No more cab cars?

I was wondering if anyone else elsewhere in the US has noticed cab cars not being used now after the California accident. Here in Connecticut the Amtrak local that runs between Hartford and New Haven is now running double ended engines. They did have a cab car up till the California accident.

Frank Roberts
P&D Tractor trailer Driver for R&L Carriers
Member of the Middletown Ct Office of Emergency Managment
"Sometimes I dream about being carried off by a big giant squirrel. Does that make me a nut?"

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

RE: No more cab cars?, SVTS, Feb-03-05, 07:56 PM, (1) RE: No more cab cars?, smp11512, Feb-03-05, 08:41 PM, (2) RE: No more cab cars?, cyclone1234, Feb-03-05, 08:43 PM, (3) RE: No more cab cars?, ns_sd70m, Feb-03-05, 08:53 PM, (4) RE: No more cab cars?, smallspy, Feb-03-05, 09:39 PM, (5) RE: No more cab cars?, trainmaster_1, Feb-03-05, 10:05 PM, (6) RE: No more cab cars?, shoskins, Feb-03-05, 10:34 PM, (7) RE: No more cab cars?, asamtrak911, Feb-03-05, 11:04 PM, (8) RE: No more cab cars?, FURX, Feb-04-05, 00:56 AM, (9) RE: No more cab cars?, runaway_b_unit, Feb-04-05, 04:37 PM, (10) RE: No more cab cars?, CGW409, Feb-04-05, 06:10 PM, (11) RE: No more cab cars?, shadowr434, Feb-04-05, 06:41 PM, (12)

Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

I am not surprised. The Brotherhood of Engineers has blamed Metrolink for the accident, stating had the railroad not been using a cabcar, the train would never have derailed. I wouldnt be surprised to see victims and family members of the deceased go after Metrolink in some way.Chris Bogley
Syracuse New York
http://photobucket.com/albums/v520/CBP/Join the MSTS Fantasy NASCAR League today! Sign up in The Yard by Feb 8th.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Hmm, seems that people are finally relising what I saw back when the last Metrolink crash happened down in Los Angeles... Cabcars are not safe when it comes to modes of transportation like this. Metrolink however is still using them on their AV line as of last night.
Shane

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

In the Chicago Area, there were probally 300+ trains that ran with Cab Cars today.

Glenn
www.cyclonetrain.com
info@cyclonetrain.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

> I am not surprised. The Brotherhood of Engineers has blamed Metrolink for the accident, stating had the railroad not been using a cabcar, the train would never have derailed. I wouldnt be surprised to see victims and family members of the deceased go after Metrolink in some way.The accident itself was NOT Metrolink's fault. It was the person's fault that parked their SUV on the tracks. The cabcar didn't just jump off the tracks all by itself. The families of the victims will probably sue the railroad, but they're suing the wrong people.Now, I agree that the use of cabcars is a risky system. You're essentially taking all of the weight from the front of the train and putting it at the back. I strongly feel that the incident wouldn't have been as severe if there would have been a locomotive in front. I would like to see a locomotive at both ends of the train. But the railroads probably don't want to do this as a long-term solution because of the upkeep cost of the additional locomotives. I think Metrolink should do what GO transport used to do. At one end of the train was the locomotive and at the other was an old F7 with its prime mover removed. What Metrolink should do is buy some older locomotives to use as "cab units." They don't need to turn the locomotive on, but they should keep the prime mover and traction motors on it to provide additional weight.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

