# Sonoma-Marin SMART train: may be heavy rail



## PetalumaLoco (May 16, 2009)

Story here.


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## WhoozOn1st (May 16, 2009)

Perhaps the decision to go heavy will eliminate the hideous possibility of Sonoma-Marin's SMART opting for equipment such as the mechanical monstrosity that is Sprinter.


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## PetalumaLoco (May 16, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> Perhaps the decision to go heavy will eliminate the hideous possibility of Sonoma-Marin's SMART opting for equipment such as the mechanical monstrosity that is Sprinter.


Right with you.


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## jis (May 17, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> Perhaps the decision to go heavy will eliminate the hideous possibility of Sonoma-Marin's SMART opting for equipment such as the mechanical monstrosity that is Sprinter.


They could go with the Stadler Diesel-Electric units instead as on the NJT RiverLINE. Choosing those would also allow for possible dual mode operation with electric ops in heavier trafficked areas while falling back to diesel in less dense areas.

Heavy rail will generally mean less frequent service that is more expensive to operate. That is the downside.


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## WhoozOn1st (May 17, 2009)

jis said:


> They could go with the Stadler Diesel-Electric units instead as on the NJT RiverLINE


Never heard of the outfit, so hunted down Stadler Bussnang AG, which also specializes in rack railways. Also found some Stadler DMU videos, including

. It includes a cool shot from between the tracks that ends with the photographer picking up the camera after the train has passed over it. Sure looks like Sprinteroid light rail to me, though as a diesel-electric it surely has smoother riding characteristics.


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## jis (May 17, 2009)

WhoozOn1st said:


> Finally, I located this


The Stadler units are remarkably quiet and smooth in operation. They have proved to be quite popular with the riding public. Austin is also using Stadlers. I was actually somewhat surprised that Oceanside-Escondido went with Siemens Sprinters.

There is a book on the River LINE written by Al Fazio and published by Railpace that you might find very informative. Lots of technical details both about the cars and the general operations, including all sorts of nuances of temporal separation with FRA traffic etc.


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## PetalumaLoco (May 17, 2009)

Stadler is one of the mfg's that SMART is looking at.

Stadler SMART Presentation

Here's a link to the Austin Metro cars.

Interesting design; power unit in the middle of the train with control cars at both ends. Also Stadler says it may be possible to use bio-diesel.


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## jis (May 17, 2009)

Interesting that they rate MAS as 60mph. As we speka NJT is already running their Stadler GTWs at 65mph in commercial service, and is looking into upping to 70mph.


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