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  • Nippon Sharyo/Sumitomo DMU

  • Discussion about RDC's, "doodlebugs," gas-electrics, etc.
Discussion about RDC's, "doodlebugs," gas-electrics, etc.
 #1270178  by mtuandrew
 
I don't see a thread regarding these vehicles, so I thought I'd start one here. However, there's been a pretty good discussion of them in this thread: SMART - Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit. Specifically, the factory has finished testing the units in Japan, and they will be shipped across the ocean for testing in Illinois and eventual service in California. SMART and Metrolinx Union-Pearson Express both plan to operate these cars, and Tri-Met just purchased options from SMART for at least a few units. These vehicles will be fully FRA-compliant, and will feature Tier 4 engines (just revealed to be a Cummins QSK-19R, per the other thread.)

Here's a couple pictures of the finished product, which will be made in Illinois hereafter:
http://roadwarrior.blogs.pressdemocrat. ... -small.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://roadwarrior.blogs.pressdemocrat. ... -small.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And the article from which they came: http://roadwarrior.blogs.pressdemocrat. ... -shipping/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1270764  by 4400Washboard
 
I saw a pretty good program about how they scrap the Japanese DMUs
 #1270772  by dowlingm
 
Given that no NS DMUs are as yet delivered in North America I was going to say "a bit soon to talk of scrapping" until I recalled the fate of Irish Rail 22010/11, returned to sender and scrapped (although I think the shells may have been kept)
http://www.irrs.ie/Journal%20170/170%20 ... 0Class.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1290398  by electricron
 
dowlingm wrote:Given that no NS DMUs are as yet delivered in North America I was going to say "a bit soon to talk of scrapping" until I recalled the fate of Irish Rail 22010/11, returned to sender and scrapped (although I think the shells may have been kept)
http://www.irrs.ie/Journal%20170/170%20 ... 0Class.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Toronto's Nippon Sharyo DMUs have arrived in Toronto for the Union-Pearson rail service.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/exclusive-sne ... -1.1965058
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/t ... -1.2741584
 #1293272  by jmlaboda
 
Toronto's Nippon Sharyo DMUs have arrived in Toronto for the Union-Pearson rail service.
This set was tested in Chicago, Ill., before being shipped north...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eje665/14675986807
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eje665/14675986287
https://www.flickr.com/photos/larry84988/14686229047
 #1293275  by dowlingm
 
Metrolinx tested the lead DMUs in Toronto's Lakeshore West this weekend to validate them against the signalling system. They intend to test on the Lakeshore East line tomorrow.

This picture https://twitter.com/SRPToronto/status/5 ... 2688231424" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is taken showing the DMU at VIA Rail's Toronto Maintenance Centre. Metrolinx have opted to have VIA look after maintenance on the DMUs, which makes sense on several levels, not least that VIA has some Budd DMUs and an all high floor fleet, while Metrolinx' Willowbrook yard (in the background, across the mainline) is all locohaul low floor bilevels.

Here's a close up shot of the DMU: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skyrailpr ... 239531712/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More photos and tweets about the UPX DMU tests can be found using the hashtag #trackthetrains https://twitter.com/hashtag/trackthetrains?src=hash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1304352  by electricron
 
FCM2829 wrote:Anybody know the approximate per car cost?
Yes! From
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/urba ... -cars.html
The board of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit voted unanimously on December 15 to award a US$56·9m contract for nine two-car diesel multiple-units to Sumitomo Corp and Nippon Sharyo.
Per married-pair set of DMUs, the math suggests $6.32 Million, or $3.16 Million per car. Therefore, a three car train UP will be using should be around $9.48 Million - American.

Would like to point out that the end cars with streamlined cabs ordered by UP used SMART's options, but that the non-streamlines middle cars didn't. Never-the-less, the capital expenses should be similar.
 #1344096  by dowlingm
 
Bdawe so far so good in Toronto. A lot of whinging about the service (fares/ridership) but rider reports seem to pleased with the on train ambience. VIA Rail do the maintenance (they have some RDCs so I guess Metrolinx thought it easier to leverage that) but presumably Nippon have some sort of post sales/warranty support too.
 #1344122  by bdawe
 
Good to hear. I've sort of hoped that these could some how turn into the next RDC.

I wonder if VIA rail has any interest in them? A lot of their consists are quite short. Perhaps a DMU might be more rapid and economical for a lot of their trains outside the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto lines
 #1344163  by dowlingm
 
They rebuilt some RDCs for White River and I believe have some additional ones which could be rebuilt. While I agree services like Toronto-Kitchener-Sarnia would make sense as 2-3 Nippons vs 1 F40+2 HEPs, the RDCs could probably be rebuilt in Canada and thus constitute pork (albeit not the latest in accessibility or emissions control). As it was the Union Pearson service was supposed to be RDCs too, until Metrolinx grabbed some of SMART's options.

There were some interesting comments about performance here on rr.net when the first DMU set was being tested on the Rock Island, but if Metrolinx / Bombardier engineers have been seeing similar issues they have not yet been vocal about it on forums I read.
 #1344169  by bdawe
 
Well, from what i understand there's still a fair few of the Smart options floating around, though they might be expiring soon.

Nice thing about NS though is that they seem to have enough FRA-compliant business that their North American factory isn't going to dry up and blow away any time soon

Do you happen to know how many RDCs Via has floating about?
 #1345674  by dowlingm
 
The Via fleet page has 6 on the active roster (3 RDC1, 2 RDC2, 1 RDC4) but I don't know if there is more on the inactive which could be refurbished if money was forthcoming