Passenger Trains > CAF cars sequence of events

By admission, I have not followed this very closely, so I have a question regarding the procurement process for these cars. Was the RFQ a general specification that the winning bid would have to meet, or did Amtrak provide drawings of what they wanted as part of the packet?
In other words is the sequence of events Design-RFQ-Vendor Selection-Build, or RFQ-Vendor Selection-Design-Build?
One other consideration with CAF, is the talent pool in the market where they're located? Have they been able to secure enough employees that are trainable - and will stay for the duration of the build? Just some additional things to think about before saying "it's taking too long"

Posted from iPhone

the collapse of industry in "upstate" New York has left an incredible number of well trained metal workers, tool and die makers and other talented crafts people. the state, at least since the Pataki era, has offered grants and help for companies that want to set up shop. Yonkers, Plattsburgh, CAF, etc have all been able to bring expert local workers and foreign capital/ technology to produce rail and transit vehicles for the US.

I passed through Hornell once nearly 20 years ago, didn't really get a chance to see who had a "presence" other than the carbuilder. Even in areas with a manufacturing "tradition" it's getting harder to find younger workers that have basic skills (I've had more than one person tell me it's not uncommon to have to teach employees how to read and add fractions on a tape measure) or the work ethic to stick it out once hired.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the collapse of industry in "upstate" New York has
> left an incredible number of well trained metal
> workers, tool and die makers and other talented
> crafts people. the state, at least since the
> Pataki era, has offered grants and help for
> companies that want to set up shop. Yonkers,
> Plattsburgh, CAF, etc have all been able to bring
> expert local workers and foreign capital/
> technology to produce rail and transit vehicles
> for the US.

Posted from iPhone

I would be curious to know what Pullman, Budd and ACF did when car orders were delivered as far as QC, road testing and equipment compatability like Amtrak has done with this order of cars. It seems that many orders of cars, in particular just after WW2, were delivered in such huge quantities it would be hard to "baby" each car as it seems like CAF and Amtrak are doing now. Any insight?

No, they ran right "out of the box" to user a model railroader's term.  Yes, I know we are in a different era   

The process seems about the same- anything new gets tested and once acceptable, production begins.

Note the two prototype Hi-Levels Budd built for ATSF. Once they'd been tested, changes were agreed upon and they stared cranking them out. Those first two were "babied" and I doubt anyone faulted Budd or ATSF for their caution.
SR

The Hi-Levels were an entirely new concept. Not only in height and clearance but mechanically as each car had its own powerplant. There were literaly thousands of other lightweight cars produced that did not get the same process as the two protype ElCap cars, I was curious if the carbuilder provided reps in the field to travel with the cars or were they just delivered.