Caltrain Electrification

lensovet wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:43 am Hell, a single-level Comet V cab has 109 seats, is accessible at all positions, has 3 (!) doors for boarding, and is also made of stainless steel!

Because they have 3+2 seating. Nobody likes 3+2 seating except the purchasing agents.

I'm sure we could come up with something more innovative after all these years?

Well the multi-levels and BBD cars require two trips of the conductor through each car, which is not easy during frequent stops. They also place the engineer much closer to street level in case of grade crossing accidents. There is a solid argument to be made that the gallery car is more innovative than the following series of cars.

Also sometimes innovation hits a dead end and that's not a bad thing. Do we really need a lot of new ideas? Or do we need a fleet of cars that will last for 40 years without rusting or causing problems?

The AK-47 is also incredibly durable, simple, and easy to repair, but somehow I don't see the US Military using them.

If you study your history, there is a lot of controversy about the M16 procurement process. I would not use the M16 v AK47 as a benchmark for best practices in government procurement. In fact the M16 procurement has all sort of documentaries written about the problems and hiccups.

Siemens cars (and Amtrak does a poor job maintaining them)

I love the completely unnecessary and irrelevant dig at Amtrak though.

Amtrak's failure to maintain their equipment and the Siemens equipment's failure to perform in cold weather is cold hard documented fact. You are welcome to your own opinion but not your own facts.

screech machines

IS this a technical term? It's really hard to have a discussion with people who use terms like "screech machines" and deny the documented evidence and facts.

west point wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 1:24 pm Wonder who will try to steal the live wire? It will be interesting to find out how much the base load with no cars operating or connected to live wire. I would think that Caltrain will keep data on each train set connected to CAT to find any stealing of electricity?

I remember once reading that a museum, perhaps it was IRM, left the wires energized all winter to prevent wire theft.

On a sadder note there was recently a bad accident in Buenos Aires resulting from signal wire copper theft. A commuter train rear-ended a work train and 60 were injured.

Tadman wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 8:12 pm I remember once reading that a museum, perhaps it was IRM, left the wires energized all winter to prevent wire theft.

Yep. So far, it's worked. Nobody's stolen it, and I'm not aware of anyone getting killed trying, but 600V would certainly knock someone on their ass trying....