New Rotem Cars for Tri-Rail

That's a surprise for me as well; not much was said about this order (if anything). If the delivered cab car (#512) is of any indication, we have #512-521 as per Tri-Rail's order of 10 cabs and 14 coaches. Would anyone happen to have conclusive data on the pending coach numbers? #1016-1029?

That said, in regards to questions about car assignments: Just like the DMU's, expect them on anything. Tri-Rail has no set assignments.

-Kurt

Word is L.A. has canceled their order (the Tri Rail order was piggybacked onto theirs) and Rotem is going belly up. The Rotem reps in Miami are gone. Test trains have ceased. Another fine mess.

HammondB3Fan wrote:Word is L.A. has canceled their order (the Tri Rail order was piggybacked onto theirs) and Rotem is going belly up. The Rotem reps in Miami are gone. Test trains have ceased. Another fine mess.

Do you know how many cars have been delivered to TRCX as of present? Has Rotem ceased delivery entirely?

-Kurt

Two Cab Cars in the yard. The techs have all left Hialeah Yard. Apparently problems encountered in L.A. forced them to stop their order, in turn Tri Rails piggybacked order hit the skids with it. Word around the yard is Rotem is finished, but nobody is talking. I'm afraid to see what kind of piecemeal set up will come out of this mess. Add to that construction in Hialeah Yard in anticipation of these new cars continues. More space won't hurt for certain but it doesn't sound like tracks will be filled with the (at least partially) intended equipment. This just seems to add to the woes. The DMU runs one roundtrip per day, it is staffed by a mechanical force separate from Bombardier. Now is this another pink elephant? Can't we just go with a tried and true theme here? It's one poor choice after another. In the meantime the current equipment is in the worst shape in years, chronic problems and no time to lay it up for the attention it is overdue to get. The next board meeting might be interesting.

There's always the Bombardier Multilevel...

Rode Boca to Miami today, and our equipment southbound was a three-car set of the Colorado Railcar DMUs. Very comfortable equipment, with nice seats, and very tall. It was odd to look down at the roofs of the Bombardier cars.

In the yard at Hialeah was a single Rotem cab car, still sitting the same place as in the March photo above, so I don't think it's in service at all. There also appeared to be a second DMU set in the yard, although the one we rode was the only one in service. All the other train sets were saw were Bombardier cars.

Our return trip was on a three-car train of the older, riveted Bombardier cars. Notably less comfortable than the DMUs, though, and many windows were fogged.

Any word on whether the Rotem equipment has returned to revenue service since?

-Kurt

Was just in Los Angeles visiting Metrolink (on business, not railfanning), and if Rotem has gone belly-up, they've neglected to inform Metrolink, which has just exercised an option for an additional order of cars (I forget how many). The word from Metrolink is that Rotem bid a really, really low price, and they're not happy campers, but a contract is a contract and they intend to make good on it. Sometimes this happens when you're the new boy on the block and try to grab market share quickly by low-balling contracts.

I got into the cab of one of the new cab cars, and as big as it looks, there's not a whole lot of room in there for the engineer. Due to the need for ceiling clearance in the passageway below, there's only room for the engineer's seat. The rest of the cab is at the level of the control stand, sort of a big empty dashboard. They're having a bit of trouble figuring out where to fit the PTC equipment.

The non-cab Rotem cars look nice. They're stainless steel, no rivets, and don't have the chamfered ends of the Bombardier cars, giving them a much sleeker look. They apparently also incorporate crash energy management technology, and most trains seem to have a new Rotem car up against the engine as well as a new cab car. They no longer use the old cab cars at all.

Don't know how any of this will affect Tri-Rail, except that if they want their cars, it appears Rotem will build them.

Revenue Service began here in Miami with one cab car about a 2 weeks ago. Just prior to that rumor had them being returned. There is no info as to the status of the remainder of the order.

any pics for them yet? (besides the youtube vids)
tried to finds some but cant find

"we have #512-522 as per Tri-Rail's order of 10 cabs and 14 coaches. Would anyone happen to have conclusive data on the pending coach numbers? #1016-1030?"

512 - 521 and 1016 - 1029. Had to nearly count my fingers on that one.

jmlaboda wrote:"we have #512-522 as per Tri-Rail's order of 10 cabs and 14 coaches. Would anyone happen to have conclusive data on the pending coach numbers? #1016-1030?"

512 - 521 and 1016 - 1029. Had to nearly count my fingers on that one.

Corrected; thanks.

-Kurt

One of the cab cars has been on P622. Rode on it today. All the seats face one way (backwards if you're going north). Not a lot of room, but the ride is much smoother.

Also appears that Tri-Rail now has at least two of these cab cars (512 and 513). I photographed P622 (513) and P627 (512) in Lake Worth a few days ago:

Yesterday, Wednesday, February 8th, I rode 622 from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach and we had a Rotem car (513) on the north end of the three car consist. I don't normally ride the cab car on the NB trip but I wanted to sample something new before it was no longer new. The seats are hard, backward northbound and very close together. I would not want to have to ride a really long distance in these cars. The car did ride very smooth, the windows big and very clean and it had the new car feel. My return was from Boynton Beach on train 631 and we had Rotem car 512 on the north end but I chose to ride one of the other cars on that train and surprise, we had spotless windows. The train ride was excellent and on time both ways. I had to use a bus to get from West Palm down to the hobby shop in Lantana and it takes close to an hour on US-1, no a pleasant trip. A different bus that does not run very frequent provided me with a shorter and better bus ride to the Boynton Beach station for my return. Would I do this again by train and bus, well, it saved me a lot of gasoline expense, the ride was very reasonably priced and the trains excellent. The return trip also gave me ample time to browse through three new magazines. Incidently I think I will reduce my regular monthly magazines to just Trains and Railpace, three magazines were $19.98 and sometimes the other magazines do not even appear on a regular basis. One monthly seems to appear two at a time then a long wait for more, what good is it??
My opion on the Rotem cars, I hope they work out OK because Tri-Rail's ridership is up and there is a need for more cars. Our commuter operation is not perfect but we have a right to be proud of it and that I am, I enjoy riding it.
Noel Weaver

Appears two more coach cars have arrived:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yprfC7su ... AAAAAAADAA