SLE/CtDOT VRE Virginia Railway Express Mafersa Coaches

no and probably no, the purpose of buying these cars was to free up Bombardier cars for service in and out of GCT.

I stand corrected on the doors being manual...

*updating my incorrect previous information*

im pretty sure i saw vre cab cars in new haven a few months back, howcome they arent in use? are they planning to use them? all of the sle trains ive seen with vre cars have two coaches and a bomb cab car

The VRE cars need different Cab signal to be able to operate on SLE trains and a few other minor modifications to electrical systems.
East of New Haven a system called ACSES is used, but the Cab cars have Cabs/ATC only. the cars could be used on other Branch lines however, since the system is same as MNCR uses on the Mainline.

Has anyone seen or herard anything on the VRE coaches that went to Kawasaki in Yonkers several months ago? I heard through some friends that problems have developed with the overhaul. I thought they were just going in for some rewiring, sprucing up and repainting. I see that some of them are still in New Haven Yard awaiting their turn.

I wonder what kind of problems 10 year old push-pull coaches could have?
They must've been in reasonably good shape for CDOT to buy in the first place.

Anyone know more about these coaches?

The Kawasaki contract calls for truck rebuilt, paintjob on outside, application of door pocket snow heaters, and a few wiring modifications.
I do not think there is much priority in release of the first 6 cars.
On Cab cars a snow plow mod is done and ACSES are added to the above coach work.
And all cars get all Brakevalves rebuilt.

Does anyone have a picture of these cars? I'd like to know what they look like.

Second, what are door pocket snow heaters?

The doors slide back into a pocket, in winter this pocket fills up with snow, so snow melting is neccesary. On bombardiers this feature is included but the VRE cars were built for a reagion where snow is never a long term problem.

Sharp looking cars. Where will we see them running? I assume they will be dressed up in Metro North of Conn DOT livery? Will the cab end stripes remain?

These cars will be ONLY only SLE trains. The stripes will most likely be replaced by a solid red stripe as that's how CDOT did the former SPV "Constitution Liners".

Only 9 VRE cars are required for SLE, the plan exist to run the VRE's on the 3 shuttle trains on Danbury/Waterbury. This way they free up another 7 Bombardiers for mainline service.

Those are the original Mafersa cars, the first purpose-built cars for VRE. I think Mafersa is from brazil.

Are the CDOT comet and shoreliner interiors the same?

The Mafersa's have small tables inside, don't they?

Mafersa is/was a foreign licensee of Budd products, right? Yes, from Brazil if I recall...