Beech Grove Superliners

[pebbleworm]

Or spent a whole bunch of cash on two meaningless, un-winnable, and un-necessary wars and unprecedented tax cuts for billionaires... I can grudgingly accept propping up the tentpoles of our teetering financial system after a failed experiment in de-regulation, at least in comparison.

 

[AlanB]

Lets stay on topic please!

 

[colobok]

I am shocked with these prices.

Anybody has estimate of railcar costs in other contries?

It's only a rail car, not the rocket, plane or luxury car.

Other contries have thousand times more railcars than USA, I don't believe they pay few millions for each car.

It should cost at least 10-20 times less.

 

[pebbleworm]

Railcars have to be built for pretty extreme service with a very heavy structure and they need to be reliable. So, they are expensive. If you try to cheap out, like for example the General Motors Aerotrain from the 50's with modified bus bodies the cars buzz, vibrate and rattle themselves to pieces. The first example I could think of for foreign pricing for railcars were the Nightstar cars VIA rail bought at fire-sale prices- 130,000,000 US for 139 cars, some of them only shells. So still about $1,000,000 each, and "fair market value" was estimated at 400 to 500,000,000-an average of 3.6 million each, including the shells. There are plenty of railcars that have been in service for 50 years- even a modern container ship is only expected to last 25 years or so. They just aren't cheap!

Nightstar cars:

aerotrain

 

[user 1215]

I noticed that this thread started almost 18 months ago. How many of those cars are back in service?

 

[AlanB]

As of August, the latest update from OTOL shows that 9 of the cars have been returned to service. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that 1 or 2 more have since returned to service.

Remember that there is a lot of work being done on these cars. In addition to fixing the wreck damage, which in many cases is extensive, these cars are all getting refurbished interiors also.

 

[dlagrua]

As of August, the latest update from OTOL shows that 9 of the cars have been returned to service. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that 1 or 2 more have since returned to service.

Remember that there is a lot of work being done on these cars. In addition to fixing the wreck damage, which in many cases is extensive, these cars are all getting refurbished interiors also.

Thanks for passing on the great news. Beech Grove should be able to turn these cars out on a regular continual basis. I've seen a video of that place and it is absolutely huge.

I just hope that Beech Grove also refurbishes some Viewliners as they are getting pretty worn but does anyone know if the Viewliners are being refurbished in Delaware? I know that new ones are expected to be put in service in 2012 but until then.......what?????

 

[AlanB]

Beech Grove was scheduled to work on 12 Viewliner's last year. That's the fiscal year, which just ended this past September. As of July they had done 5, but it seems as though they hadn't finished the prior year's program so that may be why they are behind at that point for last year's program.

Viewliners never go to any Delaware facilities unless they happen to break down right near one. Normal Viewliner work is done in Hialeah, Fl the home base for Viewliner's or in Beech Grove.

 

[user 1215]

Beech Grove was scheduled to work on 12 Viewliner's last year. That's the fiscal year, which just ended this past September. As of July they had done 5, but it seems as though they hadn't finished the prior year's program so that may be why they are behind at that point for last year's program.

Viewliners never go to any Delaware facilities unless they happen to break down right near one. Normal Viewliner work is done in Hialeah, Fl the home base for Viewliner's or in Beech Grove.

I guess I'm confused as to why they couldn't even complete 1/2 of the schedule? The schedule should have reflected the extent of damage, and they have all kinds of money being flung at them. I guess I just don't understand the excuses why 5 of 12 Viewliners were refurbished PER THE SCHEDULE and only 9-11 Superliners...

 

[cpamtfan]

Beech Grove was scheduled to work on 12 Viewliner's last year. That's the fiscal year, which just ended this past September. As of July they had done 5, but it seems as though they hadn't finished the prior year's program so that may be why they are behind at that point for last year's program.

Viewliners never go to any Delaware facilities unless they happen to break down right near one. Normal Viewliner work is done in Hialeah, Fl the home base for Viewliner's or in Beech Grove.

I guess I'm confused as to why they couldn't even complete 1/2 of the schedule? The schedule should have reflected the extent of damage, and they have all kinds of money being flung at them. I guess I just don't understand the excuses why 5 of 12 Viewliners were refurbished PER THE SCHEDULE and only 9-11 Superliners...

