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Altamont Corridor Express V8

The Altamont Corridor Express is a commuter train in the United States, more specifically the state of California. It has been in operation since October 1998, and runs for a distance of 85 miles from Stockton to San Jose (a north to south route). The A.C.E. stops at 10 stations on its run, which takes around 2 hours and 12 minutes to complete:

Stockton
Lathrop/Manteca
Tracy
Vasco Road
Livermore
Pleasanton
Fremont
Great America
Santa Clara
San Jose

The station in San Jose is a busy interchange, served by not just the Altamont Corridor Express, but also Caltrain and Amtrak's Coast Starlight and Capitol Corridor services. Caltrain is a commuter operation running from San Francisco to Gilroy, although the majority of services only go as far as San Jose.

When the A.C.E. started running in 1998, service consisted of just two north and two southbound trains each weekday. By 2012, this had increased to four trains in each direction. In September 2019, weekend service was finally added to the timetable. The Saturday-only weekend service consisted of two trains in each direction, with the usual four each way still running on weekdays.

The train used to be called the 'Altamont Commuter Express'. This named was changed to 'Altamont Corridor Express' in December 2012, with the purpose of reflecting plans for a broader scope of service than just the Stockton to San Jose corridor.

The Altamont Corridor Express uses locomotive-hauled trains for their service. The fleet consists of six F40PH-3C locomotives (built by Motive Power Inc. between 1998 and 2004), and a total of 29 passenger cars. The cars are all Bombardier Bi-Level stock, a common type on U.S. commuter trains. Originally 30 cars were in service, but cab-car No. 3309 was wrecked in 2016 after a mudslide.

As well as the F40PH-3C's, four Siemens SC-44 Chargers have been ordered for A.C.E. service. These engines are numbered from 3110 to 3113, and they began testing in February 2020. They are yet to enter service at the time of me uploading this re-skin.

The way in which A.C.E. trains operate on weekdays is like this - In the morning peak period, four southbound trains run from Stockton to San Jose, with the first one leaving at 4:20am and the last at 7:05. Once each train arrives in San Jose, they are driven to the stabling sidings near Tamien, which is a Caltrain station a few miles down the line. The first morning train arrives in San Jose at 6:32am, with the last one arriving at 9:17am.

The trains sit in Tamien throughout the middle of the day, then gradually head back to San Jose for the afternoon passenger services back to Stockton. The first or four afternoon services leaves San Jose at 3:35pm, arriving in Stockton at 5:47pm. The last afternoon train leaves San Jose at 6:38pm and doesn't arrive in Stockton until 8:50pm.