Viewliner II Delivery/Production

mtuandrew wrote:R30A: what are you thinking instead? I could see Amtrak simply removing the in-car toilets and associated plumbing, if that is faster, and removing two roomettes to match the V-2 floor plan.

Just wonder though if you can simply remove one roomette from the end that easily. The plug is in the center of the car and you might just have to remove every roomette to do it. Maybe these could be somewhat odd ducks with the restrooms in the center of the car until complete rebuild, but it makes more sense to standardize everything and do a major rehab.

ok this tread is about Viewliner II, not the Viewliner I overhauls !

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

R30A wrote:Why would we assume that anyone outside of Amtrak would be overhauling the Viewliner I's?


(I think it may be premature to assume that the overhaul will be of anything close to the scope people seem to think it will be...)

It's S.O.P. to give cars a full mechanical overhaul between the ages of 25-30. Amtrak's own Fleet Plan has lots of verbiage about rated lifespans, rebuild-or-replace decisions, and which fleets are earmarked for rebuild vs. replacement. The V1's have always been slotted under rebuild, because the design compatibility between 1st- and 2nd-generation cars gives them excellent scale over a maximal life extension. Unless they plan to about-face and outright replace them with a brand new order of V3's RFP'd in the next 5 years--a decision that defies any logic about fleet economics--the V1's are going to get their 25-year midlife overhaul. Because the only alternative to that is having snazzy new interiors in cars that start breaking down en masse from deferred mechanical maintenance.

There's no third answer, because working between the lines with light touch-ups does not net a rated life extension. 30 years is the uppermost-bound fish or cut bait point for the V1's on rebuild-or-replace action. So whether it's in-house rebuild or contracted out (and they will RFP to see which is cheaper)...rebuild won't be a light job. Does it really need explanation that they're going to proceed that way when nearly all major public transit fleet management on planet Earth is planned around vehicle lifespan ratings?

I am sure they will get some sort of heavy overhaul. I just don't see any reason to assume it won't be like the Superliner I Level 3 overhauls we saw in the last decade or so. Amtrak hasn't contracted out any of the other overhauls outside of 10 heritage diners 20 years ago, so why would they change that now?

bostontrainguy wrote:

mtuandrew wrote:R30A: what are you thinking instead? I could see Amtrak simply removing the in-car toilets and associated plumbing, if that is faster, and removing two roomettes to match the V-2 floor plan.

Just wonder though if you can simply remove one roomette from the end that easily. The plug is in the center of the car and you might just have to remove every roomette to do it. Maybe these could be somewhat odd ducks with the restrooms in the center of the car until complete rebuild, but it makes more sense to standardize everything and do a major rehab.

Superliners and Amfleets have had restrooms replaced without using side plugs. I don't see why the same couldn't be done with Viewliners.

Diner to be pulled from 19/20 soon. I havent seen either viewdiner go past me in the last week.

Any word if an extra from Albany was called to head to CAF to pickup a few more View II Diners soon?

I've read elsewhere that ONE will be coming in March; then, the rest not too long afterwards.

ApproachMedium wrote:Diner to be pulled from 19/20 soon. I havent seen either viewdiner go past me in the last week.

Thanks for the info. Graham Claytor would be turning over in his grave, I'd guess. I won't be paying $600 r/t or one-way for a diner-less trip unless the available food offerings are comparable to what a train with a diner would have.

Yeah, if they pull the diner, I'm rethinking my travel plans next month.

I'm on 48/49 the 2nd week of February, not holding out much hope. But taking the whole family to Chicago on 48/49 in April, really would be nice to have the diners running by then!

I would pretty much guarantee there will be no diner on 48/49 in February and probably not even in April.

Simply because as they come in, they'll replace existing heritage diners first, and 48/49 has no heritage diner at this time. And I don't think we'll get that many by April.
Would be nice though.
(Which reminds me, I'll probably be on 48/49 myself next month.)

ApproachMedium wrote:Diner to be pulled from 19/20 soon. I havent seen either viewdiner go past me in the last week.

What's the idea behind this? There should be enough Heritage diners still in service to cover both the Crescent and Silver Meteor until the Viewliners arrive. We're only talking a few months, now.

OrangeGrove wrote: What's the idea behind this? There should be enough Heritage diners still in service to cover both the Crescent and Silver Meteor until the Viewliners arrive. We're only talking a few months, now.

See analysis in the Crescent thread, but even assuming a V-II could lower the Crescent's diner cost from $10m/yr to $7m/yr, total sleeper class revenues were only $7.6m on the Crescent in FY2016, so the diner eats somewhere between 90% to ALL to 130% of the typical Crescent sleeper class ticket. So remove the diner and let more riders ride and fund more train.

Prediction: we will need a V-II diner reconfiguration thread before 2020, which will discuss a pick-any-two of:

Cafe/Bistro/Bar
Vending/Pret-a-Manger
Business (2-1 would be nice)
Tables