Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) supplied

5148-960: The track, reducing track maintenance. Power plant capacity is far greater than any individual locomotive uses, so electric locomotives can have a higher power output than diesel locomotives and they can produce even higher short-term surge power for fast acceleration. Electric locomotives are ideal for commuter rail service with frequent stops. Electric locomotives are used on freight routes with consistently high traffic volumes, or in areas with advanced rail networks. Power plants, even if they burn fossil fuels , are far cleaner than mobile sources such as locomotive engines. The power can also come from low-carbon or renewable sources , including geothermal power , hydroelectric power , biomass , solar power , nuclear power and wind turbines . Electric locomotives usually cost 20% less than diesel locomotives, their maintenance costs are 25–35% lower, and cost up to 50% less to run. The chief disadvantage of electrification

5226-556: The traction motors and gear units were manufactured in Norwood, Ohio . In October 2010, Amtrak ordered 70 locomotives at a cost of US$ 466 million, to be delivered beginning in February 2013. The order was the second part of Amtrak's company-wide fleet-replacement program, after an order for 130 Viewliner II passenger cars was placed in July 2010. On June 30, 2011, US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced that Amtrak had received

5304-670: The tunnels. Railroad entrances to New York City required similar tunnels and the smoke problems were more acute there. A collision in the Park Avenue tunnel in 1902 led the New York State legislature to outlaw the use of smoke-generating locomotives south of the Harlem River after 1 July 1908. In response, electric locomotives began operation in 1904 on the New York Central Railroad . In the 1930s,

5382-443: The use of low currents; transmission losses are proportional to the square of the current (e.g. twice the current means four times the loss). Thus, high power can be conducted over long distances on lighter and cheaper wires. Transformers in the locomotives transform this power to a low voltage and high current for the motors. A similar high voltage, low current system could not be employed with direct current locomotives because there

5460-521: Was an extension of electrification over the Northeast Corridor from New Haven, Connecticut , to Boston, Massachusetts , though new electric light rail systems continued to be built. On 2 September 2006, a standard production Siemens electric locomotive of the Eurosprinter type ES64-U4 ( ÖBB Class 1216) achieved 357 km/h (222 mph), the record for a locomotive-hauled train, on the new line between Ingolstadt and Nuremberg. This locomotive

5538-471: Was delivered on December 14, 2017, by which time SEPTA had increased its order to 15 locomotives. The first unit entered service on the Paoli/Thorndale Line on July 11, 2018. [REDACTED] Media related to Siemens ACS-64 locomotives at Wikimedia Commons Electric locomotive Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90% (not including

5616-404: Was limited. The EP-2 bi-polar electrics used by the Milwaukee Road compensated for this problem by using a large number of powered axles. Modern freight electric locomotives, like their Diesel–electric counterparts, almost universally use axle-hung traction motors, with one motor for each powered axle. In this arrangement, one side of the motor housing is supported by plain bearings riding on

5694-399: Was necessary. The jackshaft drive was abandoned for all but the smallest units when smaller and lighter motors were developed, Several other systems were devised as the electric locomotive matured. The Buchli drive was a fully spring-loaded system, in which the weight of the driving motors was completely disconnected from the driving wheels. First used in electric locomotives from the 1920s,

5772-498: Was not available. DC locomotives typically run at relatively low voltage (600 to 3,000 volts); the equipment is therefore relatively massive because the currents involved are large in order to transmit sufficient power. Power must be supplied at frequent intervals as the high currents result in large transmission system losses. As AC motors were developed, they became the predominant type, particularly on longer routes. High voltages (tens of thousands of volts) are used because this allows

5850-463: Was particularly applicable in Switzerland, where almost all lines are electrified. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II . The company had assessed the industrial-frequency AC line routed through the steep Höllental Valley , Germany, which was under French administration following the war. After trials, the company decided that

5928-526: Was the first in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first electrified Hungarian railway lines were opened in 1887. Budapest (See: BHÉV ): Ráckeve line (1887), Szentendre line (1888), Gödöllő line (1888), Csepel line (1912). Much of

6006-513: Was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. The voltage was significantly higher than used earlier and it required new designs for electric motors and switching devices. The three-phase two-wire system was used on several railways in Northern Italy and became known as "the Italian system". Kandó was invited in 1905 to undertake the management of Società Italiana Westinghouse and led the development of several Italian electric locomotives. During

6084-546: Was widespread. 1,500 V DC is still used on some lines near France and 25 kV 50 Hz is used by high-speed trains. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission for the International Electrotechnical Exhibition , using three-phase AC , between a hydro–electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and

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