Railroad Forums 

  • WMATA 8000 Series Rail Cars

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1421441  by Sand Box John
 
Heated floors will produce an even distribution of heat through the car interior. As JDC point out it will aide in drying the floor more quickly. It will make it possible to configure the HVAC system to function as a air cooling system only as apposed being both a heating and cooling system.
 #1421451  by MCL1981
 
I wonder if they could use the dynamic braking juice to electrically heat the floor? That would be kinda neat. It would be inconsistent and need to be supplemented if the train is parked for a long time.
 #1421464  by MCL1981
 
Personally, I think they should just buy more 7000s while the getting is good. Buy enough to retire whatever is up for retirement in the next 10 years and be done with it.
 #1421481  by mtuandrew
 
Immediate thoughts:

-I like the quad doors/side, anything to reduce the crush points.
-For the love of Wiedefeld, make the propulsion and HVAC systems reasonably compatible with the 7000s!
-Partial open gangways: yes. Doesn't matter whether the cars are married A-A pairs or A-B pairs. Maybe you could even rebuild the existing 7ks to 8k standard with open gangways once you start taking delivery of 8ks.
-Get some comfy chairs back!

And bring these in as you retire the 2-3ks AND the 5-6ks. The 6ks being the last to go, of course.
 #1421495  by STrRedWolf
 
MCL1981 wrote:Personally, I think they should just buy more 7000s while the getting is good. Buy enough to retire whatever is up for retirement in the next 10 years and be done with it.
I have to agree. Get more 7k's to replace the 2k's and 3k's, rehab the 6k's, and really be far-looking on the 8k's.
 #1421535  by davinp
 
Article in today's Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr- ... he-future/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

Metro will have to retire the 2000/3000 series cars before 2025, so they probably will need to buy more 7000 series in a few years.
We should not wait until they become unreliable to buy new cars.
 #1421597  by wrivlin
 
mtuandrew wrote:Do any of you think Metro will go back to 75mph ATO ops when the last legacy cars are off property?
I sincerely hope so. Not that it would make a difference with all the speed restrictions in place everywhere.
 #1421626  by Sand Box John
 
"mtuandrew"

Do any of you think Metro will go back to 75mph ATO ops when the last legacy cars are off property?


Based on what I know, probably not.

Two issues that will likely hold speeds below 75MPH for the foreseeable future:
  • Running trains at those higher speeds beat the crap out of the 1k car during their early years, WMATA likely doesn't want to do the same thing to the any of the rolling stock. That was the primary reason for reducing maximum speeds in the first place.
  • Traction power distribution system can not handle the necessary kilowatts to sustain the loads for those speeds.
 #1428699  by Sand Box John
 
"YOLO"
I really wish they would build trains with 4 doors instead of 3


The idea of 4 doors per side was proposed when the specification for the 4k car procurement was being drawn up. The staff shot the idea down because of the added weight of the structural elements that would be necessary to allow for 4th door opening. The 7k cars are allegedly causing vibration issues because of their greater weight. The 7k cars are similar to the rest of WMATA's rolling stock in that they are of monocoque type construction. Adding a 4th door opening would require the cars to be heaver for the same reason. I will also note that latest generation of cars procured by NYCT are heaver then WMATA's 7k cars, are 15' shorter and have 4 doors per side. Some but not all of that weight is in the heaver trucks used under those cars.
 #1428793  by Sand Box John
 
"mtuandrew"
John: the latest
Trains has a feature article on the Kawasaki efWING trucks. A claimed weight reduction of up to 40% over steel trucks would definitely entice me to consider Kawi for the 8ks!

I don't see WMATA adopting that truck design because the bearing journals are outboard and it employs tire brakes. WMATA choose the inboard frame trucks because of their lighter weight and disk brake rotors mounted on the axle ends. These might be suitable on NYCT as they use outboard frame trucks and tire brakes.
 #1428832  by Chris Brown
 
I don't agree with the idea that WMATA should just keep ordering 7k's to replace the 2k and 3k cars. I believe it is much smarter to make some design changes with the 8k cars. The reason for this comes down to having variety in the fleet.. which helps to avoid a situation where the entire fleet is compromised by some future defect identified.

Per example.. the 1k and 4K cars. After decades the 1k cars were discovered to not be crash worthy. Then later the 4k cars were taken out of service because of a defect. Then again moved to the center of trains because of another problem. This is why the entire fleet cannot be the same. You need variety for situations like this where defects are found down the road.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 12