Siemens Venture Single Level Cars for CA/IL/Midwest

All that new rolling stock ... Great to see ...

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

gokeefe wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:31 pm

eolesen wrote:If there were a couple hundred Horizons or Amfleets put on the used market, I'd guess they'd be snapped up by commuter agencies in a heartbeat.

I think Amtrak wants to scrap all of the Amfleets.

Amfleets don't make good choices for charter or excursion service (as pointed out), with small windows. And the fuselage shell also makes it more difficult for aftermarket modifications or body work.

Once the Amfleets are retired, they are not coming back. I have ridden them on special excursion trains and wasn't quite pleased about having to look out of those small windows. The Siemens Single level cars will get great for the state supported routes in the Midwest and California. I believe that many of them will operate on the San Joaquin trains. It sounds like they will replace the single level sets that run on the Surfliners. Passengers traveling on the Surfliners will be guaranteed larger window to glance at the ocean.

It may be Amfleet - 1s will become surge fleet standbys. They might even be assigned to NECRegional surges as the window size is not too important for those passengers ?

Tadman wrote: ↑Sun Aug 09, 2020 4:23 pm I think that's an optical illusion. The 45-degree bevel on the roofs (similar to many Siemens cars like Railjet and the sleepers on Paris-Moscow RZ) would indicate near-flat sides, perhaps a slight negative tumblehome. But nothing like the Viewliner.

Yeah, not exactly the same profile but similar height. They would match up more nicely with Viewliners than the Amfleets do. Would be interesting to have a production race between Siemens and CAF btw!

west point wrote: ↑Sun Aug 09, 2020 11:11 pm It may be Amfleet - 1s will become surge fleet standbys. They might even be assigned to NECRegional surges as the window size is not too important for those passengers ?

I agree with this. The Amfleets aren't too terrible, especially since they've been refreshed and given a new, much smoother wheel profile. I think at first, before the replacements come along, they will be distributed around the network where there is need for extra capacity/space for social distancing. Then, once more are replaced, most will be scrapped and a small portion will be kept for backups/surge travel times like Thanksgiving. At least until the option orders are exercised.

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:18 am

Tadman wrote: ↑Sun Aug 09, 2020 4:23 pm I think that's an optical illusion. The 45-degree bevel on the roofs (similar to many Siemens cars like Railjet and the sleepers on Paris-Moscow RZ) would indicate near-flat sides, perhaps a slight negative tumblehome. But nothing like the Viewliner.

Yeah, not exactly the same profile but similar height. They would match up more nicely with Viewliners than the Amfleets do. Would be interesting to have a production race between Siemens and CAF btw!

NO doubt. Amfleets and Viewliners are like cats and dogs.

As for a production race, I hate to say this as the employee of a Spanish company, but Siemens seems to have CAF beat hands-down on keeping to schedule. Lord knows what went wrong between CAF and Amtrak on V2's, but CAF is also having quite the problems on the Caledonian Sleeper Mk5 cars in the UK. No word on the coaches they built for TransPenine Express which were seated coaches of 1st and 2nd and a cab car. No sleepers or diners.

If you want a "Wingin it with Paul Lucas" review of the new Cally CAF cars, it's not pretty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AZPfYnRR-4

This is from their website. Might be closer than we think.

Less pronounced in this photo from Facebook, but you can see the profile there too.

(c/o Elvee Kojak Hennings Hill Jr in Amtrak Fans)

Four Siemens Midwest cars went through Kearney, Nebraska Monday eastbound in a special train behind 1 UP unit. Should be in Chicago today or Wednesday.

Man, they gotta do something about the livery mismatch..

Still, happy to see new rolling stock.



https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... mtrak-cars

Interesting that the "staff sleeper" was in the middle of this test set

Those Amtrak Midwestern Siemens Venture Cars look good. I hope they work well. I also hope that those Charger units can get their bugs fixed.

Backshophoss wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:54 pm Interesting that the "staff sleeper" was in the middle of this test set

I think they have testing equipment in there.

njtmnrrbuff wrote: ↑Tue Jan 26, 2021 6:53 am Those Amtrak Midwestern Siemens Venture Cars look good. I hope they work well. I also hope that those Charger units can get their bugs fixed.

What are the bugs?

There're always "teething" problems with new equipment, that's a given