Colorado Railcar DMU Status

I wonder if anything will now surface about the Colorado Railcar DMU that burned during testing. That incident was kept very quiet. Seems the public should have some kind of opportunity to see a report on that incident.

MX

It is US Railcar now. http://www.usrailcar.com/index.php

Found this article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbu ... tory1.html

Then you click on the picture for a bigger look: http://assets.bizjournals.com/story_ima ... -0-0-2.jpg

Barry Fromm is a rail enthuiast whose offices in northwest Columbus are next to The Depot rail museum and conference center, which he owns.

Interesting...

mxdata wrote:I wonder if anything will now surface about the Colorado Railcar DMU that burned during testing. That incident was kept very quiet. Seems the public should have some kind of opportunity to see a report on that incident.

Yes, that was quite suspicious. From what I heard (from a source who was employed with CRC as a technical writer), it was a "fueling accident". Of course, if it was a simple accident that had nothing to do with the vehicle itself - why the hush hush?

One would think that since the incident occurred on federal property (The FRA Transportation Technology Center, in Pueblo, CO) that I guess one should be able to file an FOIA request...

US Railcar and ACF successor American Railcar Industries have formed a joint venture named US Railcar Company LLC. When was the last time ACF built a self-propelled railcar?

D.Carleton wrote:US Railcar and ACF successor American Railcar Industries have formed a joint venture named US Railcar Company LLC. When was the last time ACF built a self-propelled railcar?

To add to the oddness of all this, Billionaire Carl Icahn is the majority shareholder of ARI....

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9879134

Oh, it also says that the new DMUs will be built in Arkansas.

The former CRC DMU design is going to need a very substantial investment, perhaps even a total redesign. It's worth remembering that the success of the Budd RDC came from the careful engineering, a lightweight carbody, redundant systems, and support after the sale - even going so far as to void warranties for the use of unpowered, non-RDC trailer cars. Budd invested a lot of time and money into the RDC, then charged a very substantial price, but they were successful.

It reports the DMUs would be built in Arkansas temporary, and that they still hope to get State funds to build a new factory in Columbus, Ohio. I'm not so sure Ohio will want to buy DMUs built in Arkansas...

St. Louis Business Journal
Wednesday, November 17, 2010, 5:32pm CST
by Kelsey Volkmann

> ...Nine months after forming it, American Railcar has dissolved a
> joint venture created in February to build passenger railcars...
>
> ..."The decision to dissolve the joint venture was the result of
> current market conditions for (Diesel Multiple Units) orders,"
> American Railcar said in the filing.


<http://bizjournals.com/stlouis/morning_ ... kills-pass\
enger-venture.html>

I too was going to post that article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... nture.html

Site Admin Note: edited to conform to fair use quote policy. Please provide only a brief quote from the article, especially where subscription sites are concerned. Please review the policy here: How to Post and Quote News Stories. It's the third post down.

Nine months after forming it, American Railcar has dissolved a joint venture created in February to build passenger railcars.

A joint board of directors with representatives from American Railcar and Columbus, Ohio-based Ohio Railcar Group voted Friday to kill the joint venture, called US Railcar Co. LLC, which was led by President and Chief Executive Michael Pracht, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“The decision to dissolve the joint venture was the result of current market conditions for (Diesel Multiple Units) orders,” American Railcar said in the filing.

Now, does that mean that Ohio Railcar Group still exists, and can sell the DMU, or is the entire former Colorado Railcar kaput now?

http://www.usrailcar.com/aboutus.php

Their website doesn't have any updated info....

Out of curiosity, is there a roster of active CRC units?

I believe they can be counted on one hand, 3 cars at Florida trirail
2 cars in oregon?

ohioriverrailway wrote:Out of curiosity, is there a roster of active CRC units?

Try this website: http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/

This website is full of info about CRC, with lots of pictures.

oops forgot the Alaska railroad DMU

http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/roster_dmu.html

DutchRailnut wrote:I believe they can be counted on one hand, 3 cars at Florida trirail
2 cars in oregon?

Four cars in Oregon:

TMTC 1001-1003 are self-propelled Aero DMUs
TMTC 2001 is a trailer coach Aero DMU.

For Colorado cars yes, the trailers are not DMU however.
A Trailer with HEP is not a DMU but basicly a cabcar.