[PRCo] Re: 3800 Series LOST

[John Swindler]

The specs tend to be written for what the customer wants.  Or rather what a consultant will cut and paste from his prior bid documents.  Also, ask youself why US light rail cars are 2.65 meters wide when we had 108 inch wide PCC cars??    Shaker ran 108 inch wide PCC cars.  Baltimore is an exception with wider light rail cars.
 
As for European designs, most US light rail cars are 'knock offs' of the Frankfurt U-2 car dating from the early 1970s.  
 
John
> Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 13:08:53 -0700> From: hrbran at sbcglobal.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: 3800 Series LOST> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > What would be the items not being met?> > Usually it is the European transit vehicle which is superior to the US produced one. Take the RTS-1, RTS-2 buses..........awful to operate, no room inside, hard for some passengers to board and alight, slow moving, limited visibility, and not so pleasing looks. The European buses have plenty of room, fast acceleration and braking, ease of entrance and exit for passengers, superior turning radius, good visibility, a nicely designed operators area, not to mention a much better looking product on the outside and inside.> > > John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:> > > A European PCC would not meet the bid specs. of US transit authorities. > > > Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 10:57:04 -0700> From: hrbran at sbcglobal.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: 3800 Series LOST> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > That was a US based comment. The US transit authorities can buy from other countries as long as assembly of the car is here in the US and a certain percentage of the parts are US made. It is done with the NABI bus. Ironically, NABI stands for North American Bus Industries. Cleveland's 400+ fleet of NABI low-floors are actually a European product. Some of the parts are US manufactured and the bus is assembled in the US. However, some of the product is made in Europe and shipped to the US assembly plants to be matched up with the the US manufactured parts and then assembled into finished buses. Perhaps the European PCC manufacturers did not place bids on any cars for US transit authorities. The European manufacturers would have a "hard sell" to get US transit authorities to buy their cars, I believe. This is do to the mindset, among> !> US transit executives, which says we should have over sized cars, utilizing over sized centenary systems and overbuilt roadbed. This is not what> I would propose for a light rail system; it is what the "powers that be" dictate. Simplicity of design, in my opinion, creates a more pleasing product in the end which is easier to maintain, looks far better, and serves it purpose with grace and ease.> Boris Cefer wrote: No upgrades? We had been upgrading them for more than 40 years since the > production in the US ended!> > Boris> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Herb Brannon" > ---------------------------------> > To: > > Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 2:07 AM> Subject: [PRCo] Re: 3800 Series LOST> > > ......... I personally think the only really good streetcar is the PCC. The > older cars are slow, clumsy, far too noisy, and hard to operate. The PCC was > made for running in mixed traffic and accomplished that task very well. > Today the LRV type cars a!> re made for private right of way or segregated > street operation and > they accomplish that task very well. Even the PCC is > becoming "dated" in its appearance. Too bad there were never any further > 'upgrades' to them.> > Herb Brannon > > > > > > Herb Brannon> > Greetings From America's North Coast> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________> Stay in touch when you're away with Windows Live Messenger.> http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_052008> > > > > Herb Brannon> > Greetings From America's North Coast> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 
_________________________________________________________________
Make Windows Vista more reliable and secure with Windows Vista Service Pack 1.
http://www.windowsvista.com/SP1?WT.mc_id=hotmailvistasp1banner