M7 Question

I was out on Long Island today, taking a trip on the LIRR. Noticed many sets of M7's. Every car that I saw had a metal brace on the ends of the cars by the diaphrams and in the middle of the cars running from the bottom of the car to just under the window sills. Are they having structural problems already? Don't see that on MN's M7's.

By the way you are describing it, you probably saw some M-7's being used on a test run. Some of the newly arrived M-7s usually get tested for I believe it's 1,000 miles before entering service with the RR. What you saw was probably wires which I have seen numerous times connected to the undercarriage of the M-7 and running through either an open door or a removed window into an onboard computer being used by a Bombardier employee. From a distance, the wire gives a visual appearance of having a cracked body. On a side note, a few Metro-North M-7's have been spotted not only running around the property (being tested) but also sighted at the HSF wheel truing shop. A pair was in the truing shop this past Friday.

thanks for the response but what you describe is not what I saw. This is a metal brace about 1 foot wide running from the bottom of the car to just under the windows of the car, in the center of the car. The brace was bolted to the car. There was also one at each end of the car where the diaphrams attach to the car. Saw at least 20 cars with this. They were definitely LIRR and not MN. These were not newly delivered cars. One trainset was actually grundgy looking as if it hadn't see a car wash in months.

Not the gates but the other metal things http://galleries.cleanairbus.com/galler ... 7/P1010874

or in the center of the car http://galleries.cleanairbus.com/galler ... 393?full=1

yes, both of these items are what I am refering to. thank you, now do you know what they are. These were not part of the cars when they first arrived and are NOT on the Metro North M7's.

I think they're some sort of skids or bumpers that are there. The C cars have them too.

After looking at those photos, the bulge in the middle of the car are that I know of on all the M-7's including the ones used on MNR. It's probably something to do with the design of the car or maybe it's some new FRA mandate design. The bumpers at the ends of the cars in that photo, I have only seen them on M-7's that are being tested, wether it is being tested for clearance purposes, or maybe they are simply trying out something new for the M-7 fleet. It wouldn't suprise me if you see a number of retrofits to the M-7 fleet as the years come. The newer M-7s are coming in with a modified truck so I wouldn't be surprised to see other new things incorporated into the existing fleet as time passes. I'll ask around at work and see what I hear and relay it back to you.

They are bumpers to protect the car body in case they rub on a platform.

As stated earlier, all they are are rub strips to protect the car body from wayward platform and tunnel bench walls. It's easier to replace the strips that try and fix the entire car body.
In one of your pics, you photographed a very early test car with pieces of styrofoam duct (duck??) taped to the side of the car...these were used for clearance tests in the tunnels to determine how much lateral (side to side) movement was present on the car at speed.

BTW, the C-3'a also have them.