M-8 Cars - Delivery and Acceptance

100 cars acceped as of today, with a 85% available rate.

I am not going to get in to any argument as to whether the M-8's run to Old Saybrook or New London BUT if they do what sense will it make to run a ten car train east of New Haven when two or maybe four cars will do? They will most likely have to pay Amtrak for the power they consume and ten cars will consume plenty of power. It would probably be just as well to add or drop cars at New Haven. On another question, have these cars been running on the New Canaan Branch either on the through trains or on the dink?
Noel Weaver

That is one of several keys issues to be resolved once M8 testing begins on the shoreline. Other issues like power consumption, 3rd rail shoe clearences, ACSES testing, dealing with dead sections and so on.

Noel Weaver wrote:On another question, have these cars been running on the New Canaan Branch either on the through trains or on the dink?
Noel Weaver

I think someone posted a picture here of the M8's at New Canaan, it was during the day so it must have been a regular passenger train, not a test train.

M8s have not been used in "Dink" service as of yet. They have been used on a few New Canaan/GCT trains though.

Clean Cab wrote:M8s have not been used in "Dink" service as of yet. They have been used on a few New Canaan/GCT trains though.

I have a video on a Saturday run from November 12 of last year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEhNHVLnE6c

8 car consists on the New Canaan Brach are rare. Even rarer are 8 car M8 trains.

1710/1741 usually are M8's. And 1770 is almost always an 8 car set. 1750 and 1752 makeup 1089 up in NC and comes back down as a 8-9car train.

True. But none of those trains are the "Dink". The Dink is (or was) a 4 car train that was used all day long on the Stamford/New Canaan shuttle.

MNR's #1 Conductor wrote:Here are some photos for the M-8 lovers here!!! Enjoy!!

All from my collection, and thanks to my new toy, a Canon EOS 60D

Great pictures! Amazing how clear they are. Seems like a nice camera.

Clean Cab wrote:True. But none of those trains are the "Dink". The Dink is (or was) a 4 car train that was used all day long on the Stamford/New Canaan shuttle.

you should stop of in stamford more often, your loosing touch with whats going on.
there are 3 x 10 car M8 trains and several 6 and 8 car consist.
There realy is no longer a dink. as every New Canaan train after a few New Canaan turns , then turns for GCT.

Those longer "Dinks" turn for other trains at some point during the day and are not assigned to just going back and forth from Stamford/New Canaan. I may not be there everyday anymore, but I still hear a few things!!!

DutchRailnut wrote:100 cars acceped as of today, with a 85% available rate.

The New Haven Register has a story on this:

http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/05/ ... 018851.txt

The state Department of Transportation and Metro-North Railroad have received the 100th new M-8 railroad car for Metro-North, the DOT announced Tuesday.

The newer M-8 trains operate between New Haven, Stamford and Grand Central Terminal in New York City, the DOT said in a press release.

The oldest cars in Connecticut’s electric railroad car fleet, M-2s built in the mid-1970s, will begin to be retired now that the 100th M-8 rail has been placed in service, the DOT said. The DOT and Metro-North will continue to retire M-2 rail cars as more M-8s are accepted for New Haven Line service.

Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. delivers 10 to 12 new M-8 rail cars for inspection and testing to New Haven each month, the DOT said. There currently are an additional eight M-8 cars in New Haven being tested and qualified.

“We continue to deliver on our commitment to improve rail service on the New Haven Line with more and more M-8 rail cars being accepted and placed into regularly scheduled train service,” said DOT Commissioner James P. Redeker. “Customers should now be seeing nearly a third of weekday trains and half of the weekend trains operating with the new M-8 cars.”

Finally!! But............ we may NOT see the M2's, M4's & M6's retired just yet as the M8's still have a few bugs in them that need to be taken care of.

I wonder when we'll see the M8's handling over 50% of the New Haven Line schedule, anybody have a guess as to how much they are handling at present?