by bostontrainguy
From the RPA website:
Speaking of new equipment, Amtrak is ready to move any day now with a Request for Proposals (RFP) to replace the diesel locomotive fleet, and the plan is to move quickly to award the contract and begin getting locomotives built and into service . . . . Next up will be identifying ways to replace the Superliner Is and IIs which are now reaching the end of their reasonable service lives. Anderson acknowledged that while he had talked in November at the RPA meeting about possibly re-fitting these cars, it has since emerged that they are simply too old and have too many serious concerns--including the need for all new frames--that the answer really is replacement rather than refurbishment.
The original Superliner design is over 40 years old. Just wondering if with new technology, systems, and some clever engineering you can build a new Superliner III that would be able to travel the entire system? That would be a maximum height of 15' 8" I believe. The car would be equipped with low and high platform doors.
It would seem that you would have at least seven feet per level to work with (based on a 1.5' TOR bottom floor height). That doesn't sound impossible to accomplish.
It would be so much more cost-efficient to operate one type high-capacity long distance car over the entire Amtrak map. Better modual construction would allow more flexible car layouts where Amtrak could experiment with new concepts and make quicker changes to interior configurations.
Don't know if it could be done, but the efficiency of the bi-level design makes it worth investigating I would think. I know the existing Superliners are a bit tight, especially when compared to the Viewliners, but most of the Viewliners openness was accomplished by rearranging the systems in a completely different way.
https://www.railpassengers.org/happenin ... line-1068/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Speaking of new equipment, Amtrak is ready to move any day now with a Request for Proposals (RFP) to replace the diesel locomotive fleet, and the plan is to move quickly to award the contract and begin getting locomotives built and into service . . . . Next up will be identifying ways to replace the Superliner Is and IIs which are now reaching the end of their reasonable service lives. Anderson acknowledged that while he had talked in November at the RPA meeting about possibly re-fitting these cars, it has since emerged that they are simply too old and have too many serious concerns--including the need for all new frames--that the answer really is replacement rather than refurbishment.
The original Superliner design is over 40 years old. Just wondering if with new technology, systems, and some clever engineering you can build a new Superliner III that would be able to travel the entire system? That would be a maximum height of 15' 8" I believe. The car would be equipped with low and high platform doors.
It would seem that you would have at least seven feet per level to work with (based on a 1.5' TOR bottom floor height). That doesn't sound impossible to accomplish.
It would be so much more cost-efficient to operate one type high-capacity long distance car over the entire Amtrak map. Better modual construction would allow more flexible car layouts where Amtrak could experiment with new concepts and make quicker changes to interior configurations.
Don't know if it could be done, but the efficiency of the bi-level design makes it worth investigating I would think. I know the existing Superliners are a bit tight, especially when compared to the Viewliners, but most of the Viewliners openness was accomplished by rearranging the systems in a completely different way.
https://www.railpassengers.org/happenin ... line-1068/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;