>> I am not surprised. The Brotherhood of Engineers has blamed Metrolink for the accident, stating had the railroad not been using a cabcar, the train would never have derailed. I wouldnt be surprised to see victims and family members of the deceased go after Metrolink in some way.
>
>The accident itself was NOT Metrolink's fault. It was the
>person's fault that parked their SUV on the tracks. The
>cabcar didn't just jump off the tracks all by itself. The
>families of the victims will probably sue the railroad, but
>they're suing the wrong people. As per usual...the litigious nature of North American society, I'm afraid.>Now, I agree that the use of cabcars is a risky system.
>You're essentially taking all of the weight from the front
>of the train and putting it at the back. I strongly feel
>that the incident wouldn't have been as severe if there
>would have been a locomotive in front. I would like to see
>a locomotive at both ends of the train.Sure, legislate that. Who's going to pay for it? What are you going to tell all the passengers who now can't get on the trains because service has been cut by 50%?>But the railroads
>probably don't want to do this as a long-term solution
>because of the upkeep cost of the additional locomotives. I
>think Metrolink should do what GO transport used to do. At
>one end of the train was the locomotive and at the other was
>an old F7 with its prime mover removed.Of course, the reason GO did that was (A) because they didn't have enough cab cars, and (B) they didn't have enough locomotives that provided HEP. The FP7Au's haven't been used since the early 1990ies, and GO would rather never have to go back to that.>What Metrolink
>should do is buy some older locomotives to use as "cab
>units." They don't need to turn the locomotive on, but they
>should keep the prime mover and traction motors on it to
>provide additional weight. Brilliant...all of the weight and drag of a standard locomotive with 0% of the economical benefits. It makes perfect sense!!!DanEveryone is entitled to their opinion no matter how wrong it is.

www.greatlakesrail.com

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

I got 3 words to add to this (well 5) Waste of Time, Money, and Fuel (oh wait that was 6) Mike, Foreperson of scrap the SD60F confederationFuture CPR Locomotive EngineerPontiac Grand Prix GTP - Built For Drivers"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven" - Jean Chretien

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Metrolink will probablynever give up on the cab cars. They have nO turning facilities at most outlying locations.All the usual cab-car forward trains are still cab-car forward at Metrolink.

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Unless you observed that they started running dual engines immediately following the accident, I doubt there's a correlation. Amtrak ran cab cars on the Vermonter for years because of its switching move in Palmer, MA, but a while back they stopped doing that and as far as I know, they've since used a pair of P42s instead. Apparently they've been doing this also in the Midwest - running P42s or Dash-8s at both ends of the train instead of using an NPCU (de-powered F40) like you would expect. I don't know the reason but I would guess it has to do with equipment shortages (as usual).
http://www.trainweb.org/asamtrak911

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

They call 'em Coffin Cars for a reason...Every MARC engineer I've spoken to all say the same thing about the cab cars... but since this is a public forum, I will not quote-Jeffrey

Courteous Future Engineer
NKP 2-8-4 #765. www.765.org
Chessie System Historical Society. http://moosevalley.org/cshs/
My Website; www.xanga.com/csxd765
THE RAMONES
GABBA GABBA HEY

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Nah, cab cars will stay. As said, Metra as well as almost every commuter railroad runs hundreds of trains dayly with them. Amtrak likes to mess around with the trains, they don't have many cab cars. The Metrolink tradgedy may be a factor in some future r&d to improve safety, but it would cost too much to completely stop using cab cars.

C h r i s

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Frank
Just my .02 from the Chicago area but our cab cars are running as normal but that may also be because the gallery style cab cars are essentally standard gallery cars with the cab up on the upper level so the engineer is out of the line of fire so to speak.I might also add that push pull commuter ops have been running here since 55 without a Metrolink type incident.Gary S

43 year old future curmudgen(Hey you kids get offa my lawn!!)

Alert | IP

Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Gary, I'm not sure why but at least here on this little Amtrak local they started running what looks like a P 42 on each end with 2 cars between. It was up till then a push pull with 1 engine, 2 pass cars and a cab car. It seems a little too much of a coincidence that it changed after the accident. As for the comment up top that its a equipment shortage that really doesn't make sense does it? If it was a shortage they would use the cab car not the other way around.

Frank Roberts
P&D Tractor trailer Driver for R&L Carriers
Member of the Middletown Ct Office of Emergency Managment
"Sometimes I dream about being carried off by a big giant squirrel. Does that make me a nut?"

Alert | IP

[ Home | MSTS Forum | MSTS FAQ | How To... | File Library ] Copyright © 2004 by Nels Anderson. All Rights Reserved.