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Amtrak111inManassasVA

Amtrak #111 in Manassas, VA.

The Amtrak P42DC No. 111 is a locomotive of the P42 variant of the GE Genesis series that is used on Amtrak's diesel powered routes. The 111 was built by General Electric in the Summer of 1997 and was delivered in Phase IV Northeast Corridor paint. 111 was originally allocated for maintenance in Wilmington, Delaware and was part of the Northeast Corridor Keystone Pool, usually operating on Amtrak Keystone services from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It also substituted on Northeast Corridor Virginia Pool trains from time to time, such as the Twilight Shoreliner. The 111 made an appearance in the 2000 film, "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", as it idled at Harrisburg Transportation Center, while the departure of the Rainbow Sun featuring Ex Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 No. 475 was filmed. In 2003, 111's maintenance allocation was changed to Albany-Rensselaer, New York and its pool was changed to the Northeast Corridor North Pool. The 111 was assigned to routes that ran north and west from Albany-Rensselaer, as well as out of Boston, Massachusetts and north from New Haven, Connecticut, including the Maple Leaf, the Downeaster, the Vermonter, and the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited long-distance train, which is how it moved to Albany-Rensselaer from New England. In 2004, 111 was repainted into the Phase Vb paint scheme. In 2008, the 111 began traveling more frequently to and from Chicago, Illinois on the Lake Shore Limited, as its secondary maintenance changeover location, and also began to occasionally work on routes that are not part of the NEC North Pool such as the Capitol Limited. In 2011, 111's front was rebuilt to include a bolted nose cone and a reshaped circular headlight compartment. 111 was also one of the 11 original P42s to be equipped with Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System, the Northeast's predecessor to Positive Train Control, which allows it to regularly act as protect power for trains operating along the Northeast Corridor when electric locomotives break down or when the electrical system is out for maintenance. The 111 has been seen on overnight Northeast Regionals 65/66/67 from time to time when night catenary and bridge work, usually done by Metro-North Railroad and ConnDOT along the New Haven and Shore Lines in Connecticut, requires power to be turned off. As of 2009, 111 is shown to have the Second Generation Variant in the K5LA horn series equipped on all Genesis locomotives. As of September 2020, 111 has seen frequent service on the Lake Shore Limited, as the need for an engine change at New Haven and Albany has been suspended on three truncated routes due to the coronavirus pandemic, which reduces travel demand and non-essential cross border travel. In mid-December 2020, it was seen straying away from its captive area on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

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