is it financially possible to add superliner cars?

[cirdan]

Seeing we're talking about high peak loadings, as in maybe 10 runs a year, how about considering an alternative to new cars?

How about keeping a fleet of heritage cars for that? I understand the problem with heritage cars is that they're uneconomic to maintain. But low mileage cars should require maintenance. That at least is the philosophy behind private varnish and the like.

 

[cirdan]

Patents, as others have said, are mostly on functions. There isn't really that much difference between the cars of one manufacturer and another. As the patents mostly concern details, there are aoften alternatives and workarounds.

The real art of manufacturing passenger cars is not in the patents but in the design know how. You can study a car. You can take it apart even. But you don't immedaite recognize the thinking of the designer and if you try to do your own you will more often than not end up with a functionalyl inferior design. You might even say this is already happening because with cars no longer being manufactured continuously, that knowledge is being allowed to go dormant and not being passed on and every generation is being forced to reinvent the wheel from first prinvciples. It is this knowledge, if it is still present, that gives one manufacturer an edge over another, and why a senior engineer or designer changing camps can sometimes reverse the fortunes of a manufacturer.

 

[PVD]

How much of the angst in passenger car building has been design related (like the NS failure) versus manufacturing issues?

 

[west point]

Amtrak's peak is generally during the summer and also during the Holiday season....

I don't know if they plan out PM the same way, or simply try to have the minimum of cars and locomotives out on average all year round to keep the workload constant....

What appears to be Amtrak's maintenance plan based on review of the MPRs is -------

1. Very heavy maintenance on a few cars is performed during the peak period travel times

2. During low travel periods many more cars are scheduled into Beech and Bear for lower levels of maintenance.

3. So it appears during high travel periods about 92 - 95% of cars are in revenue service. During low travel times may 80% are in revenue service ?

 

[west point]

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