M9 and M9A Procurement & Acceptance

mwichten wrote:Facebook is abuzz today about a 14 car test train, and much disbelief as you can imagine.

https://youtu.be/WSpzEklRd7c

Now that’s rare! Why 14 cars though? Is this a one off? I may or may not go to Pinelawn this weekend or next week on a weekday.

I’m sure they weren’t dragging the extra 2 cars around by accident

14-car M9 test train on the Babylon Branch today. Only slightly bummed I didn't catch it at New York Penn since it came in and turned around on Track 11.
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I heard the crew of that train talking to Divide tower last night. Sounded like Divide was temporarily putting them into station track-1 at Hicksville Station and there was a question about whether all 14 cars would fit on that platform or on that track.

They look great!

I'm still curious why the placement of the headlights and marker lights on the M9's is the reverse of the M7's. Wonder if the LIRR spec'd them that way, (and if so, why?) or if the manufacturer just happened to build it like that.

With the marker lights closer together on the M9's I could see where an engineer following an M9 train at night might think the train ahead is further away than it actually is. Could that cause a problem where trains sometimes follow each other closely at restricted speed?

with atc and ptc ??? lets hope not .

Were the M9s delivered with PTC already installed?

PlaneLoverA380 wrote:Were the M9s delivered with PTC already installed?

No. Siemens and Bombardier were (and still are) working on it.

hmm since cars are Kawasaki why those two manufacturers?

When it comes to 14 car consists, I snapped this photo at Jamaica when I was in Long Island for a visit back on Friday. I also saw the M9 testing at Jamaica, and sorry if it is sideways. It was taken using my iPhone.

Note carefully that the sign actually says "14 Unit". This is slightly different to 14 MU, this is your stopping point if you have a 12 Coach DE/DM train since it will be 12, 85ft Coaches and 2 75ft DM for a total of 12 units.

DutchRailnut wrote:hmm since cars are Kawasaki why those two manufacturers?

Siemens and Bombardier have the PTC contract for all of the rolling stock.

MattAmity90 wrote:When it comes to 14 car consists, I snapped this photo at Jamaica when I was in Long Island for a visit back on Friday. I also saw the M9 testing at Jamaica, and sorry if it is sideways. It was taken using my iPhone.

Yes, while leaving Jamaica eastbound, I did see a sign that read “14 UNIT” and below it read “#2798”. And 2798 does have 12 coaches and 2 DM units. (Technically 14 cars)

That would be for the CannonBall consist,that maxes out at 12 coaches.