Kawasaki PA-5 delivery status.

Why should it take them so long to get even one consist in service?

I guess they're doing extensive testing and learning of how to repair the equipment before kawasaki ramps up production and starts shipping them over here.

Trackguy,Oport and all: Those PA-5 cars look good-I noticed some sitting outside at Harrison myself. I like the blue color scheme and the fact that PATH is retaining the "P" logo-but without the NJ-NY which made it very accurate.
I find it interesting that the PATH even intends to replace the 80s Kawasaki cars also in this order-I now wonder if ridership increases in the system will PATH keep them for use similar to how the Class K cars were used before their retirement?

Speaking of similar cars-with the MBTA now receiving their 0700 series Blue Line cars-the similarities between the two car types is quite interesting-I consider these cars to be PATH cars with pantographs-but the overhead roof apparatus probably would not clear the close confines of the Hudson Tubes. I can picture them using the overhead wire on the PATH tracks W of the Hackensack River Bridge if it was DC voltage-but as many know that wire is totally unused today-there are wires that have been placed in at least one spot UNDER it. For more insight on the MBTA 0700 cars look here:
www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=25809 and then go backwards from the last page for more up to date info.
Will PATH place the PA-5 cars on display someplace? I am sure that I am not the only one who would like to see them!
MACTRAXX

My father-in-law is an electrical engineer on the PATH and he's told me that they're required to do about 800 (yes, eight hundred) hours of training with these things, including test runs and repairs. Of course, for him it's all overtime, so he's not complaining!

Something else: he noted that the technicians and engineers that Kawasaki sent over from Japan are somewhat less than safety-conscious - he indicated that these techs will stick their heads in between equipment and trucks while the equipment is being lowered onto the trucks, just to be sure they're lined up properly, and he's had to stop them himself a number of times (as have some of the other PATH employees) to keep them from getting hurt.

Yes, Japanese are crazy like that, safety to them is not getting decapitated, but doing everything necessary to make sure the job gets done and done right even if that means getting down low.

they demand excellence from their kawasaki rail cars...

what was it...didn't a few people have to die to build the great wall, nextdoor in china?....they just aren't good with their safety habits over in east asia lol

hardhats are a fashion statement over there

Neat LED sign (color coding the word for the destination).

I sorta prefer WMATA's method though (a thick colored line two LED's wide for the line and the rest in amber); if a train shows up with a yellow, green, or red sign, it may not be clear that that is a line color as those were all the common colors for LED's until recently.

Does anybody know what type of populsion sound these PA5 cars will have?

DC 3rd rail inverted into AC Propulsion, from Siemens if I remember correctly

Got to chatting with a PATH conductor deadheading on my train the other day about the new cars(after talking how the multilevels are pieces of crap)....

Anyways, he was telling me that during the clearance tests there are some clearance problems around the WTC. They did some test runs partially deflating the bellows to lower the height and that still didn't meet the threshold. It appears that they didn't actually hit, but were closer than the allowed tolerance...

well that sucks lol

DC 3rd rail inverted into AC Propulsion, from Siemens if I remember correctly

You are correct. Siemens will provide the AC motors for the new cars. My guess is that it should sound similar to the R160-B or even the test motors used on the R143 for a short time. However Siemens propulsion sounds are definitely not consistant so it's anyones guess.

well...if you find out when they first started testing them...i'm guesstimating they started testing around early july...and go 800 hours of testing...40 hours to a week....20 weeks worth of testing....that puts it sometime in november, if they are testing 5 days a week, 40 hours a week.

again, only time will tell when they put them in revenue service

On Friday, 8/29, they were running a test train across the meadows. One track was closed for that, and revenue traffic was single-tracking around 12 Noon to 2PM.

It seems that's one of the standard places to test them