# Bombardier – Jet Engine Powered Train



## Noordam (Oct 15, 2003)

To begin with I am not a train expert so you will have to understand if I miss up at times. :blink:

Bombardier is completing with another company for the contract for a High Speed Trail in Florida. Bombardier entry would be non-electric and the other entry is electric. Bombardier has been looking for a non-electric high-speed train to sell not only in Florida but also in the DC area and in parts of Canada.

Bombardier did an open house on its engine in different cities in Florida. In Orlando they said 1,000 people came out to see the engine. The engine was on display in Tampa from 1:00-4:00 and they walk through of the train engine. They did not have any other parts of the train set with them. They did have a very old coach type for their “spare parts”. 

While I was in line, I meet with a very talkative person from Bombardier. His name was Daniel Hubert and he said that people call him the “Father of the Jet Powered Train”. He lives in Montreal Canada.

Notes from talking with Daniel.

The max speed of the engine is 175. The trucks are rated at 165. And with four cars the train will run at 150. The train can run on standard tracks at max speed for the tracks. The example he gave was 79 mph. The engine has was he calls “cab forward” and he said because the trucks are so far behind where the driver sits that going into turns the first time is “interesting”.

If all the paperwork is complete, they will be running the engine on the east coast of Florida as part of the TriRail system for a couple months.

On to the pictures and walk-thru. They started with the shell of an Acela. And because Bombardier also makes turbo-prop planes, they took a turbo-prop engine for the power source. Where in a turbo-prop the jet would have the interface to the props, they now has it connect up with the generators.

Not sure what you can say about the rear of a train.






The entry to the engine. They would take 5 people at a time to do a walk thru. There would normally be two groups of people in the train at any time so the line wait was not bad.






The walk thru started with the cockpit and talking about the engin controls.











You entered on the "left side" of the train. After being shown the controls the tour then walks down the full lenght of the "right side". Midway the doors are off the jet engine.






After viewing the engine you then go to the back of the car and are shown the braking system. The train uses air brakes. But to get the compressed air for the system, they use a battery backup electric compressor. I had a feeling that the Bombardier employee doing my group worked on the braking system, because he was very proud of it.

And going down the "left side" of the car we were shown the very important "john".......

I will be emailing these pictures with a couple more to one of the other forum members.

The only "bad" thing about Bombardier is they are CHEAP.... Having been in Marketting in a Computer company, I thought they would have "goodies" to hand out. No only did not NOT have pens to hand out, they were having a drawing for a "train viewing kit", binoculars and a bag, the only problem is they did not have a PEN to use to enter the drawing. Finally they found a Pen.......  

LOL I asked for a business card from Daniel, but he had to search his wallet to find one. Ah those Canadians :blink:


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## battalion51 (Oct 15, 2003)

Man am I sorry that I missed it while it was down here in Miami. Hopefully I'll get to run one of things eventually though.


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## Amtrak Railfan (Oct 15, 2003)

I like this Power Train Photos.


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## Noordam (Oct 15, 2003)

battalion51 said:


> Man am I sorry that I missed it while it was down here in Miami. Hopefully I'll get to run one of things eventually though.


It is leaving Tampa to go to Miami. I do not know how long it will be there. I think they are trying to get the TriRail thing worked out.


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## EmpireBuilderFan (Oct 16, 2003)

Noordam,

Thank you for posting the pictures and description of the JetTrain engine. I've been interested in this engine for a little while now, as one of my personal dreams has been long distance trains running at 150+ MPH using equipment like the JetTrain. Obviously, it would take a LOT of money to get even one of the shorter LD trains up to that speed for significant distances, but I think having something like the JetTrain available might help the process along in the long run. Of course, all this will be after Congress gives Amtrak the money to rebuild the NEC to allow Acela to go at its top speed most of the distance.  Who knows, with the support VIA is getting from the Canadian government, maybe the VIA Canadian transcon train may be the first LD train in the Americas to travel at an average speed over 100 MPH.


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## Noordam (Oct 16, 2003)

EmpireBuilderFan said:


> Who knows, with the support VIA is getting from the Canadian government, maybe the VIA Canadian transcon train may be the first LD train in the Americas to travel at an average speed over 100 MPH.


I talked to the Bombardier people and they pushing Canada big time. The Montreal to Toronto is their first goal. BUT they listed a number of other city pairs that would be great for that.

IMHO within 10 years, there will be 200+ mph trains running in Europe. I am not all that interested in a Tampa to Orlando train. I am interested in a Tampa to Miami train. OR a Tampa/Orlando-> Atlanta train.

Daniel and others from Bombardier all call this engine a "short engine". With a bigger jet engine or two small jet engines you could pull a train with more cars.

My bet would be two smaller jets, one that could be idled down once the train was up to speed.


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