Viewliner II - Part 1 - Initial Production and Delivery

[TylerP42]

Looked back and couldn't find it...

http://www.railplan.com/caf---amtrak-viewliner-ii.html

Shows some good pictures and plans. My question though is, in the roomette, where are the temperature controls?

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Upon further review, our "suspect" car on the far right isn't even on trucks; it is just a carcass being hauled.

 

[TylerP42]

Photo taken in August.

 

[Viewliner]

That has to be a diner. If it was a sleeper, there would not be the bottom window on that end of the car.

 

[neroden]

Looked back and couldn't find it...

http://www.railplan.com/caf---amtrak-viewliner-ii.html

Shows some good pictures and plans. My question though is, in the roomette, where are the temperature controls?

Betting on the "light bar". Look at the "roomette hard" photo.

 

[CSXfoamer1997]

When should the Viewliner II diners start rolling out of the factory? As far as I've heard, all the baggage cars have been delivered and are now in service.

 

[MikefromCrete]

When should the Viewliner II diners start rolling out of the factory? As far as I've heard, all the baggage cars have been delivered and are now in service.

Nobody knows. Amtrak never announces anything until the cars are ready to roll out of the plant, or some railfan spies an Amtrak extra being sent to the plant to pick up the cars. The cars are far behind their original delivery dates and CAF seems incapable of producing anything on a timely basis. This includes non-Amtrak orders such as the Kansas City and Cincinnati streetcars.

 

[jis]

Hopefully before the end of this year

 

[prewarlionelrailfan]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. Bob Johnson's January 28, 2016 article entitled; Siemens completes first car shell for Brightline, contains a color photo of a finished shell of a car with people wearing yellow t-shirts waiving! What transperancy, and timely production. How exciting!

 

[City of Miami]

Low bid by CAF I assume.

 

[Ryan]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. Bob Johnson's January 28, 2016 article entitled; Siemens completes first car shell for Brightline, contains a color photo of a finished shell of a car with people wearing yellow t-shirts waiving! What transperancy, and timely production. How exciting!

Literally the first post in this thread was an article and pictures of the Viewliner order at a similar place.

Amtrak also had a nice blog post:

http://history.amtrak.com/blogs/blog/welcoming-the-next-generation-viewliner-II

 

[WoodyinNYC]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. …

...Amtrak also had a nice blog post:

http://history.amtrak.com/blogs/blog/welcoming-the-next-generation-viewliner-II

That Boardman-led video tour is why we haven't had any transparency on the CAF order since then. LOL. Dayum, Joe Boardman must cringe to think how he looks in retrospect, spouting the unfounded optimism, and promising delivery dates that soon went down the tubes.

So I don't blame him or CAF for running a very tight-lipped operation since then. Nothing he could have said could have helped matters, and anything he said would invite unkind references to that Pollyanna plant tour.

How can this be anything but a debacle for CAF? They can't make money on an order running years behind schedule. Losing money on every car built, they surely hoped for the 70-car option so they could make it up on volume. That's less and less likely with every passing day. Surely CAF hoped that their Viewliner II contract would give them a strong head start when bidding on a huge order for single-level coaches; not gonna happen.

 

[neroden]

CAF's problems were apparently mainly due to extreme difficulty hiring and training qualified staff in Elmira (particularly stainless steel welders) Assuming that that's been resolved.... honestly if I were Amtrak I probably *would* exercise the 70-car option order if CAF offered a good price.

 

[PVD]

With the downturn in oil, the availability of welders should improve. Many workers in the (shrinking) pool of skilled welders left their homes and went to work on oil field jobs where there skills were required. Some companies, schools, and governments are also joint sponsoring programs to teach production skills including welding and machinist skills where that education had been abandoned. I know CAF is involved (albeit late) in something like that.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Only shells are visible from the street. One dinner, the rest are full sleepers. Nothing else could be seen with out a drone or trespassing. 7 Feb 2016

 

[warrenwarner]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. Bob Johnson's January 28, 2016 article entitled; Siemens completes first car shell for Brightline, contains a color photo of a finished shell of a car with people wearing yellow t-shirts waiving! What transperancy, and timely production. How exciting!

What cars made by Siemens are you talking about it?

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

CAF of Elmira, NY is making the new Virwliner 2 cars.

 

[CCC1007]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. Bob Johnson's January 28, 2016 article entitled; Siemens completes first car shell for Brightline, contains a color photo of a finished shell of a car with people wearing yellow t-shirts waiving! What transperancy, and timely production. How exciting!

What cars made by Siemens are you talking about it?

You haven't heard yet? The first shell for the all aboard Florida program are being produced.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

What a stark contrast to the Brightline and Siemens operations. Bob Johnson's January 28, 2016 article entitled; Siemens completes first car shell for Brightline, contains a color photo of a finished shell of a car with people wearing yellow t-shirts waiving! What transperancy, and timely production. How exciting!

What cars made by Siemens are you talking about it?

He states it in his post. The cars for Brightline trains coming to FL. http://www.allaboardflorida.com/

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Personally, I hope the diners are delayed until 2017, since I haven't gotten a chance to ride a Heritage diner yet, and I'm interested in eating in one of them. I'm dreaming about a trip next winter involving the LSL.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Personally, I hope the diners are delayed until 2017, since I haven't gotten a chance to ride a Heritage diner yet, and I'm interested in eating in one of them. I'm dreaming about a trip next winter involving the LSL.

You Sir, are a Minority of One!

 

[neroden]

There are basically two Heritage diner interiors. The Temoinsa rebuild interior, in green and pink, is kind of interesting. A photo, found on Google:

http://trainweb.org/amtrakpix/travelogues/101112A/532-0007.jpg

The non-rebuild interiors are dull as dirt and have absolutely no distinguishing features any more -- any original distinguishing features are long gone. They look like the Viewliner dining car, but without the second row of windows, with a low ceiling, and without any of the decorative lights. A photo, found on Google:

http://www.alternatewars.com/SDNTrashPix/E-Diner-1.jpg

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Personally, I hope the diners are delayed until 2017, since I haven't gotten a chance to ride a Heritage diner yet, and I'm interested in eating in one of them. I'm dreaming about a trip next winter involving the LSL.

Somewhere on line (and right off hand I cannot find my printout with the URL) there is a roster of Heritage Diner that shows the cars' history; two of them are original Silver cars from the CB&Q and likely spent many years running on the various Zephyrs. I find it a "bonus" to know the history of the particular Heritage Diner I am eating in.

 

[R30A]

There are 6 "Silvers" still running. 8502, 8504, 8510, 8531, 8532, 8551.

(see here:http://on-track-on-line.com/amtkrinf-diners.shtml)
Silver Tureen was retired a while back. 8510 was previously the Silver (Chef or Cafe). 8551 was Silver diner. Don't remember off the top of my head about 8531/8532, but they were originally coaches, so the name would probably not be food related.

 

[Amtrak172]

Amtrak Viewliner I #62043 is fresh from Beech Grove wearing her new Phase III paint! It is going to me on the inspection train from NOL-JAX. 8400 "Indianapolis" is at Beech Grove now getting Phase III.