Via RDCs

Backshophoss wrote:Believe American(Colorado)Railcar is defunct outfit,the only 2 "working" examples may or may not be in service
1 on the Alaska RR,the other somewhere in Fl commuter service.

I believe WES is also running 3 powered CRCs, and have 1 unpowered trailer with cab. But they no longer are building them,and the 10 or so they may have built are far less than the other vendors I listed earlier.

Not to mention that I really can't think of a good thing I've heard about the CRCs save that they exist. They're supposed to be overweight and unreliable, which would explain why Tri-Met has since purchasing them gone out to buy their own RDC antiques and Nippon Sharyos

VIA officials can get a good look at the Union-Pearson Express Nippon Sharyos. If I were them, I'd be putting forward an RFP tailored to NS equipment - so many of VIA's corridor trains are relatively small, and a four-car DMU set might fit the bill well.

Unknown how they'll handle heavy snow though, or if they have the range required for the Sudbury-White River turn.

mtuandrew wrote:VIA officials can get a good look at the Union-Pearson Express Nippon Sharyos. If I were them, I'd be putting forward an RFP tailored to NS equipment - so many of VIA's corridor trains are relatively small, and a four-car DMU set might fit the bill well.

Unknown how they'll handle heavy snow though, or if they have the range required for the Sudbury-White River turn.

The Nippon Sharyos are maintained at VIA's Toronto Maintenance Centre, across the mainline from Metrolinx' Willowbrook Yard. Presumably reasons like space and bays available for high floor rolling stock factored in, but I don't think VIA staff do the work. They probably have had plenty of opportunity to take a look though, and to talk to the Metrolinx folks about how easy/hard they are to maintain. The reality is though that there are a few more unrefurbished RDCs in VIA ownership, and more at TRE if they wanted to go get them. Since that would mean refurb work at a Canadian shop it may play into the decision making, especially with the awful C$/US$ rate right now and for the foreseeable. That said, another way this might work out is if the UPX cars could be refitted with traps, and Metrolinx abandon the idea of repowering them into EMUs in favour of new EMUs and flogging the UPX stock to VIA.

mtuandrew wrote:What kind of top speed do VIA's RDCs have? 60, 80, 100? I'm interested in how competitive they are with driving on routes like Sarnia-London.

Back in Sept. 1983 I rode the RDC train from Fredericton to Moncton, NB. East of St. John we encountered a herd of cows on the tracks and were seriously delayed while the crew tried to clear the tracks. Determined to make the connection with the eastbound Ocean at Moncton, the crew must have opened it up all the way. I was in the rear cab where I could observe the speedometer. Most of the way it was in the upper 90's and at least a couple times we hit 100 mph. This route had a lot of unprotected rural crossings. We made the connection at Moncton in one piece, but it was an unforgettable ride.