* * *

The arrival of Amtrak's high-speed trains will be delayed until at least mid-August because of a locomotive problem involving bolts that clamp the gearbox to the wheels.

The railroad has halted testing of its high-speed Acela Express trains while the manufacturer, a consortium of Bombardier of Montreal and ALSTOM of Paris, figures out how to fix the problem. Damaged or missing bolts were found on several engines.

"With all the data available to us we believe that the solution is likely to be manufacturing a longer bolt," said Amtrak spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox. Engineering tests are being conducted to see if anything else needs to be done.

The high-speed tilt trains were supposed to start next month after a seven-month delay caused when early testing found that passenger car wheels were wearing too fast.

The new trains, which will operate at up to 150 mph, have six cars and an engine at each end. Unlike trains now in use, where cars can be added as necessary, the new trains operate as a fixed unit.

The consortium is building 20 trains for Amtrak. Several have been completed and are being tested on the railroad, mainly south of New York.

The bolt problem was discovered on the third train produced, which is being run 60,000 miles to see how it holds up. Monitoring equipment detected an anomaly and an inspection discovered that one bolt was missing and the other was broken. Similar problems were found on other engines.

The bolts are 212 inches long and 58inch in diameter. They thread into seats on the wheel unit frame to hold the gearbox in place. There are two such bolts, one at the front and one at the back of the gearbox. Bowersox said the solution will likely be to make a longer bolt to extend through the wheel unit frame and be secured by a nut.

The problem also affects the 15 high-horsepower electric engines that the consortium is building to pull Amtrak's regular electric trains. This will delay the addition of more electric trains on the Boston-Washington run, according to Bowersox.

There are now two round trips daily that use electric locomotives on the entire route. The remaining trains use diesels between New Haven and Boston. Bowersox said Amtrak was close to adding more electric trains, using the new engines, but that because of the bolt problem this will be postponed by a couple of weeks.

Amtrak had anticipated that by the end of the year all trains to Boston would be electric. It could not be learned yesterday whether this new delay would affect that schedule.

Changing the trains from diesel to electric in New Haven creates delays for passengers.

With wire reports

Publication date: 2000-06-21