Passenger Trains > Oregon's new Talgo fails - - - again (and a 2nd time)

One of Oregon's new Talgo's went north today and turned in Seattle. Didn't get out of the yard when it failed. Transferred passengers to another train set and it is running a couple hours late now.

AMTK ran a bus south from Portland on the #507 sched. Ran a separate taxi from Oregon City to Salem to meet the bus.

At 8:15 I looked at the AMTK train tracker and they didn't change the tracker on the train. #507 shows as headed north at Seattle and the train operating as #507 isn't shown.

jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/14 20:22 by jdb.

What failed?

The cars have been around for some time, seem well built and designed.
The engine is not of a design unique to the Talgo. So the only "new"
piece of equipment would be those butt ugly cab cars.

First fail was the unveiling.

/Mitch

was it a locomotive failure? those aren't built by Talgo

Mgoldman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What failed?
>
> The cars have been around for some time, seem well
> built and designed.
> The engine is not of a design unique to the Talgo.
> So the only "new"
> piece of equipment would be those butt ugly cab
> cars.
>
> First fail was the unveiling.
>
> /Mitch

The new sets are totally different than the old sets. The State of Oregon, AMTRAK, or Talgo won't talk about anything that fails. Two times that I have seen the new sets fail en-route have been due to a wheel/brake failure. One time was in Salem. They used a bus for the rest of the run south. Talgo came down from Seattle to repair the problem and the train was ready for the northbound run from Salem. I have seen the ADA lifts fail but that won't take the train out of service. (they are different than the old ones)

From a user standpoint the person that designed the interiors was never going to have to use them. The interior handrails at the doors are hard to locate and arthritic joints in my fingers have a very difficult time using them. That person that designed the seats should have one at his/her desk and work at it four hours a day. Lamps are burning out and they are designed so the Tech can't change them en-route. Seats in the diner are breaking. The old sets power car had twin Mercedes - - - the new ones have a single Cat. It is noisy when running, enough so that I don't like to ride in the Business Class #1 car. For years a small roll of duct tape has been very helpful when riding the Superliners. Enough so that it stays in my backpack. It is now helpful in covering the air conditioning vent - - - that thing is located so it will blow right up a short shirt sleeve.

I've heard the engineers talk about the cab car. It rides good. It is low. There isn't a visor on the side to keep the sun out of your eyes. If you lower one visor it blocks the camera view. The air conditioner drops water into the radio.

I have no problem with the Cat engine. That probably helps with the U.S. content of the train set. The person that put it in the cab/power car didn't think about isolating the sound.

I'm a native Oregonian that got drafted into the Army almost 60 years ago then spent my working life out of state. I would come home to visit and see how the state could waste money. They can see a great idea someplace else, then bring it here and start inventing it making all the mistakes all over again. The state is unable to ask how somebody else made something work. It looks to me like they have done it again with the new Talgo sets. Sometimes I wonder if "cheap" is the number one priority instead of getting something that will work.

One thing that the State is starting to squirm over relates to the new train sets. At the time they were put in service Oregon changed all of the Eugene/Portland/Eugene schedules. That has not gone over well at all. I never heard one word about what would make a better schedule for me. Somebody in the offices down town said "This is what I need/want/is best." I never see the State people in the Rail Division riding the trains on a regular basis to mix with the folks and see how things are going.

I think that Oregon getting Talgo sets is a good idea. Talgo is already here and has a service base. I don't see how Talgo can get the two Wisconsin sets to fit into any other operation with there only being two sets.

jb

Mgoldman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What failed?
>
> The cars have been around for some time, seem well
> built and designed.
> The engine is not of a design unique to the Talgo.
> So the only "new"
> piece of equipment would be those butt ugly cab
> cars.
>
> First fail was the unveiling.
>
> /Mitch

The first fail was the designing of that Cab Car! Ugliest thing ever to grace the rails!

It failed the initial time I reported. They swapped passengers to another train set. It was ready to go the next morning and it failed a second time before it got to the yard. Passengers to another train set again. Something to do with the brake indicators. Indicator says the brake is set on one of the cars and it dumps the air. It made it south today (Fri) as 507. Don't ever remember hearing flat wheels on the old Talgo sets. This one has two now.

And it's running backwards - - - power on the south end.

jb