Does anyone know the status of the Caltrans Comet IB cars?

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http://youtu.be/RpktS6Xl0hA


Extra Long San Joaquin with 7 Comet Cars plus Dinette near Martinez, Nov 30 2013
Thanksgiving brought a lot of extra passengers to Amtrak California, so some trains were lengthened. This San Joaquin, Train 712 (Oakland to Bakersfield), features 7 of the rebuilt Comet Cars from New Jersey along with its Horizon dinette car and non-powered cab unit 90225 (formerly an F40PH locomotive).
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Here's another video of the extra-long Comet train that shows just a bit of what they do at a station stop.

 
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I had some fun this morning and went out to take a video of the single-level San Joaquin trainset. I don't normally get to see the Comet cars in use because I'm at work when 718 rolls through town and asleep when 711 passes by. But this week the single-level equipment was placed on 712/717 for the thanksgiving rush. I was also hoping to capture the extra-long consist shown above... but alas it appears the extra 2 cars were pulled off last night.

PS: I have always wanted to take a low-level video of an Amtrak train shooting across the BNSF's bridge over the San Joaquin River and I have to say the results were even better than I expected! The train rolling across the metal bridge creates a very cool sound much like a plane taking off... which is fitting considering how high off the ground this train is.

 
Interesting consist today on 718...

Pulling into OKJ from the yard to start the run California F59PHI Locomotive 2002 was on point followed by Superliner Coach/Café 35005 and California Café 8809... they were followed by California F59PHI Locomotive 2013 and then the normal Comet/Horizon/NPCU set. It was interesting to see the normal consist and locomotive with a California Café and Superliner Coach/Café sandwiched between two locomotives.

I assume the Superliner and California car were getting dropped somewhere or enroute to Bakersfield as extra cars/replacement??

NPCU was on the head end departing OKJ with the Locomotive, two café cars, and other Locomotive bringing up the rear.
 
That is a very strange consist. The Superliner Coach/Café cars are rarely used on the San Joaquin. The only time I've been on one was during the thanksgiving holiday rush when it was used to extend the San Joaquin consist (the lower-level café was closed.)

I also noticed that the Horizon Dinette's have the CDTX reporting mark under the car number. That would suggest that these cars are owned by the California Department of Transportation and not Amtrak. I thought the plan was for Amtrak to lease the Horizon cars, not sell them.
 
rickycourtney said:
That is a very strange consist. The Superliner Coach/Café cars are rarely used on the San Joaquin. The only time I've been on one was during the thanksgiving holiday rush when it was used to extend the San Joaquin consist (the lower-level café was closed.)

I also noticed that the Horizon Dinette's have the CDTX reporting mark under the car number. That would suggest that these cars are owned by the California Department of Transportation and not Amtrak. I thought the plan was for Amtrak to lease the Horizon cars, not sell them.
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It was a bit puzzling to see. The Superliner Coach/Cafe and California Cafe were both had the lights off and were out of service as they were separated from the normal consist. It was just funny to see them attached to the nose of a locomotive!
 
rickycourtney said:
I thought the plan was for Amtrak to lease the Horizon cars, not sell them.
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Long-term lessees often apply their own reporting marks. The reporting marks relate to "who do we have to talk to" in case the car gets damaged or misplaced, or turns out to be defective. In most leases of this sort, the lessee is entirely responsible until the lease expires. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

A reporting mark is an alphabetic code of one to five letters used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain railroad networks.
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The application of the reporting marks is pretty normal. IIRC CSX's 20 SD70ACes are leased, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them. When VRE had their lease on the two Sounder sets they didn't get a full paint job, but they had VRE lettering and numbering on them. Even the airlines apply their paint and numbering to planes that they lease, Delta's lease of Southwest/AirTrans Boeing 717s comes to mind.

