Does this commuter equipment have higher speed trucks for mainline passenger service?
According to Nippon Sharyo the trucks are rated to 100mph in service, which would indicate they were tested to be stable at 110mph.
Caltrain operates under 79mph restriction for reasons other than truck capacity, and I don't know whether the electrification involves track and signal improvements that would make the retired cars unsuitable for the new track speed. These appear to be inside-swing-hanger trucks with damping and radius rods for bolster control, so the only real 'issues' with 110 prospective mph would be aerodynamics and concerns with loaded roll and hunting control imposed by the car's high roll center and large side area...
[quote user="Falcon48"]
I wasn't going to write anything more on this, but I stumbled onto something that may be useful to anyone seeking further information on FRA's track standards and track classifications. It's a short quote from a preamble to a 2008 FRA rule dealing with continuous welded rail:
"FRA issued the first Federal Track Safety Standards in 1971. See 36 FR 20336 (October 20, 1971)."
I haven't tried to look this up (I'm a "baby boomer" and not very computer savy, a condition which hasn't improved since I retired). But I'll bet the "36 FR" document is the Federal Register rulemaking document which adopted the original FRA track classification / speed scheme. If so, it should have a pretty good discussion of this feature. It should be pretty easy to find with the citation and the date.
[/quote
This is a nice nugget. I was never able to clearly find out when the track standards came into effect. This was several years earlier then I originally thought.
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