[PRCo] Re: The "Light Rail ex-1600 1700s"

[TEP]

Having been for 44 years, and still am, specifying, testing and 
commissioning new electric rail vehicles I have to disagree with Herb 
Brannon that parts today are inferior in quality to the "old days".  
They are different and often more complex, with far more electronics -- 
but the comparable stuff -- motors, gears, brake actuators and control 
valves et. al., are better and more reliable. Quality control is much 
improved across the board.

When I started my career at Westinghouse, East Pittsburgh, in 1962 we 
thought it good to get 10,000 miles per total road failure from a new 
subway or streetcar (tow job or serviceman dispatched), many properties 
averaged less than 5000 miles, some disastrously less. Today we specify 
and achieve 80,000 - 100,000 miles per "dead" failure -- some designs 
exceed 150,000 miles. In part this is due to the on-board electronic 
diagnostics that reports back, and allows fixes, before failure -- such 
as hot motors, doors that exceed pre-set closing times, etc. It also 
depends on maintenance ability and quality. The old adage that "if it 
came in running", it went out the next morning, has gone.
 

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Tom Parkinson Vancouver BC
604 733-5430  fax 733-5437
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