Ex- Pittsburgh & Lake Erie power! I have 35mm slides of this girl working in her original livery in western Pennsylvania many years ago. This was AWESOME to see!
The MP15 is doing about 45mph in the daylight clip. The locomotive passes a fixed point in about 42 frames of video, and it's about 49ft long. That makes about 70 feet per second, which is about 47mph.
Very cool! I live in the Bay Area, south of San Francisco, and we will often see CalTrain use their MP15s to haul broken down trains to the repair shop down in San Jose, and they do it at high rates of speed. It is super fun to watch, and a nice change from the usual power.
I recall seeing a Seaboard System MP15 in a lash-up with GPs on the point of a freight going through Biloxi MS in 1987. None of us has to feel guilty about running our model train switchers at "road speed"!
"You might be able to go over 100, but speed isn't everything. I can only hit 65 but I do more work than you do! Look a sight better than you do while I'm doing it, too, you young whipper snapper!"
Some of their older switchers and or GP38's from Amtrak that still has the old style of "strobe like ditch lights" like get them swapped out into more modern ones that they have.
Sweet catch! Can MP15's do that speed normally? Or does this particular locomotive have special "road gearing"? (which is a thing, but I've never heard of it on a switcher, though the MP15 is more of a utilitarian road diesel/switcher/etc...)
Yeah, the MP15s and the later SW1500s were designed to do track speed like this. Most of them have functionality to automatically transition between yard and road service as the current speed requires. Those transition systems actually go back to very early diesels!
@@zackbobby5550 They don't "automatically transition between yard and road service as the current speed requires." They're just diesel-electric locomotives, just like any other. Using an MP15 in the yard and then taking it out on the road is just like using a GP38 in the yard and then using it on the road. There is no "transition system", and no change in configuration of the locomotive when it leaves the yard. The engineer just sets the throttle to go faster. The "MP", by the way, stands for "multi-purpose" -- the locomotives were designed to be useful both as switchers and on the road. Their top speed is 65mph, and the locomotive in the video is doing about 45mph in the daylight scene.
@beeble2003 Dude, I'm literally an actual engineer lmao. Yes, many diesels have different settings they can transition between. Many of the newer ones, or ones retrofitted with newer computer systems, allow you to select whether you want Road Mode or Switching Mode. This basically sets the Load Regulator to different settings based on if you want to get going quickly or get going smoothly. A lot of older units and road-switcher units are set up to be set to switcher settings at lower speeds, and somewhere in the low 20s of mph they transition to road mode. I don't know where you got your information or why you're so sure of it, but I know for a fact (because ya know, I'm actually an engineer that went to school for this) that what I'm saying is true. Many locomotives absolutely have road and switcher settings.
@@zackbobby5550 Are you referring to the traction motor connection transition? Series, series-parallel, full-parallel. Full parallel for zoomies, if the locomotive is equipped for it.
@@beeble2003 They do automatically transition, although the older ones were transitioned manually by the engineer. Most switchers were not equipped with the transition control of traction motor connections that allowed higher speeds. This, along with switcher trucks and low-speed, high-torque gearing, limits such locomotives. It doesn't matter how much you notch up the throttle, you won't hit these speeds in a conventional switcher. At least, not without damaging something.
Seeing an MP15 doing near track speed is wild.
Should come to Long Island Happens bere every single day 😂
@@bobbybrisk643I was also gonna say that they definitely hit 50-60 mph when running lite
It's doing about 45mph in the daylight clip.
True, True
@@Trentm129On Long Island a lite engine is restricted to 25.
Seeing a switcher just absolutely HAULING, is quite a sight in 2024
Ex- Pittsburgh & Lake Erie power! I have 35mm slides of this girl working in her original livery in western Pennsylvania many years ago. This was AWESOME to see!
That MP15's horn.. while running nearly track speed. Now I'Ve seen and heard it all. Awesome catches
Can you imagine that engineer of that switcher thinking.." ...Now I d heard stories that this engine could go faster...but.... WOW !!!!. "
It must be an interesting feeling and view driving a switcher in reverse at that speed.
0:43 Never seen gates flash like that. Very cool
The MP15 is doing about 45mph in the daylight clip. The locomotive passes a fixed point in about 42 frames of video, and it's about 49ft long. That makes about 70 feet per second, which is about 47mph.
The MP15DC has a top speed of 65 mph (105 km/h), and it looks like it's running at close to top speed in this video.
It's doing about 45mph in the daylight scene. The locomotive is about 49 feet long and passes a fixed point in about 42 frames of the video.
Very cool! I live in the Bay Area, south of San Francisco, and we will often see CalTrain use their MP15s to haul broken down trains to the repair shop down in San Jose, and they do it at high rates of speed. It is super fun to watch, and a nice change from the usual power.
