Caltrain Stadler EMU Acquisition - Status and Updates

RailwayAge.com: Caltrain increasing Stadler EMU order

Caltrain is acquiring 37 additional Stadler double-deck EMU cars for the San Francisco – San Jose electrification project.

The Caltrain board on Dec. 6 approved exercising an option in the original 2016 contract with Stadler that will enable it to lengthen the 16 trainsets on order from six to seven cars and add three more seven-car trainsets to the fleet.

Under the 2016 deal, Caltrain can purchase the extra vehicles at the original price of $174.6 million, provided the option is exercised by the end of 2018.
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Nice article with pictures of Caltrain EMUs actually being built in Sacramento:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/02/17/ ... h-stadler/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i think that’s actually in Salt Lake, Sacramento is Siemens

True; the headline on the link says so.

Article paywalled!

Tadman wrote:i think that’s actually in Salt Lake, Sacramento is Siemens

Oops! Darn autocorrect!

Backshophoss wrote:Article paywalled!

Huh, I didn’t have any trouble at least on my phone.

These cars are only 45 tons?? That’s lighter than an unpowered Amfleet, about 60 tons; lighter yet than a Siemens Viaggio coach at appx 65 tons; and far lighter than a Superliner or California car at 75 tons apiece. I don’t know how heavy the BBD MLV power cars will be - 80 tons? The only American MUs I can think of in the same weight class are (were) the Silverliner I (Pioneer III), II, and III.

That is the advantage of using aluminum vs steel for the body shells.
Steel is 2.5 times more dense than aluminum.

electricron wrote:That is the advantage of using aluminum vs steel for the body shells.
Steel is 2.5 times more dense than aluminum.

The Silverliners were made of stainless and weighed less! Apples to oranges, but still. Stadler saves most of its weight by refusing to overbuild to meet traditional FRA rules. (Also - are these cars shorter than 85 feet? I can’t tell.)

mtuandrew wrote:The Silverliners were made of stainless and weighed less! Apples to oranges, but still. Stadler saves most of its weight by refusing to overbuild to meet traditional FRA rules. (Also - are these cars shorter than 85 feet? I can’t tell.)

Here's some data and some math to answer your question on length.
https://www.stadlerrail.com/media/pdf/kcal0716us.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
length over coupling = 515' 3" (157100 mm) with 6 sections or cars
math using english measurements = 515 feet / 6 cars = 85.833 feet/car
math using metric measurements = 157,100 mm / 6 cars = 26,183 mm/car or 26.183 m/car

Did the JPB/Caltrain folks ever discuss why they ordered a new fleet when they could've ordered a fleet of ACS to pull existing gallery cars? A lot of those gallery cars are fairly new, and I think the oldest are from 1985-ish. Compare that to Metra with 1950's stock still rolling.

At the time of ordering, the plan was to eventually convert to high-platform operation along with CAHSR. That would absolutely require new rolling stock. It's now uncertain whether that will happen as CAHSR is in doubt, but the EMUs have distinct benefits of faster acceleration compared to loco-hauled trains, as well as potential grade advantages for the proposed second Transbay Tube. There would have been substantial new rolling stock required anyway due to the increased frequencies.

Some of the diesel locomotives and existing bilevel cars absolutely will remain in service - they're needed for Gilroy service. I suspect you'll see other equipment bought up - ACE may very well be interested in the Bombardier cars.

Interesting, I guess I forgot about the Gilroy extension staying diesel. Will this be a shuttle like Danbury MNCR? Also, given the acceleration improvements and frequency increases, will they drop the fleeting/zone schedule?

Tadman wrote:Interesting, I guess I forgot about the Gilroy extension staying diesel. Will this be a shuttle like Danbury MNCR? Also, given the acceleration improvements and frequency increases, will they drop the fleeting/zone schedule?

I believe the plan is to run Gilroy trains all the way to 4th and King making some kind of express pattern (probably many stops near San Jose, fewer to the north). With just two tracks, and demand for expresses, fleeting / zoning will probably continue but they can pack more trains in.

I would also be unsurprised if Metra picks up some of the gallery cars.

As noted in the Caltrain Electrification topic, some of the first "KISS" EMU's are coming off the line. Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 072717536/