The cab cars need to be able to connect through to adjacent cars, because often cab cars will wind up in the middle of a consist. There’s not much you can do to the aerodynamics when you have a cab end and a diaphragm to work around.
Metra signs contract for new passenger cars
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west point
Engineer
If you streamline a cab car you may reduce the inside passenger capacity ?
Yes, that is a serious limitation GO has encountered with their new cab cars, seen here:
The older ones had the diaphragm and they've retained some so they can be used mid-train.
MisterUptempo
Lead Service Attendant
Metra also has a tendency to keep their rolling stock for forever and a day. To that end, some of the older cab cars have had the controls removed and have gone on to serve as trailer cars, which would not be possible with a more aerodynamic front end.
Indeed. I often see a Heritage Corridor consist deadheading from Union Station to Western Avenue yard in the morning on my way to work. Recently, the consist has been 4 or 5 (I forget the count) current or former cab cars, and maybe one regular coach.
Also, Metra has in the past (don’t know if they’re still doing it now) split consists to run shorter midday trains, leaving some of the cars at the downtown terminal to be added to another train in the afternoon. Having two active cab cars allows this to be done without any complicated switching.
Except for high speed trains, I wonder how much streamlining would accomplish in a normal speed train? I suppose there have been studies to find out, but I suspect that the "streamlining" may be more for projecting a stylish modern image, than anything else....not sure... 
cirdan
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Except for high speed trains, I wonder how much streamlining would accomplish in a normal speed train? I suppose there have been studies to find out, but I suspect that the "streamlining" may be more for projecting a stylish modern image, than anything else....not sure...
I understand that the shape of the front end only has little effect on the overall drag at typical commuter train speeds. What may have a bigger effect is the overall geometry, including things such as pipes and other assemblies sticking out, including those on the underside of the train where most people won't see them.
That said, inclining windshields rather than having them flat cuts down on reflection and hence improves the engineer's view when light conditions are poor. This may be the real reason many locomotives and cab cars have inclined windshields.
cirdan
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There have been quite credible attempts at partially streamlining trains without sacrificing diaphragms.
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jis
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I suspect it also makes room for more robust collision posts and crash energy management collapse zones.Except for high speed trains, I wonder how much streamlining would accomplish in a normal speed train? I suppose there have been studies to find out, but I suspect that the "streamlining" may be more for projecting a stylish modern image, than anything else....not sure...
jis
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I am no expert in this, but my understanding is that the primary components of crashworthiness are collision posts and crumple zones. Neither of those seem to implicitly exclude the possibility of having a gangway. The collisions posts are usually adjacent to the two edges of the gangway.
cirdan
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I am no expert either, but looking at it from a physics perspective, I would say it's all about the energy having to go somewhere.
Crash posts work on the principle that the car body remains fundamentally intact and that something else will absorb the energy. For example the truck that you are hitting. Or the next car along in the train. In other words they only really work as long as something other than you is the weakest link.
Crumple zones are structures designed to absorb as much energy as possible during deformation.
If you have crumple elements across, say, two thirds of the width of the nose cone versus the same elements across the full width, those elements are going to have to absorb 50% more energy, which means that if they are made using the same method they need to be 50% deeper.
MisterUptempo
Lead Service Attendant
A small, but interesting, note about something I missed in December, 2022.
Metra, on its Instagram page, allowed the public to vote on two possible exterior paint schemes for its Coradia Multilevel cars. Here they are-
After allowing voting for a week, the "Switching Design" easily beat out the "Curves Design", 79% to 21%.
While I prefer "Switching" to "Curves", I think the design presented in the Alstom-produced announcement video offers the best design overall. This rendering shows a lower level done in Metra Blue, with a large logo, while the upper level retains Metra's traditional stainless steel, which might make a mixed consist of Coradias and gallery cars look less jarring-
Metra, on its Instagram page, allowed the public to vote on two possible exterior paint schemes for its Coradia Multilevel cars. Here they are-
After allowing voting for a week, the "Switching Design" easily beat out the "Curves Design", 79% to 21%.
While I prefer "Switching" to "Curves", I think the design presented in the Alstom-produced announcement video offers the best design overall. This rendering shows a lower level done in Metra Blue, with a large logo, while the upper level retains Metra's traditional stainless steel, which might make a mixed consist of Coradias and gallery cars look less jarring-
mfastx
Service Attendant
Can't wait for more mismatched liveries!
rookzie
Train Attendant
I'm under the impression that Metrolink's foremost concern had to do with impact safety, following a couple of high-profile incidents that occurred in 2005 and 2008 ─ the 2005 Glendale collision with an SUV (the driver of which reportedly contemplating suicide had developed "cold feet" at the last minute); and the 2008 Chatsworth train collision with a UPRR freight.
While the Glendale incident resulted in more collateral damage with a stationary freight and a another passing Metrolink commuter than it had sustained with the initial impact with the SUV, the Chatsworth incident was a head-on with a UPRR freight (reportedly due to mobile phone texting distraction by the engineer of the Metrolink train).
Whether or not electing go with the cab-control cars chosen has become an operational-logistical issue with Metrolink, selecting the semi-streamlined design (not necessarily award-winning aesthetically) might have been a more decisive criterion as trade-off for the sake of safety of what had been offered in response to any RFI and RFP at that period in time. All this notwithstanding, a leading Hyundai-Rotem bi-Level cab car obtained in a fleet order since the previous two incidents was involved in a collision with a semi-trailer truck in Oxnard, Ca. in 2015. This incident resulted in the death of the engineer a week later. The crash energy management (CEM) system of this equipment reportedly had not be activated during this incident, and the primary cause of injury was determined to have been the overturning of the railcars and subsequent passenger and crew impacts with hard interior surfaces. I personally know how that goes, since I was a passenger in a train that derailed at speed involving overturned cars some 27 years ago.
Again, I believe safety had been (and remains) the prevalent factor in the choice of cab-car design for Metrolink.
A small, but interesting, note about something I missed in December, 2022.
Metra, on its Instagram page, allowed the public to vote on two possible exterior paint schemes for its Coradia Multilevel cars. Here they are-
After allowing voting for a week, the "Switching Design" easily beat out the "Curves Design", 79% to 21%.
While I prefer "Switching" to "Curves", I think the design presented in the Alstom-produced announcement video offers the best design overall. This rendering shows a lower level done in Metra Blue, with a large logo, while the upper level retains Metra's traditional stainless steel, which might make a mixed consist of Coradias and gallery cars look less jarring-
I had two issues with the poll. First, neither design was particularly good. The “curves” design wouldn’t match up with itself from car to car, and the “switching” design just reminds me too much of NJT. Neither of them match up with the 742 different locomotive paint schemes they have (their rebuilt SD70s are being painted in a different scheme than their standard Metra livery, and they’ve only repainted one F59PHI in regular Metra).
The other issue, as I recall, is that one of them asked for “like” reactions and the other asked for a different reaction as their way of doing a poll. Except that ”like” is the default reaction anyway, so someone not even paying attention to the text (i.e. 90% of social media scrollers) might just see a couple of interesting-looking railcars in a picture and like the post out of habit, which would also skew the results (though maybe not by a 4:1 ratio).
In the end, I’ll just be glad Metra finally has some equipment befitting a late 20th century passenger railroad.
