F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:To be fair, the F40PH-3 & -3C rebuilds by MK Rail for Metra and Metro North incorporated Tier 0+ emissions and microprocessor controls that have performed pretty flawlessly in-service. But MK painstakingly followed the MPI blueprints from the last all-new F40 production batches, made as few changes as humanly possible for the modern updates, and did its homework on the systems integration. Then Metra and MNRR stuck exactly to script and made no deviations from that spec when they sent their units to MK for rebuild.
chrisf wrote:F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:To be fair, the F40PH-3 & -3C rebuilds by MK Rail for Metra and Metro North incorporated Tier 0+ emissions and microprocessor controls that have performed pretty flawlessly in-service. But MK painstakingly followed the MPI blueprints from the last all-new F40 production batches, made as few changes as humanly possible for the modern updates, and did its homework on the systems integration. Then Metra and MNRR stuck exactly to script and made no deviations from that spec when they sent their units to MK for rebuild.
I'm confused. MK Rail has been called MPI since it spun off from Morrison-Knudsen in 1996.
METRA doesn't have any -C F40s; their entire F40 fleet uses prime mover powered HEP like the original MBTA F40s, and none of METRA's F40s were rebuilt by MPI or MK. Also, all of METRA's were originally built by EMD, not MK/MPI.
The only factory F40PH-3c's are the 6 built in the late 90s for Altamont Commuter Express by MPI. Altamont's -3c's are modernized versions of the -2c's built for MBTA, Caltrain, Coaster, and Tri-Rail, but every other passenger F40PH was built on a shorter frame with HEP driven off the prime mover. Units such as NJ Transit's and Metro-North's are all custom rebuilds with an auxiliary HEP alternator system crammed onto the back of the standard F40's short frame with a carbody extension to cover the extra equipment.
MBTA's last order of -2c's came from MK, but were built to EMD spec. Perhaps this is the source of your confusion.
Even when the first -2c's were built by EMD in 1987-88, they were unique, as everyone else was still buying the standard F40PH/F40PH-2, with METRA's "Winnebago" units an obvious exception. So, MBTA has a long history of ordering nonstandard equipment; it just happens that they got lucky and got some reliable units out of the -2c.
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