Viewliner II - Part 1 - Initial Production and Delivery

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The cardinal needs 2 at present, and the lake shore limited needs three.
 
Pretty much, though the cardinal should go daily, eventually, needing another set of equipment.
 
If either the Cardinal or the LSL got a bag-dorm, you'd want one for "protect" at Chicago and one for "protect" at New York. So that would use 2 more. If they both got them and the Cardinal were daily (as it should be), that's 3 + 3 + 2 = 8, and if they're in the shop for inspections and whatnot 20% of the time, that's the full 10.
 
CCC1007 said:
Pretty much, though the cardinal should go daily, eventually, needing another set of equipment.
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There is a post on another board about the Cardinal perhaps being in danger of running at all. With the downturn in coal traffic on the subdivision east of Cincinnati, there's speculation that CSX is going to downgrade the line and ask Amtrak to pick up the tab to maintain the line so as to be able to run at decent speeds. That, or run at 30 MPH.

Isn't this the situation in Indiana and Ohio that caused a re-route of the Broadway Limited back when?
 
JohannFarley said:
CCC1007 said:
The cardinal needs 2 at present, and the lake shore limited needs three.
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So theoretically both the cardinal and the lsl could be using them and there still be 5 spares.
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That is what the Inspector General report of a year and a half ago on the decision making process for the utilization of LD equipment stated. After the order was revised to only 10 bag-dorms, the planned utilization was 5 cars in regular revenue service, 2 reserve for shop count based on current ratio (80% utlilization) and 3 excess cars. The only LD trains that would fit the 5 cars were the Cardinal and LSL. So this is not new news.

I think the reduction to only 10 bag-dorm cars was a mistake. They should have made it 12 to 13 bag-dorms, so the Crescent could also be equipped with bag-dorms. The problem with baggage-dorm car half baggage capacity, from what I can tell, is mainly with the Silvers. The Florida market is different with many people traveling to Florida for the winter season or long periods of time and thus taking a lot of luggage with them. The Silver Star and Meteor baggage cars likely get full during the peak southbound and northbound travel seasons. The Crescent doesn't get that sort of traffic (or not much of it) and a half baggage car is still a lot of storage capacity (well, if it is properly utilized).

Under different circumstances, exercising a few of the options to order 5 additional Viewliner II sleeper cars and 3 baggage-dorms would have been useful and added vital capacity and flexibility to the LD fleet. But between Amtrak's financial crunch and CAF's problems with meeting the 130 car order, the odds of a late order for additional Viewliner IIs are poor.
 
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JohannFarley said:
Yeah I saw that, and I assume they are sticking to their plan as they are obviously the cars that are most needed first. I was just wondering why the Bag-Dorm seemed to be the first production one and not the original prototype.
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Back when the cars were first being built, the stated plan - backed by photos of the production line - was to first build 2 of each type. Those would be run through testing and review. Then CAF was going to operate 2 production line simultaneously, one to build the remainder of the order for diners, bag-dorms, sleeper cars in sequential order, and the second to build the baggage cars. So the baggage-dorm car is simply the second of the first 2 units. Of course, that production plan went into the dumper and here we are, 4 years after this thread was started...

I would not call the first units "prototypes" as these were built for revenue service. They are the first article production units, used to test and verify the design and manufacturing quality.
 
Ok that makes sense. Didn't know all this I'm fairly new to the forum and didn't fancy reading all 2000 something posts in this thread
 
JohannFarley said:
Ok that makes sense. Didn't know all this I'm fairly new to the forum and didn't fancy reading all 2000 something posts in this thread
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We have 2739 or so posts on this thread. But if the Moderators deleted all the posts asking in one way or another, "Are we there yet?" that might cut the number by half. :(
 
CSXfoamer1997 said:
Has anyone spotted any diners yet?
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One diner released for testing - the same car that had been released previously then return to CAF. I don't expect to see any multiple diner releases until mid-summer, at the earliest. A lot depends on what this round of testing finds and, if needed, how involved the corrective actions are.