9-11 Superliners were REBUILT, alot more Suprliners came and went from Beech Grove during the last year and a half.

As for the Viewliners, there are so few that they haven't had the time to refurbish them. There are a couple, but from the looks I've taken in some of them, not much design change. Just a different scheme on the outside. I wouldn't be surprised if new single level long distance overnight trains don't start for a while so the older cars can get freshened up.

 

[AlanB]

Beech Grove was scheduled to work on 12 Viewliner's last year. That's the fiscal year, which just ended this past September. As of July they had done 5, but it seems as though they hadn't finished the prior year's program so that may be why they are behind at that point for last year's program.

Viewliners never go to any Delaware facilities unless they happen to break down right near one. Normal Viewliner work is done in Hialeah, Fl the home base for Viewliner's or in Beech Grove.

I guess I'm confused as to why they couldn't even complete 1/2 of the schedule? The schedule should have reflected the extent of damage, and they have all kinds of money being flung at them. I guess I just don't understand the excuses why 5 of 12 Viewliners were refurbished PER THE SCHEDULE and only 9-11 Superliners...

There is no wreck damage to the Viewliners, therefore the schedule would not reflect any extra time for refurbishing those cars.

While I have no actual knowledge, I suspect that with the Stimulus monies having a time line attached that Beech Grove took people off the other work like the Viewliners and general Superliner work to get started on the wrecks. They did that while they started hiring more workers to handle all the extra work. And remember that Beech Grove also got P40's to work on too.

That set them behind on the Viewliner schedule from fiscal 2008. That program was completed in fiscal 2009, which of course put the fiscal 2009 Viewliner program behind schedule.

I have no idea what timeline Amtrak forcasted for the wrecked Superliners, if they even did forecast a timeline beyond of course the fact that the Stimulus monies must be spent by a specific data as mandated in the funding Bill.

 

[afigg]

While I have no actual knowledge, I suspect that with the Stimulus monies having a time line attached that Beech Grove took people off the other work like the Viewliners and general Superliner work to get started on the wrecks. They did that while they started hiring more workers to handle all the extra work. And remember that Beech Grove also got P40's to work on too.

The August 2010 monthly report shows that 5 Viewliners have been overhauled under FY10 funding, but another 8 have been overhauled under a stimulus 29xx project number. The monthly reports show a lot of overhauls being done using stimulus funds rather than the FY10 line items. Look at page 41 and 42 of the August report. Looks to me like Amtrak decided to shift much of the overhaul costs to use up the stimulus money so they could use the FY10 funds in other areas.

What is the standard or recommended overhaul interval for the Viewliner and Superliner sleepers? I worked in a mid-range Marriott hotel one summer (many years ago) and was amazed back then at the amount of petty abuse that some people would do to their hotel rooms. Tear towel racks out of the wall, clog up toilets with stuff better not discussed, damage or toss the furniture, or occasionally just trash the room. This was not a low rent hotel mind you, but a mid-range hotel with a lot of business travelers in a suburban area. Projecting that onto the sleeper cars, Amtrak does not have much flexibility to take a room out of the reservation system, so maintenance can spend a day or 2 working on the room. I figure besides frequent maintenance, the sleepers have to go through a pretty regular overhaul cycle to get everything in good condition.

 

[Ben]

So any timeline as to when the rest of the Superliners will be released? Obviously, money isn't really an issue as Amtrak just ordered $466 million worth of locomotives, so it must be just litigation. How long could the process take?

 

[AlanB]

So any timeline as to when the rest of the Superliners will be released? Obviously, money isn't really an issue as Amtrak just ordered $466 million worth of locomotives, so it must be just litigation. How long could the process take?

I've heard of cars sitting around for several years between NTSB inspections and litigation.

And money is still an issue, the funding for those engines isn't coming out of the operations budget.

 

[Bierboy]

I talked to our SCA on our recent CZ trip, and she said she's worked on one of the new Superliner Sleepers. Said it's similar in layout to the current ones, but updated with touch screens etc. Didnt't have many more details...