How long will the Mexican Amfleets last?

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:03 am Mr. Dunville, I get your point; but every major airline in this world has withdrawn the 747 from scheduled passenger service.
Of course, freight carriers and "airlines only the Defense Department knows" continue to fly "The Queen".

Lufthansa still flies around 20 747 jetliners in passenger service, a few 200 with most being 800 versions.

The issue is not how many 747 are in the sky today. The issue is that it was intended to be a stopgap and a minor page in history, and instead it is one of the biggest pages in aviation history.

Similarly the F40PH, Comet/Horizon, and HST125 were all supposed to be stopgaps and were the fast of American and British railroading for an entire generation.

It reminds me of a friend's saying "sometimes a Toyota will do just fine". You may have extravagant dreams of high-post trains, planes, and cars, but the people move about the country in RAV4's, Comets, and F40PH.

All true... and the 747 was really intended to be a bigger page in history as the USAF heavy lift candidate... Lockheed may have "won" the Cx competition with the C5, but Boeing took that loss and turned it into a far bigger win.

Clive Irving's book "Widebody" is a great layman's read of how the program got started... and almost bankrupted Boeing in the process.

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Again, Messrs. Dunville and Olesen, I don't mean to turn this topic into another belonging at airliners.net, but I could not overlook when reviewing coverage of the recent Dignified Transfer at Dover AFB, that the C-5 remains in service with the USAF.

Of course, military aircraft hardly accumulate the flight hours and "cycles" (takeoff, landing, pressurizing) - the stuff that puts the greatest stress on an airframe - as do commercial aircraft, but those C-5 frames are pushing 50 years old. Of course, we should also note that the VC-25's that are used to fly Joe here and there were first used by GHWB (POTUS41), are pushing 36yo.

So, even with the absence of maintenance that I sure noted when traveling by rail South of the Border "many moons ago", those A-I's inaugurating what appears to be a Mextrak (so much for KCS and UP holding "Don't even think about such"), will solider on long after even Amtrak would have had them chopped up.

Finally, let me note I was stationed at Dover nineteen months '65-'67. The 436th Mortuary Squadron handled remains of Vietnam KIA's. Was there time for the Dignified Transfer? Uh, don't think so. Sorry but the coffins were simply forklifted off the aircraft; C-133's and 141's - along with civilian airlines known only to the Defense Department (eg) - stacked some six high.

Given how many Budds over 50 years old there are still in service between 1950's builds in private/charter service and the 1960's bilevels in operation with Metra, nothing will surprise me with the Amfleets.

That was the conclusion of the man who did the podcast about working on Mexican Amfleets. Budd sure knew what they were doing and overbuilt the cars.

It could also be a valid conclusion after learning that Transport Canada's test on the Via Canadian cars were just fine and the buffer cars would be removed.

Considering the year round climate of Mexico -compared to the harsh winters of Canada where the ex-CP Budd Company cars have reigned supreme for almost 69 years now- the Amfleets and SPV coaches should easily get another 20 years of service life.

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 12:35 am On that note is there an equipment roster for the North American locomotives and cars that are now in
operation on this service in Mexico?

Mr. MACTRAXX, that would indeed be interesting to have such, but those such as Wayner and others interested in compiling the history of the "lightweight" passenger car fleet, have come up empty.

All too many US roads selling cars to Mexico sold those cars to brokers, who in the interest of privacy (shady?, well let's not go there), removed all markings from the records.

I did find on my three journeys to Mexico, that if you looked carefully and in the right light, you could see former US road's markings.

NH2060 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 1:30 am Considering the year round climate of Mexico -compared to the harsh winters of Canada where the ex-CP Budd Company cars have reigned supreme for almost 69 years now- the Amfleets and SPV coaches should easily get another 20 years of service life.

Maybe if they weren’t so robust compared to newer gear, VIA wouldn’t be needing to replace its entire corridor fleet in one shot. On the other hand, maybe the Nightstars/Renaissance cars would have had a longer life if they had gone to Mexico years ago, far away from eastern Canada’s wild annual temperature swings

I could be wrong but I think the problems with the Renaissance cars has a lot of different factors. They were built and then neglected for a while, then bought on the cheap, and I can't speak to Via's mindset. Perhaps they were always thought of as stop gap and treated as such. Perhaps their staff weren't as well trained on maintenance for this fleet. Lots of reasons.