I believe the train sets were incompatable with regular trains in that the electric and communication wiring were all part of the couplings. Also cars were not regular cars but articulated within the train. Lots of reasons cannot just hook up to any locomotive and go.
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. . . not to mention that the cars were (are?) awfully low-slung, more so than the Talgos I think. You've given some very important reasons why they wouldn't be compatible with conventional equipment.
We are talking two kinds of turbo trains.
The United Aircraft Alan Cripe-designed TurboTrains were inherited from the Northeast Corridor Demonstration Project when Amtrak came to be. The TurboTrain was indeed low-slung and articulated with linkage-guided single-axle trucks, just like the Talgo. Also like the Talgo, there were special cars at the end of the consists for coupling to a locomotive if required, and VIA in Canada operated the Turbo as the called it behind a Diesel locomotive on occasion.
As reported in Jason Shron's book, all of the Canada and U.S. TurboTrains have been long scrapped. Not long before his passing, Alan Cripe had formed a company to market an updated TurboTrain called the Fastracker DMT (Diesel multiple-unit train) using either truck Diesel engines in the manner of the Colorado Railcars DMU or turbines if higher HP/ton were required. It would be most likely that the DMT would have had the same arrangement of end cars with clamshell doors exposing couplers and corridor connections between the articulated low-slung train set and conventional locomotives or passenger cars.
The second style of turbo train was the French TurboLiner and the train sets built by Rohr, a maker of jet airplane parts, under license. The parent post is probably talking about the Rohr TurboLiners, rebuilt by Super Steel by New York State, and kept in storage because Amtrak does not want to operate them for some reason.
The Rohr TurboLiners are lightweight cars although not as lightweight per linear foot of passenger car as the United Aircraft TurboTrain and having conventional pairs of two-axle trucks under each car without any kind of shared truck or shared axle articulation. These may have some specialty couplers and cable connections between cars, but my guess is that they were built compatible with North American practices and could be pulled behind a dual-mode Genesis to operate out of Grand Central or Penn Station or where ever. The French TurboLiners may have kept their European couplers, but there was no reason to build the Rohr TurboLiners, which were built wider to take advantage of the U.S. loading guage, with North American-compatible couplers at the very least.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Unfortunately, the three SuperSteel rebuilt Rohr Turboliners, the one Amtrak rebuild and the remaining unrebuilt sets still at SuperSteel have all been put up for sale by Amtrak. It may not be very long before they are sold to scrap dealers. I believe it is time to get at least one of them in the hands of a railroad museum somewhere. They are historically significant pieces of equipment and deserve to have their legacy preserved.
Anyone want to step up to the plate?
Ironically those trainsets were removed from NY after refurbishing/nonrefurbishing and not accepted by Amtrak for use after being paid for, in part, by NYSDOT. Amtrak's Gunn moved them so that NYSDOT would not confiscate them. NYSDOT Commissioner Joseph Boardman was, to say the least, incensed! Hey, Joe...hold on to them so we can use them out of Binghamton!
Absolutely. The Rohr Turboliners, rebuilt by SuperSteel, utylize standard "H" Tite-Lock couplers and 26L or equivalent brake equipment. They are built with Corten steel and have buff strength of 800,000 lbs. Unless modified by SuperSteel, the electrical connections duplicate those on Metroliner cars and the voltage is the same. As Program and Engineering Manager at Rohr, I was intimently involved in writing the specs and co-ordinating the program with Amtrak. Part of the rquirement was compatibility with aother Amtrak equipent. Using the coaches from the three trains presently parked in Bear DE would give Amtrak an imediate addition of 600 seats although it would be far better to run them as RTLIII. trains capable of service in and out of Penn Station. I believe the trains still belong to New York State, but I'm sure an agreement could be worked out.
Jerry Pier
Jerry:
You gave me the answer I was looking for. I hope the trains aren't scrapped.
Martin
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