1520.1103327400.jpg


delta-717-200-07grd-atl-deltalr.jpg
 
Nathanael said:
rickycourtney said:
I thought the plan was for Amtrak to lease the Horizon cars, not sell them.
Click to expand...
Long-term lessees often apply their own reporting marks. The reporting marks relate to "who do we have to talk to" in case the car gets damaged or misplaced, or turns out to be defective. In most leases of this sort, the lessee is entirely responsible until the lease expires. From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

A reporting mark is an alphabetic code of one to five letters used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain railroad networks.
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Thanks for the info Nathanael.

I learn something new everyday.
 
ACS-64 said:
5005 should be on today's CZ #5 out of Chicago.
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Thank you for your report.

I went out and caught this California Zephyr at Agency, Iowa last night, which turned out to be after it went into emergency due to a separated air hose just two and half miles from town. You can hear the engineer talking to the BNSF Dispatcher about it at the beginning of the video. Hopefully unrelated to having the Comet coach in the consist.

You can also hear a defect detector report #5 with 45 axles. Hmmm.

It looks like the lights in the coach work at least.

 
5001 should be on a CZ #5 out of Chicago soon, showed up in CHI today off #851

90225 has been the NPCU working #718/#711 as of late.
 
I am at Martinez tonight, doing a quick points run before hopping on CS 14 for the trip back to Seattle. Got to see 718 with the Comet consist briefly, but I didn't get pictures. The paint job looked nice, but it sure looked like a major climb from the platform.
 
CHamilton said:
I am at Martinez tonight, doing a quick points run before hopping on CS 14 for the trip back to Seattle. Got to see 718 with the Comet consist briefly, but I didn't get pictures. The paint job looked nice, but it sure looked like a major climb from the platform.
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The "climb" was what railroading was about back in the days ;)
 
battalion51 said:
The application of the reporting marks is pretty normal. IIRC CSX's 20 SD70ACes are leased, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them. When VRE had their lease on the two Sounder sets they didn't get a full paint job, but they had VRE lettering and numbering on them. Even the airlines apply their paint and numbering to planes that they lease, Delta's lease of Southwest/AirTrans Boeing 717s comes to mind.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure Delta bought them from Southwest outright.
 
NorthCoastHiawatha said:
battalion51 said:
The application of the reporting marks is pretty normal. IIRC CSX's 20 SD70ACes are leased, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them. When VRE had their lease on the two Sounder sets they didn't get a full paint job, but they had VRE lettering and numbering on them. Even the airlines apply their paint and numbering to planes that they lease, Delta's lease of Southwest/AirTrans Boeing 717s comes to mind.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure Delta bought them from Southwest outright.
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No, Delta is actually subleasing them from Southwest, who is leasing them from Boeing.

Interestingly enough, they are not changing the aircraft registration, so they are keeping the N9**AT registration series from their AirTran days.
 
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So with this delivery... 13 of the 14 Comet IB coaches have been delivered.

The Caltrans Department of Rail has said that when all the coaches are delivered a second San Joaquin round trip will be converted to the single-level equipment (likely 712/717).

This means that the other San Joaquin trainsets will be able to gain another coach car and the Capitol Corridor will be able to replace the Superliner I snack coaches with California Car cafe cars.

I'm not positive about this... but I also think that with the two single-level trainsets in service there will be enough bi-level coaches available... that Amtrak California will be able to return the 4 wreck-repaired Superliner I coaches it has been leasing for the past 6 or so years. So there will be a few more coaches available for the long distance trains.
 
I believe CalDOT has the Superliner I's on lease until the end 2015. I'd be fairly surprised if they were returned before the lease is up, if they're not negotiating an extension...
 
I was under the impression that Caltrans leased the Superliner I coaches for 6 years. They were delivered between July 2007 and July 2009. I assume that means the leases expires between July 2013 and July 2015 (unless the clock didn't start until the final coach was delivered.)
 
So according to spotters over on Trainorders it appears that there are now 2 Comet car trainsets in use... and they're now both being used on the 714/703/702/715 turn. That means that on day one the train runs OKJ-BFD in the AM and BFD-SAC in the PM, on day two the train runs SAC-BFD in the AM and BFD-OKJ in the PM. Since it's a two day long turn it means that both trainsets will be needed.
 
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