by Pacific 2-3-1
David Benton wrote:i believe the comet / horizions were aliminuim .Yes, Amtrak's Horizon cars are aluminum (not the underframe).
Nz is going for stainless in its commuter cars too . they spend their whole life less than 5 miles from the sea .
any form of supposedly high speed train , i dont know for sure but i dont think they would use stainless .
Unlike the Comet I (built by Pullman-Standard) and Comets II, III and IV (built by Bombardier-built using P-S patents), NJ Transit's low-level Comet V's were made of smooth-sided stainless steel by Alstom and completed in Hornell, NY.
The Comet V shells were constructed in Brazil at the former MAFERSA plant by Alstom, which had taken it over. MAFERSA in Brazil also built (as subcontractor to Tokyu Car) the original Virginia Railway Express low-level stainless steel cars that later went to Shore Line East.
It would seem at this time, if anyone's keeping score, that apart from Bombardier across the border in Quebec, the carbuilders that have the capability to produce a stainless steel carbody shell in the United States are limited to Kawasaki (the plant in Lincoln), MAYBE Alstom, and APPARENTLY CAF.
Another North of the border company, Canadian Vickers, constructed (to Budd patents) the Chicago-style bilevels ordered by the Canadian Pacific Railway for its Montreal commuter services. Canadian Vickers also fabricated the shells for the first Metro-North M-2 Cosmopolitan EMU's, and the stainless steel carbodies for the second order of Philadelphia-Lindenwold, NJ PATCO rapid transit cars. Budd built the first order of those.
Last edited by Pacific 2-3-1 on Wed Aug 11, 2010 5:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.