New Orange and Red Line Car Acquisition Process

[R36 Combine Coach]

Exterior resembles the PA5 (with orange striping in place of PATH's blue). The cab comes close to resembling a radio station.

[Kilo Echo]

Instead of simplifying the interior, it seems the MBTA is trying to get fancy. The T could take a few lessons from the TA in New York. For instance, owing to passenger complaints about contoured seats, the seating on all new rolling stock comprises benches only. Also, because the glass dividers between doors and seats on the old R46 cars were a frequent target of vandalism, new cars use closely spaced diagonal handrails (bars) to separate seated passengers from the doors. New York's R160s also feature air suspension and improved soundproofing—enhancements that would be most welcome on the MBTA.

[typesix]

All new M(B)TA rapid transit vehicles starting with the 01100s of 1957/58 have had air suspension.

[orange1234]

Instead of simplifying the interior, it seems the MBTA is trying to get fancy. The T could take a few lessons from the TA in New York. For instance, owing to passenger complaints about contoured seats, the seating on all new rolling stock comprises benches only. Also, because the glass dividers between doors and seats on the old R46 cars were a frequent target of vandalism, new cars use closely spaced diagonal handrails (bars) to separate seated passengers from the doors.

I asked an engineer about why the seats aren't benches instead. He told me that it's easier and cheaper to replace a single broken seat instead of an entire bench. Regarding wind screens (glass dividers), the MBTA has never had them installed on any of their rapid transit vehicles. These cars would the first. I was told that this was a request by Transit Police to reduce incidences of theft where thieves snatch valuable items from passengers sitting next to the divider and running as soon as the doors open. They're used on the buses and vandalism doesn't appear to be a problem.

[diburning]

Just found this http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/exclusive-transnets-new-chinese-locomotives-fail-first-test-20170123

I know locomotives are different beasts from subway cars, but this does not reflect highly upon CRRC. Looks like it's just a teething issue (hopefully!)

Johannesburg - A Transnet contract worth almost R8bn for new Chinese-manufactured locomotives has hit a stumbling block as technical problems have plagued the first of the trains to arrive in South Africa.
News24 can reveal that the alternators of the first two diesel locomotives delivered to Transnet by CRRC Corporation, China's state-owned rail behemoth, posed serious problems soon after they arrived in South Africa last year, rendering the locomotives unable to operate.
Transnet is now refusing to accept a further 18 locomotives that are waiting to be shipped to South Africa. The locomotives' alternators "vibrate excessively", say sources familiar with the development.
Alarmingly, problems with the alternators of similar Chinese-manufactured locomotives ordered by Namibia in 2004 played a role in that country's decision to stop using them.

[bgl]

The MBTA just posted up a videos of the new OL in action/testing in China: http://www.universalhub.com/2017/new-orange-line-train-taken-out-spin

[diburning]

Interesting. The video seems to show an A-B-A.5-A set. The first car with a cab, has the operator's sliding windows for looking back. The second car looks like a blind B car on both ends. The third car intrigues me. It appears to have end lighting for if the car ran on the rear of a train, but it does not appear to have a cab on that end judging by what I can see through that first window, and how that window is not a sliding window. The fourth car is too far away to tell for sure, but it does appear to have the sliding window at the end.

[RenegadeMonster]

Anyone read the comments / replies to the MBTA's tweets?

https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/917809194451030019

We have a bunch of comedians folks

[orange1234]

Interesting. The video seems to show an A-B-A.5-A set. The first car with a cab, has the operator's sliding windows for looking back. The second car looks like a blind B car on both ends. The third car intrigues me. It appears to have end lighting for if the car ran on the rear of a train, but it does not appear to have a cab on that end judging by what I can see through that first window, and how that window is not a sliding window. The fourth car is too far away to tell for sure, but it does appear to have the sliding window at the end.

The cars are arranged in A-B married pairs. A cars feature a full-width cab at one end. B cars do not have a cab, but have a hostler panel at the end where the cab should be. This frees up space for passengers during revenue service while allowing T personnel to operate the vehicles from either end when they are doing yard moves.

[Head-end View]

So they will be run in sets of four then?

[Arlington]

So they will be run in sets of four then?

Would they be run A-B A-B B-A B-A with the option of dropping back to 6 from either end (the idea is to run more frequently *and* with 8 cars, isn't it?)

[octr202]

No, sets of 6:

A-B-B-A-B-A

Or some combination thereof, so long as A cars are on either end.

Neither line can handle 8 car trains without some major station surgery.

[Arlington]

The train of OL prototype cars is at the port of Shanghai for shipping to Boston:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017 ... ng-boston/

[Adams_Umass_Boston]

The MBTA is tweeting out some pics

https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/943584263307497473

[The EGE]

I saw three of the four cars in the yard this afternoon: