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

The new cars have nothing to do with the vandalism. If it were to had been just them, service wouldn’t have been affected. They were all pulled anyways due to battery issues. This means that the older cars were the victims of being vandalized. That’s why service was slashed further that day. Does that make sense to everyone?

It makes sense. Hell, it's expected that there are going to be problems. There were witnesses to the vandalism, I hope they get caught and they figure out some form of restitution

The new orange and red line cars have been returned to service after the engineers discovered the out of range battery charge issue was found on the new out of service orange line car in the Wellington yard. Link: https://www.wcvb.com/article/mbta-orang ... 4/40501698

Battery charger tech very mature tech. Did someone at the builder decide to reinvent the wheel?

All the news reports use the same words as they uncritically blame it on out-of-spec temperature readings. It's almost as if they are cutting and pasting from some CYA press release...

Why did out-of-service cars that got vandalized result in service being slashed further? Or did they have to be put back in service to meet car requirements with the new cars sidelined?

Battery charging technology may be mature but battery technology has been changing. Also, like train collision avoidance, and doors closing on passengers, new circumstances have cropped up periodically needing new fixes to be invented. Even building a battery in a different physical shape (to fit the space provided) has necessitated additional testing.

In recent years I have read of cell phones, watches, (motorized) skateboards, and even a city bus (not a cheap fare bus like Fung Wah) erupting in flames because of a defective or improperly charged battery.

If the existing design was so good, why did they have to redesign it AND increase the ventilation? Imagine if someone was standing on the platform when the battery exploded, throwing the compartment cover, metal shrapnel & burning bits of lithium metal in their face. It could have happened. Or if it happened when stuck in a tunnel which fills with smoke, 100s of people get smoke inhalation, they manage to evacuate but the subway car catches fire and is destroyed...

CRRC is the world's largest manufacturer of rolling stock, majority owned & controlled by the People's Republic of China government. According to wikipedia, they are under US sanctions as a supplier to the People's Liberation Army, and Americans are prohibited from owning any of their stock.

How can the world's largest manufacturer of rail cars, from the country that manufactures virtually all the batteries and all of the charging circuits, not have a bulletproof design for a battery & charging system? They must use them in China too...

It is quite likely that the battery and charging sub components are not manufactured by CRRC itself but are some of the many components which are outsourced to other suppliers, many of whom are American companies in order to comply with Buy American laws. For example, the troublesome trucks on these cars which caused the derailment at Wellington last year were manufactured by Bradken in St. Joseph, Missouri, U S of A.

“Lowest Bidder Syndrome”, installation error, one bad battery in the batch of otherwise good ones, shoddy QC, somebody accidentally plugged the blue wire into the green plug in a poorly lit corner at Wellington, who knows - that’s all being investigated. Point is, any number of things could have caused that battery explosion issue. It’s rather inconvenient but true that they don’t all definitively point right back at China.

jwhite07 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 8:23 pm For example, the troublesome trucks on these cars which caused the derailment at Wellington last year were manufactured by Bradken in St. Joseph, Missouri.

From back issues of the ERA Bulletin, the 0700 Siemens cars had delivery delays as a result of the truck
manufacturer, Buckeye Steel (later Columbus Castings) in bankuptcy. The same GSI 70 trucks and company
would be involved in the Silverliner V debacle.

Now there are 72 new Orange Line CRRC traincars in service. Not too many 012/01300s still in service

The T seems to be in a really big hurry for the big Orange car crush, only about a week after restarting the line and a new China Rail Car that had a door defect. I'm sure they want the yard space back but why the crush rush?

72 new cars in service means the T has enough for the 10 trains they're running at a time, along with 2 full spare train sets. Certainly the T would like to avoid having to continue to do inspections and repairs on equipment that's literally rotting away and won't get used. I'm sure they'll prioritize the equipment with the most significant issues to be removed first.

FYI they are only 4 trains short using the new cars only for peak vehicle requirement which is 96 which equals 16 6 car trains. It’s not going to matter at the moment because there isn’t enough dispatchers to safely run the red, orange, and blue lines. The ones they are scrapping are all of the ones that are in poor condition listed as “awaiting deposition”.

BandA wrote: ↑Tue Sep 27, 2022 1:15 am The T seems to be in a really big hurry for the big Orange car crush, only about a week after restarting the line and a new China Rail Car that had a door defect. I'm sure they want the yard space back but why the crush rush?

A "door problem" is not necessarily a "door defect". Anything stuck in the gap between the doors and the car body or between the doors and the guide rails may result in a door problem. The motors aren't very powerful. This is by design, since you may end up with severe injuries if someone has his fingers or toes in the gap, otherwise.

Perhaps the only way to avoid such problems is to control the crowdedness, so that passengers aren't in frequent contact with these doors.

I have seen on social media people asking if a pair of Hawkers will be set aside for Seashore. The T has said this is possible. I note that 01200/01201, are still mark active and wonder if they will be the chosen pair when so many others are already marked “awaiting deposition”. I am sure there are other factors then numerical such as best condition.