#14 Orange Line Cars 1400-1551 (From Red/Orange Procurement discussion)

Lets see how many more issues arise before they go to full time service. They need to assemble them better with more expensive and durable parts, not cheap stuff that's ineffective. That's the issue with the breakdowns besides terrible maintenance from lousy management.

Unsurprisingly, the new trains will not be going back into service this week:

Following a thorough inspection of the new Orange Line trains, we've concluded that additional time is needed to address the identified fault. Safety is our top priority & has been the driving force throughout the process of releasing these vehicles. Thank you for your patience.

(From MBTA's Twitter account.)

So, as I understand it, the fault with the bolsters is they are wearing much faster thank they should be. They are trying to fix the issue to ensure they hold up for the expected life.

Bolsters should last the vehicle life.

CRRC has made a lot of cars in China, why hasn't this problem shown up before?

BandA wrote: ↑Sat Mar 07, 2020 11:13 pm CRRC has made a lot of cars in China, why hasn't this problem shown up before?

It may have, just the information coming from a state owned foreign railway about a state owned/backed manufacture of their equipment, maybe not forthcoming. Disposable razors, they can pump out cars at will, where as US transit/railroads expect a 20+ year life out of equipment.

Granted I haven't been thrown under a train lately, I remember some form of pad that is between the bolster and the car frame, think of it like cartilage. If that wears out before its time then metal on metal and circles become oblongs, squares be circles and so on. The long and the short of it is either a poor design or poor manufacturing of parts.

Here is one reported similar story involving bolster cracks. The story notes that it may be related to impurities in the aluminum carbodies.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/07/05/m ... ue-cracks/

Yikes, that was 4 years ago.
John, the guy with the blue car with a wing on back

Wel maybe we just shouldn't be buying trains from a company in China........ But I guess the low bidder price is all that matters.

Head end view, CRRC is not just a Chinese company, according to wikipedia as of 2016 it was controlled and 60% owned by the Chinese government.

BandA wrote: ↑Sat Mar 07, 2020 11:13 pm CRRC has made a lot of cars in China, why hasn't this problem shown up before?

Subway cars are unique and aren't off-the-shelf mass produced products, as you may know. Since there was a 60% US content requirement in the contract, my guess is that the CNR engineers were using bolster pads sourced from a US company for the first time and had different expectations of the bolster pads than what they were used to.

typesix wrote: ↑Sun Mar 08, 2020 1:36 pm Here is one reported similar story involving bolster cracks. The story notes that it may be related to impurities in the aluminum carbodies.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/07/05/m ... ue-cracks/

Except that the Singpore MRT cars are completely different from the MBTA cars as well as being designed by a completely different project team. Off the bat, you noted that the MRT cars have aluminum carbodies. Well, the MBTA cars have stainless steel carbodies. CSR and CNR may have merged to form CRRC, but they still operate independently of each other. FYI, CSR did bid on the MBTA contract, but their proposal did not make it to evaluation because it did not meet the performance requirements.

Head-end View wrote: ↑Sun Mar 08, 2020 7:20 pm Wel maybe we just shouldn't be buying trains from a company in China........ But I guess the low bidder price is all that matters.

Nope. There were two parts to the selection process: the technical proposals and the price proposals. The technical proposals were evaluated first and CNR outperformed everyone, including Kawasaki. The low price was icing on the cake and sealed the deal for CNR.

So noted and it's a complicated world we live in. But as one who remembers a time when there were several American manufacturers of train cars, it is absolutely shameful where we find ourselves today.

The newtrains.today tracker shows a #14 set out and about this morning. Can't tell if it's in revenue service or a test train, but it's been a while since they've been out in any manner.

Was driving by Cabot Yard this afternoon and saw a new Orange line set sitting the track nearest the channel.
How and why do they get there?

How is by truck, and why is to start familiarizing the Red Line crews with the new cars (the new Red and Orange Line cars are essentially identical except for dimensions).