njt rail cars

[al-in-chgo]

You haven't been riding Metra lately or you would be aware that they have taken delivery on new gallery coaches for the diesel lines.  They are easily recognized by their larger windows.  A fair number of them work Southwest Service and take note of all the stainless steel cars on trains operating out of North Western Station.  There are also a lot of F40PH's pulling those trains, too.

CTA has an order pending for new rapid transit equipment.  So far, they have managed to rehab the Green Line and the Douglas Park branch and are currently rehabbing the Brown Line, which involves a lot more than lengthening station platforms (for 8-car, not 10-car trains).  I believe that there is also major track work lined up for the Blue Line to O'Hare.

I was wrong, dead wrong, on Metra's modern equipment and would like to apologize.  You know what they say about a$$umptions . . .

 

[081552]

Metrolink in Southern California is also leasing the used NJT Comet 1 cars. It will be a nice change from the dozens of bilevel cars that all look alike. Metrolink needs to return the Sounder railcars its been leasing by the end of the year so here come the NJT cars.

Take a look at the following newspaper article regarding NJT:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/121514625443700.xml&coll=1

 

[paulsafety]

Evidently, Utah has purchased some NJT cars, too.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/07/utah-takes-nj-t.html

Paul F.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

You haven't been riding Metra lately or you would be aware that they have taken delivery on new gallery coaches for the diesel lines.  They are easily recognized by their larger windows.  A fair number of them work Southwest Service and take note of all the stainless steel cars on trains operating out of North Western Station.  There are also a lot of F40PH's pulling those trains, too.

CTA has an order pending for new rapid transit equipment.  So far, they have managed to rehab the Green Line and the Douglas Park branch and are currently rehabbing the Brown Line, which involves a lot more than lengthening station platforms (for 8-car, not 10-car trains).  I believe that there is also major track work lined up for the Blue Line to O'Hare.

[al-in-chgo]

Thanks for the useful info.  As an old PCC aficianado, it took me a while to get used to the Kawasaki look (I'm not counting the Norriston high-speed line with its "keystone" front, which I thought nicely witty). Now I like the Kawasaki look -- broke my heart to see somewhat similar-looking cars being scrapped in Boston. 

Other than replacing (I think) all the exx-IC electric suburban trains, ca. 1971, with similar models over the past 3 - 5 years, I don't know if Metra has made any coach purchases.  I can tell you they have a heritage of updating the diesel fleet pretty regularly.  From what I can see the average Metra cab is now a "cowl" out of MP. 

CTA, heaven bless 'em, I don't know when they've had an order of R-T unless you count some alteration done on Skokie Swift (Yellow Line) cars when they went off the cat year before last and no longer needed to use pantagraphs on the Skokie side of the line.  Stations old and decrepit, rolling stock getting more decrepit (but at least it lasted) . . .  I really don't relish taking CTA these days.  Fares incredibly high and Mr. Frank Kruesi (who left about a year ago) put all his attention into making the Ravenswood  (Brown) line able to carry ten-car trains.  A nice project, but too much maintenance elsewhere went deferred, with the resulting, as most of the nation now knows, in the recent spate of derailments and last year's Blue Line fire underground, which could have been a lot worse.  The CTA isn't doing bupkis about how to get people off the train and onto the catwalks.  Excuse me, but isn't 9/11 now going on seven years ago? 

 

[gardendance]

Isn't forty years ago a little premature?  In R-T, at least, my understanding is that the Kawasaki cars didn't come in until around 1971 -- that includes the trolleys that run underground thru Central City and IIRC at least two of the three former interurban lines.  -  a.s.

That's around 1981 for the Kawasaki trolley cars, followed closely by Kawasaki Broad St subway cars, then ABB SumiRail high platform 3rd rail powered cars for the other former interurban line in the early 1990's, followed by a more substantial order of ABB SumiRail Market-Frankford subway cars towards the end of the 1990's, early 2000's?

I guess the quote in the press release you're talking about was "SEPTA has ordered 120 new regional rail cars from Rotem USA, the first of which will begin arriving in late 2009. This is the first order of new SEPTA rail cars in about 40 years."

They probably mean motor cars for the 'regional rail', that is the heavy rail former Pennsylvania Railroad-Reading Railroad lines. For Chicago think CTA vs METRA, did I get the right initials for your city transit vs heavy railroad?

The last self propelled multiple unit control cars for those lines were the Silverliner IV's from 1974-1976, so yes 40 years is a tad premature, but less premature if the first arrives in 2009 and the last arrives a few years after.

In the late 1980's-early 1990's? SEPTA did buy some Pullman Standard style locomotive hauled 'Horizon' cars, non-corrugated sides, aluminum body, similar shell to AMTRAK's Horizon cars, and I think similar to NJtransit's Comets.

[al-in-chgo]

Here's a link to the press release on SEPTA's site:

http://septa.org/news/press_releases/20080626b.html

Paul F.

Isn't forty years ago a little premature?  In R-T, at least, my understanding is that the Kawasaki cars didn't come in until around 1971 -- that includes the trolleys that run underground thru Central City and IIRC at least two of the three former interurban lines.  -  a.s.

 

 

[paulsafety]

Here's a link to the press release on SEPTA's site:

http://septa.org/news/press_releases/20080626b.html

Paul F.

[paulstecyna21]

i am n ot sure which rail cars they are getting no metion of them in the newspaper

[al-in-chgo]

to all rail fans

new jersey transit is leasing eight rail cars to septa to be Ran on The R7 trenton line, R5 thorndale/paoli line, and R3 west Trenton line. be on the look out for these rail cars and get pictures and videos. I have a youtube and if get a video of these rail cars i will post it up on there. My username on youtube is CSXNSFAN. Good luck and Good hunting.

paul

Are they bilevs, perhaps built by Breda??   - a.s.

 

[paulstecyna21]

to all rail fans

new jersey transit is leasing eight rail cars to septa to be Ran on The R7 trenton line, R5 thorndale/paoli line, and R3 west Trenton line. be on the look out for these rail cars and get pictures and videos. I have a youtube and if get a video of these rail cars i will post it up on there. My username on youtube is CSXNSFAN. Good luck and Good hunting.

paul