Railroad Trains for the Soul: Amtrak P42DC GENESIS Overview
Last week, I shared an Electro-Motive familiarization video that featured Conrail's SD80MAC diesel locomotive. And now today, here's an overview video of General Electric's most successful model from the GENESIS Series: Amtrak's 4,250-horsepower P42DC. This video as well as the locomotive was introduced in 1996, which was the year I was born! As the name suggests, the GENESIS represented a new beginning of passenger duty in the United States, especially for the 21st century. Although the P42 wasn't the first GENESIS model, it has a significant number of enhancements over the original 4,000-hp P40DC, other than its increased power output.
While similar to the EMD SD80MAC video, the Amtrak P42 Overview has a lot more details all around the locomotive, especially inside the cab. Among the locations we'll be touring are the operator's cab, the electrical compartment, the engine compartment, the radiator compartment, and the exterior. Some of the major components are unique to the P42 and other GENESIS models, but many of them can be typically found on other modern GE locomotives. Those include the desktop control console, the 7FDL diesel engine, the air compressor, etc. I love the way Amtrak No. 1, the class unit of the entire P42 roster, was used for this training video. We don't see many locomotives assigned with single digit cab numbers like this one.
Whether you're growing up to be a railroad engineer or you're just having fun in your spare time, you’ll appreciate why the GE P42 has been serving virtually all Amtrak routes outside of the electrified Northeast Corridor for over two decades. You won’t want to miss this rare but terrific training video!
Amtrak P42 Locomotive Overview