The contrast between CAF's performance with the car contract and Siemens' performance with the ACS-64 is pretty dramatic. To be sure, the ACS-64's have not been trouble free, but the CAF work makes me think of the Yugo.
 
PRR 60 said:
CSXfoamer1997 said:
Has anyone spotted any diners yet?
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. . . I don't expect to see any multiple diner releases until mid-summer, at the earliest. . . .

The contrast between CAF's performance with the car contract and Siemens' performance with the ACS-64 is pretty dramatic. To be sure, the ACS-64's have not been trouble free, but the CAF work makes me think of the Yugo.
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O.K., I'll defend CAF. It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

The contrast between CAF's performance with its car contract and Nippon Sharyo's with the bilevel contract makes CAF look pretty damn good. At least CAF has released an uncrushed prototype, LOL. Actually, Amtrak has received HALF the cars and put them to work. No doubt CAF will finish the order sooner or (bet on) later, costing Amtrak a few millions.

Nippon Sharyo seems poised to break all Stimulus funding deadlines and forfeit hundreds of millions. Hundreds of millions.

Soon the states will have to go to Congress to get a separate special law thru extending the deadline and appropriating the money anew. That will be a haters' delight for sure, with perhaps a President Cruz or a President Trump leading the waltz.

The Midwest could be riding Horizons for another 5 or 7 years or more, and that ain't gonna be CAF's fault.
 
Nippon Sharyo could still come out of this looking good. A redesigned car could pass all tests and a speeded up assembly line could get get the cars out in time. CAF has no chance of ever looking good, since it seems the already completed baggage cars have their own set of problems.
 
MikefromCrete said:
Nippon Sharyo could still come out of this looking good. A redesigned car could pass all tests and a speeded up assembly line could get get the cars out in time. CAF has no chance of ever looking good, since it seems the already completed baggage cars have their own set of problems.
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What are the current problems with the baggage cars?
 
Video of the special with the three test cars by YouTube user gregorygrice going through Ossining Station.

 
Having run down the Hudson Line, we know they're good for 110 mph operation. One test passed! :) Thanks for the video.
 
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Just-Thinking-51 said:
The crew cars will go to Lake Shore Limited, and Cardinal. The other cars have not been assigned yet.

Per ESPA / NARP 2016 meeting.
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You know, I was there and I missed that. Did anyone say which section of the LSL they were going to put the bag-dorm on -- Boston or NY?
NY would make more sense from the perspective of (a) that's where most of the crew is coming from, (b) roomette prices are typically higher on the NY section, (c ) the NY section runs up against platform length limits so a combine leaves more room for private car moves or added coaches.

But on the other hand, I'm not sure if all the luggage from NY will fit in the bag-dorm.
 
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I believe that VRE bought a design that had already gone thru testing; the Gallery Cars, which Metra uses; whereas the Midwest cars are of a new design & need new testing.

peter
 
neroden said:
Just-Thinking-51 said:
The crew cars will go to Lake Shore Limited, and Cardinal. The other cars have not been assigned yet.

Per ESPA / NARP 2016 meeting.
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You know, I was there and I missed that. Did anyone say which section of the LSL they were going to put the bag-dorm on -- Boston or NY?
NY would make more sense from the perspective of (a) that's where most of the crew is coming from, (b) roomette prices are typically higher on the NY section, (c ) the NY section runs up against platform length limits so a combine leaves more room for private car moves or added coaches.

But on the other hand, I'm not sure if all the luggage from NY will fit in the bag-dorm.
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Minor issue was he first stated Boston Section than change his mind to New York. So only time will tell for sure.
Step one get the equipment, then plan where to operate it?

You miss the conversation due the facts it occurred after we headed for lunch. He was holding court, and I ask about the weird number of Crew cars and where/how they might be used.
 
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MikefromCrete said:
Nippon Sharyo could still come out of this looking good. A redesigned car could pass all tests and a speeded up assembly line could get get the cars out in time. CAF has no chance of ever looking good, since it seems the already completed baggage cars have their own set of problems.
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I sure would like to see this happen. However I think n-s is too far behind in the process. (Perhaps the quoted response and my statement could be moved to the bi-level discussion so I don't hijack this thread.)
 
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