Notes

On a sunny day in San Francisco, three Caltrain (AAR reporting mark JPBX) units are standing in San Francisco station, waiting to head out again.

The two in front have, after numerous rebuilds, managed to acquire EMD F40PH-2CAT as their type designation, in my opinion a crime against humanity. Who is ever going to remember that? The background engine, the one that looks like a pretend ICE, has the name MP36PH-3C, which is certainly not very cool either. In addition, it hasn’t even managed to get it’s own name yet, only a number.

While the engines look very different at first glance, they are actually very similar when you look closer (download the picture to get full resolution). The trucks are very similar. The structures above the trucks are very similar. If you look closely, you’ll find that even the cab doors measurements are identical. I have no idea what the historical ties between the two engine types are (Wikipedia won’t say), but it looks like there are at least some.