Amtrak (California) and Cab Cars

[battalion51]

(Alan/Moderator team, if you feel this is more appropriate elsewhere feel free to move it, but it does touch some Amtrak services, thus why I put it here.)

So I just stepped off of BART and am now sitting in the San Francisco Airport awaiting a flight to LAX (before connecting to ATL). On the ride down I sat in the lead car, which is similar to being in a cab car experience wise. While I sat there I got to thinking about California and the madness that there is in LA on the topic of cab cars at Metrolink/SCAX. The SCAX guys seem to be losing their minds with the new Rotem cars coming in. While I'm all for improving safety, it seems like half of the goal of a cab car is being defeated with these suckers. The point of a cab car is that you can use it to lead a train, or use it mid-consist as a regular coach, and the regular public probably won't know the difference. Well with this new and "improved" design you can either use it as a leader, or wye the sucker and use it right next to the motor, and that's it. So you lose a TON of flexibility in your fleet, which in this economy doesn't seem like a very positive thing.

With all that being said, AFAIK the SCAX guys are the only ones buying these new cab cars, and the state seems to be very gung ho about it. Meanwhile, there are a whole bunch of other operators/services in the state (Coaster, Pacific Surfliner, CalTrain, ACES, Capitol Corridor/San Jaoquin) that all employ "conventional" cab cars, and no one seems to be too upset by their presence or feel threatened by their continued use. So what gives? Why is SCAX losing their minds, and everyone else is fine sitting with the equipment they've got?

 

[George Harris]

Because SCAX had the collisions.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

The point of a cab car is to simplify turning of short haul trains. These cars do an adequate job of such. There isn't much need for between car passage on commuter trains, in the event a cab car does get stuck in the middle.

 

[MattW]

I think these ugly things have also been in trial runs on Tri-Rail down in South Florida as well.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Because SCAX had the collisions.

Essentially correct, but collision, singular: 2005 Metrolink Wreck at Glendale. Only Wikipedia, but gets the overall picture pretty right.

"The train wreck called intense attention to the train configuration. Many commuter trains are pushed from the back by the locomotive, including Metrolink trains returning to Los Angeles Union Station; in a "pusher configuration", the first car is a special passenger car with controls for an engineer at the end (sometimes referred to as the "cab car"[3]). The rear-pushed configuration eliminates elaborate turnaround maneuvers and facilities to reverse a train's direction. There was severe criticism that this rear-pushed configuration made the accident worse: many people claimed that if the heavier engine were ahead of the passenger cars, soundbound train #100 would not have jackknifed and cause the second train to derail. This situation is similar to the Selby and Polmont rail crashes in the United Kingdom.

"Immediately following the accident, Metrolink temporarily roped off the first cars in all of their trains; passengers sat starting in the second car. Metrolink gradually modified this policy, and as of 2007, the line permits passengers to sit in a portion the first car when in "push mode." Seating is not permitted in a roped-off forwardmost section of the first car just behind the engineer's cab."

_______________

Metrolink train 111 was running locomotive first (outbound from Union Station) in the corn field meet with the UP freight at Chatsworth in 2008. In any case, there has not been the lead time since '08 for design and manufacture of the Rotem cab cars, which was already in process at the time of the Chatsworth calamity.

 

[sechs]

There isn't much need for between car passage on commuter trains, in the event a cab car does get stuck in the middle.

I beg to differ. At least on this side of the Appalachians, people tend to get on whatever car is convenient and move to other cars to find seats.
For Caltrain, in particular, all of their gallery bike cars are also cab cars, and vice versa. Since every trainset has two bike cars, there's always one stuck in the middle of the consist. If no one, particularly the crew, could not pass through a car, this would cause problems.

 

[jis]

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Toronto style cars used by SCAX are considerably weaker in structure than the Pullman design based California cars and even the Gallery cars. They have a sad habit of ripping open along rivet seams thus losing structural integrity. So there was a more immediate need to get strengthened cab cars on trains that operate with Toronto style cars, more than any of the others.

 

[sechs]

Toronto style?

Do mean the bilevels made by Bombardier?

 

[jis]

Toronto style?

Do mean the bilevels made by Bombardier?

Yes. Originally designed by Hawker-Siddley.