I wish those came on the Pacific Surfline
1:50 Amtrak if they locked in
Me playing TS classic
I recall seeing a Seaboard System MP15 in a lash-up with GPs on the point of a freight going through Biloxi MS in 1987. None of us has to feel guilty about running our model train switchers at "road speed"!
Nice catches!
Thanks!
Love to hear 537s spooky horn
1:50 That is AWESOME
oh hi
Nice train catch!
Looks like phase 6, Heritance unit 108 got a new horn sound
Awesome video and catch. I missed it at Cross road crossing in Bradford mass that night. I hope to see that MP15 switcher sometime in the future.
This is what happens when those New Chargers start talking down to a lowly switcher
That switcher has been around a lot longer and will out last the chargers.
"You might be able to go over 100, but speed isn't everything. I can only hit 65 but I do more work than you do! Look a sight better than you do while I'm doing it, too, you young whipper snapper!"
@@skyraiderjet I'm so sick of seeing those Chargers. They're just so "meh".
Awesome 😎
That was worth watching LOL a switcher
0:48 did the crossing gates just take a dump?
Nice railway video, Like.
“That’s not even a real consist!”
The consist: 1:53
An MP15 hauling one coach at track speed is the most “model railroad sized” passenger train ever.
Good looking unit
I think this consis should be sort of like a office car special
No, they're moving rolling stock from one place to another.
@beeble2003 I know that what this is but as an office car special touring their trackage or for testing future trackage either way it could be cool
Some of their older switchers and or GP38's from Amtrak that still has the old style of "strobe like ditch lights" like get them swapped out into more modern ones that they have.
Why doesn't the switcher have the position lights alternating? I saw that both lights were on intermittently at the same time
bro what are those ditchlights?
Seriously, great vid!
Oh hell no they changed 108’s horn ?!? It sounds horrible
Is that single car even powered up?
Sweet catch! Can MP15's do that speed normally? Or does this particular locomotive have special "road gearing"? (which is a thing, but I've never heard of it on a switcher, though the MP15 is more of a utilitarian road diesel/switcher/etc...)
Yeah, the MP15s and the later SW1500s were designed to do track speed like this. Most of them have functionality to automatically transition between yard and road service as the current speed requires. Those transition systems actually go back to very early diesels!
@@zackbobby5550 They don't "automatically transition between yard and road service as the current speed requires." They're just diesel-electric locomotives, just like any other. Using an MP15 in the yard and then taking it out on the road is just like using a GP38 in the yard and then using it on the road. There is no "transition system", and no change in configuration of the locomotive when it leaves the yard. The engineer just sets the throttle to go faster.
The "MP", by the way, stands for "multi-purpose" -- the locomotives were designed to be useful both as switchers and on the road. Their top speed is 65mph, and the locomotive in the video is doing about 45mph in the daylight scene.
@beeble2003 Dude, I'm literally an actual engineer lmao. Yes, many diesels have different settings they can transition between. Many of the newer ones, or ones retrofitted with newer computer systems, allow you to select whether you want Road Mode or Switching Mode. This basically sets the Load Regulator to different settings based on if you want to get going quickly or get going smoothly. A lot of older units and road-switcher units are set up to be set to switcher settings at lower speeds, and somewhere in the low 20s of mph they transition to road mode. I don't know where you got your information or why you're so sure of it, but I know for a fact (because ya know, I'm actually an engineer that went to school for this) that what I'm saying is true. Many locomotives absolutely have road and switcher settings.
@@zackbobby5550 Are you referring to the traction motor connection transition? Series, series-parallel, full-parallel. Full parallel for zoomies, if the locomotive is equipped for it.
@@beeble2003 They do automatically transition, although the older ones were transitioned manually by the engineer. Most switchers were not equipped with the transition control of traction motor connections that allowed higher speeds. This, along with switcher trucks and low-speed, high-torque gearing, limits such locomotives. It doesn't matter how much you notch up the throttle, you won't hit these speeds in a conventional switcher. At least, not without damaging something.
what speed was that?
The daylight scene is about 45mph, based on the number of video frames it takes the locomotive to travel its own length.
What are those ridiculous ditch lights
Noticed the Downeaster no longer has its usual “cabbage” car, replaced with another GE Genesis. Any idea why?
Amtrak, this is a clue of the chargers in this route?
Just P42's operate up here, with the Cabbage Control cars as of now.
@@ABMP4D3 It is understandable, since the Chargers are weak in the snow, unlike the beloved Genesis.
@@sotomanuel3must be a maintenance thing, doesn’t seem to have a problem in Canada
@@TheRandCrews maybe the problem are the united states chargers, the chargers of canada are decent
Who was on the single car? Must have been impotent
The description makes it sound like he was just moving a coach somewhere where it needed to be. Like a deadhead move.
@@davidwhiting1761 impotent?? or important??
@@curleyhoward1399 Either / or.
That is the saddest sounding horn I’ve ever heard in my life 😆😆
Im the 600th like lets goooo!
Nice catches!