PCC and *Light* Rail Vehicles -- Weights

[Vigrass, Bill]

Weight: Modern LRV's are much larger than PCC's since they are articulated
(ignoring single unit Kawasaki's of SEPTA).   Air-conditioning adds more
weight.  And because they are heavier they need more powerful motors,
controls and gear-units, which themselves add weight!   Modern cars have
double sheathed bodies with insulation between to be more temperature
effecient and reduce noise.  It all adds up.  I dunno how much each item
adds. And the Kawasaki cars are MU, so have couplers and an underframe
strong enough to stand the stress of train operation - which they don't do
on CityDiv and do very little on Suburban (Red Arrow) Div.   Yet there were
mu PCC's that did not weigh so much.  Shaker Rapids were 50 ft long, 9 ft
wide and mu, so ought to have been the heaviest.  They were not air-cond and
I think had a single sheathed car body.

And yes, Chicago's 6000 type PCC L cars were probably the lightest rapid
transit cars ever.   

The topic is talked about in car equipment circles from time to time.
Perhaps Gomaco is the only builder of Real Lightweight Cars today! Although
I think that Tatra and other European builders of updated PCC-type cars
would still be relativelylight.   I have never looked into it, so dunno for
sure.

Thought for the day.  Bill V.

> ----------
> From: 	John Swindler[SMTP:j_swindler at hotmail.com]
> Reply To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: 	Thursday, October 21, 1999 1:44 PM
> To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: 	Re: PCC and *Light* Rail Vehicles -- Weights
> 
> >Jim Holland wrote
> >
> >	The weight of a standard PCC could easily be rounded to 36,000
> pounds.
> >
> >	The weight of a Boeing LRV could easily be rounded to 72,000 pounds.
> >
> 
> 
> Concerning car weights, I always found it amusing that the Kawasaki light 
> rail cars in Philadelphia are heavier then the Budd-built Market Frankford
> 
> heavy rail/subway cars.
> 
> And I bet that all modern light rail cars in this country weigh more then 
> the Chicago 6000s.  But maybe that's just an unimportant trivia question.
> 
> Instead, I'd be curious to know what design philosophy is causing light
> rail 
> cars to greatly exceed the PCC weight?
> 
> -  Is it the adaptation of a higher speed vehicle for light rail
> operation?  
> (ie. a safety/liability issue)
> 
> -  Is it the addition of extra "bells & whistles" (as they say in the 
> housing and auto businesses) to the vehicle?
> 
> -  Is the higher weight found in the car's structure or in the trucks; or 
> both?
> 
> -  And is the higher car weight even very important?  Maybe not for a
> p-r-w 
> track and subway operation, such as St. Louis.  Maybe it is a
> consideration 
> with a street running operation such as in San Francisco and Broadway in 
> Pittsburgh.
> 
> Just curious.
> 
> John
> 
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