Does anyone know how the first day of NY State's Turboliner auction went today? Werr any potential operators showing any interest, or was it all going to salvagers?
Hello Dragoman,
Yesterday I attended the first day of the Turbotrain auction at the Rotterdam Industrial Park, just south of the City of Schenectady. Tomorrow I go to the Scotia Industrial Park to see if anyone will buy the old train-sets.
http://www.nysstore.com/TrainAuction.html
Auction Schedule:
Tuesday, December 11
Description: Surplus Train Parts
Location: Rotterdam Industrial Park, Building 533, Rotterdam
Inspection: 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Registration: 8:00– 9:30 a.m.
Auction: 9:30 a.m.
Thursday, December 13
Description: Train Cars
Location: Scotia Glenville Industrial Park, Route 5 & Ave Y, Scotia
Registration: 8:00 – 9:30 a.m.
As far as I can tell, no one is buying the spare parts to run the trains.
See what they are going for!
Tuesday
https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=60275
Thursday
https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=60413
I’ll try to report back tomorrow!
Benjamin Turon
I almost forgot!
Here are pictures of the first day’s auction from the Albany Times Union. I took my own pictures and made a PDF Slideshow that I e-mailed to my fellow members of the ESPA.
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Photos-Rail-sale-on-track-4111128.php#photo-3880394
Bjturon
Thank you Benjamin! I look forward to your report on Thursday's doings.
Will Do!
So far the online bids on the actaul power cars and coaches is in the hundreds of dollars, one power car is at $1,200. We'll see how far it will go, and if we can find out what people would want these things for.
At yesterday's auction, there was a couple intrested in restoring old rail cars for restaurants. There was also some sad looking former Super Steel employees.
George Pataki failed to show! Should have seen what occurs when you try to do high-speed rail on the cheap!
They engines sold for $16,000 each, and the cars for $7,000 each. I would love to know who bought them, where they are going, and what will happen to them though.
Trevor
They are to be scrapped, the fellow who bought the locomotives told me he was going to use a crane to get the power cars off the tracks, he was then going to cut them up.
From YNN News...
H Kelman Incorporated, a scrap recycling business in Cohoes, bought eight engines for $16,000 each. They buy metal from people and businesses, and they separate and ship it out to mills to be melted and reused.
"For the recyclable material. Simply put. This is not rocket science. You buy the weight, you sell by the weight. The train sold at a value that was worth recycling," said Jason Kelman, NH Kelman Inc.
NH Kelman Incorporated has been in Cohoes since 1904.
An auctioneer employee today said that the man who bought the one hundred surplus spare steel wheels at the Tuesday auction intended to scrap them. A purchasing agent from NYSDOT added that the wheels had been bought from Spain specifically for the rebuilt Turboliners, and where not compatible with any other North American railroad rolling-stock.
The auction company employee also said that the man who had bought the large steel turbo transmissions on Tuesday was going to try to sell the rebuilt units as spares, while scraping the un-rebuilt ones.
Times Union Story
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Trains-final-destination-Scrap-4116188.php
Schenectady Daily Gazette Turbo Photos
http://www.dailygazette.com/photos/galleries/2012/dec/13/taking-turboliners/20397/
Why do so many cutting edge passenger "trains of the future" end up so quickly having no future?
Poor marketing...not meeting American's expectations...poor application of technology...politics.
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Victrola1 Why do so many cutting edge passenger "trains of the future" end up so quickly having no future?
Aside from the generational turnover of the employees who remembered why the last concept didn't work, many of these advanced concept trains were purchased in small batches and wound up being orphans, doomed by lack of maintenance, parts and a market.
The Turbos worked failrly well for about two decades, from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s, when age caught up with them and after a series of engine fires, they where taken out of service. Its too bad they never where able to go 125-mph, except for test runs.
New York State did a very good job rebuilding the Empire Corridor 1975-85, there was a big bond issue in 1974 that brought a lot of money to rail, far more than what Pataki wanted to spend on the Turbos. The SNCF even came over and did a lot of testing and released a study for NYS showing how 1hr 45min service could be had between Albany and New York City.
But the State's DOT Rail Division was downsized and no more money came. But still stations where rebuilt and the travel time Albany-NYC was reduced from 3 hrs to 2 hrs 30 mins.
They ate more expensive jet fuel and had limited seating compared to a train of four Amfleet coaches, a cafe car, and locomotive. But other wise they were good enough. The people who rode them like them, they had bigger windows.
Had they been build by the Budd Company out of stainless still, they might have lasted longer, perhaps with the power cars converted to cab-cars and a locomotive on the other end. After a overall, perhaps this would have been the wisest choice, but instead George Pataki wreak them with his High-Speed Rail on the Cheap Program.
The Turbos did well, and shouldn't be seen as a failure, the lack of investment in the tracks and singals meant they never reached their full potential.
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