Viewliner II Delivery/Production

Diner Harrisburg is on the northbound Crescent today. Nice car!

Which one: 20(24) or 20(25)?

The one arriving at NY Penn on 12/25.

An interesting discovery:

Recently while reading a British rail forum thread about the CAF production of new sleepers for the Caledonian Sleeper, a few of the members over there have noted that CAF is known for being very private and secretive in comparison with BBD and Hitachi (the former Breda). One poster even noted that his friend visited the CAF plant and was not allowed to take pictures of a fleet of cars on the floor.

Obviously this does not make up for the severe lateness of the Viewliner-II's but would explain why they don't talk about it. They appear not to talk about anything.

Also interesting, it appears CAF is reasonably on target to deliver the new cars. They were due spring 2018 and it looks like summer/fall as of right now. Certainly better than 5+ years delay.

Tad: regarding the Caledonian cars, whose design are they, where are they being built (locally in Scotland at a new/repurposed plant, elsewhere in Britain at an existing facility, or in Spain at a main CAF facility), and how over-budget are they? I’ve never heard of another passenger car like the Viewliner where the same railroad-owned design is bid out to multiple manufacturers (as opposed to a concept, like the gallery car or even the Comet series.) Closest I can think of is the old PCC design, and that wasn’t exactly a perfect copy between Brill, St. Louis, and the various other builders domestic and foreign.

They are a British Rail MARK 5 design apparently.
https://www.railmagazine.com/news/netwo ... er-coaches" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Edit , It seems the CAF carriages ARE the British Rail MK5, therefore may be a CAF Design . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Mark_5_(CAF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

interesting corrugated panel design, wonder what the weight comparison to a viewliner is?
https://www.globalrailnews.com/wp-conte ... 429728.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

David Benton wrote:interesting corrugated panel design, wonder what the weight comparison to a viewliner is?
https://www.globalrailnews.com/wp-conte ... 429728.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They'll be the same loading gauge as the ex-Nightstar coaches in Canada, presumably they'll weigh around the same.

We are getting further off topic , but I think the night star stock would have been steel . ( Mods . I will start a thread to move too in the Worldwide forum later, if necessary).
Edit - Thread here , should you wish to discuss the British aspects, viewtopic.php?f=149&t=166735&p=1457003#p1457003" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

How many diner units are left for delivery and what comes next?

I cant wait until we get new sleepers. These old viewliners are really taking a beating with the cold and freezing up. The undercarriage has no real protection from this kind of constant weather.

At least we can be thankful the Heritage Diners are now retired. I can't imagine how they would have reacted to the recent cold snap.

Have there been any teething problems with the new units?

Trains are still being shopped in the cold weather for frozen diners. So much for the new design keeping out the cold.

ApproachMedium wrote:frozen diners.

Is that frozen diner patrons (HVAC failure?) or frozen diner car (components failing in cold)?