M-8 Cars - Delivery and Acceptance

Just a slight update............

MN has started design meetings with Kawasaki to go over their (Kawasaki's) version of the M8 cars to see how the 450 page proposal looks on paper. At one recent meeting, they spent 4 hours just discussing the cab!! There are several more meeting scheduled over the next few months including a tour of M7 pairs at Harmon, meeting at the Yonkers plant and at the New Haven MU shop. A slow process indeed.

A prototype "mock up" will not even be built until sometime in mid to late 2007.

<i>At one recent meeting, they spent 4 hours just discussing the cab!!</i>

That's nothing. I was in a meeting once where a few people with lots of important looking letters after their names had a nice, heated, 45 minute discussion about the color of an icon on a display screen.

Most of the time, this is covered by 'what color is off, what color is on?' question, and life goes on...

(Yes, some places use red = on, others use red = off. Everyone agrees that yellow means 'something bad' happened, though one spec said blue should mean 'paused'. I'm not sure how you pasue a sewage treatment plant, though...)

The fun thing is, despite months of meetings and all, inevitably a few stupid things slip past everyone. (think of that gate at Secacus Junction, and the lightpole in front of it )

why need a Bar bar Brown Bag it

Hey Guys,
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but will there be a railfan window on the M-8's? I now know that there is no such window on the M-7's perhaps a vestebule a la the Shoreliners? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Patrick

Nope. The front part of the M8 will be the same as on Shoreliner and M8 cars. The cab will be totally isolated from the passenger section.

Welcome to 21st Century Railfanning.............

So when the M-8's get built will they go to the FRA site at Pueblo for testing, or will they be tested on MNR trackage first? If they go to Pueblo, will they be self propelled (catenery/3rd rail) or is it just a test to see if they can move?

Patrick

The cars need to get certified at AAR pueblo facility first,, untill they are certified they can not travel on their own power other than at the test center.
Any locomotive or self propelled car has to go trough the paces at Pueblo to determine max speed, braking distances, truck behaviour, etc, in short to make sure the cars perform as per contract specifications and safety.

After a initial trainset is certified the railroad/manufacturer can do the testing on their own property for other purposes like platform spotting, clearance testing, endurance testing etc. it is also sometimes used to start training crews.

Every car deliverd will be subject to testing on MNCR for a minimum of 1000 trouble free miles before being conditionaly accepted for revenue service, unless the cxar has the first 1000 miles trouble free no passengers even in emergencies.
Any failure of systems/sub systems will reset the testing to 0 miles.

Funny how neither the M4 & M6 had to go through testing at Pueblo.

Dutch,
Does the Pueblo center have catenary/thrid rail capabilities to test the cars in that fashion? Also for the 1000 mile test period, are those conducted on MNRR ROW?

Capecodlocoguy,
Why didn't the M4/6 get tested at Pueblo?

Patrick

Both the M4 and M6 were tested at Pueblo, and so was any form of motive power currently on US network of railroads.
The AAR test center has Fast loop with Catenary that can be powered by different voltages.
A transit loop with third rail and several other tracks were testing of track components take place.
For info see: http://www.aar.com/facility-tracks.htm

Hate to correct you, but the M4s and M6s were NEVER tested at Pueblo. The M4s (the first two triplets were built in Japan) went from Japan right to the NH line for testing. Likewise the M6s never were tested at Pueblo. They were built in Hornell NY and came right to the NH line for testing.

Rumor has it that the M8s will be much heavier than expected. I've heard that each car will weigh an astonshing 143,000 pounds!! That makes then 33,00 pounds heavier than the M7s and 23,000 pounds heavier than the current heaviest car the M4 "D" car. Thankfully they'll have more than enough traction power to haul themselves around.

What is making them heavier than expected capecodlocoguy?

Two large transformers to handle the wide range of operating voltages and the resistor bank on the roof. This is why they elected to drop the 25hz transformer, to save weight.