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Caltrain's new electric trains

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Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#131

Post by iggldiggl »

bluGill wrote: post #18
486sx33 wrote: post #2

Are the overhead wires copper? If so what gauge? Anyone know how many lbs per linear foot of copper that would yield ? Asking for a friend

Not pure copper, they need to be tight enough for minimal sag between supports, and not wear from abrasion (the phantograph touching the wire). Copper doesn't have good characteristics for that. I don't know what Caltran uses, but it is common to have a steel core and plate it with something else.

Quite to the contrary, copper is the usual material used (either pure, or slightly alloyed to improve tensile strength and abrasion behaviour and things like that without compromising too much on copper's superior electrical conductivity, though that extra tensile strength is only really important for high speed railways – conventional railways could perfectly get by on pure copper alone). Sag is solved by tensioning the wire and using a catenary wire for additional support between poles, and eventual abrasion of the wire is just a fact of life for electric railways.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#132

Post by CuriousCosmic »

akira2501 wrote: post #92
CuriousCosmic wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what? the article was literally about how they are more comfortable and they are more convenient because they accelerate and break better allowing more stops without taking longer.

> My only complaint, when I tried the train out the other day, was that the seats are now a little less comfortable—though the upholstery is easier to clean Seriously? The article plied on about supposed environment benefits but only leaves this _single_ sentence on rider comfort. That tells me something, that either this person is being dishonest, or the people who deploy these trains don't have a clue. > Because th…

You cut the rest of that line. The full quote was:

> Caltrain’s new trains also just have the advantage of being new: The trains that are being phased out are nearly 40 years old. They were loud not just because of the diesel engines but because the doors rattled and brakes squealed. The new trains have WiFi, power outlets, better climate control, energy-efficient lighting, and more storage under the seats. (My only complaint, when I tried the train out the other day, was that the seats are now a little less comfortable—though the upholstery is easier to clean.)

They are quieter, have more amenities(in-trip wifi, plugs), have more storage space (which means more leg room), and better climate control (AC/heating/ventilation). IMHO those are all way more important to my comfort than the chairs being a bit stiff when the ride is longer than 30 minutes.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#133

Post by aeternum »

creer wrote: post #114
aeternum wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is the horns and bells don't even work. Many people die each year from being hit by Caltrain. Computer vision has come a long way and PoE cameras are now super cheap, would be nice if they installed cameras as part of the electrification project that could continually verify whether crossings /track was clear ahead. It could prevent at least the accidental collisions much better than a horn+bell.

Are any significant number of them accidental?

Yes, often a car that is stopped on the tracks then the driver panics when the gates start to come down.

Starting with cameras only at the crossings would prevent these with extremely low cost, and crossings are also the only places where the train must blow the horn.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#134

Post by bryananderson »

iggldiggl wrote: post #130
bryananderson wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, unfortunately, but the freight traffic (which will needlessly stay diesel) is small, just a couple trains per day. It’s not the 1940s anymore when huge amounts of freight came ashore in San Francisco and propagated down the Southern Pacific line. There are only a couple freight customers left on the Peninsula. Caltrain actually owns the line and previously had the right to kick Union Pacific freight off, but at…

> Electric freight locomotives are perfectly common in countries where railroading isn’t still stuck in the 1800s. But in those countries electrification is widespread enough that intermodal trains can run on electric traction all the way from terminal to terminal. (And bulk trains at the very least from the nearest marshalling yard, or maybe even the freight terminal itself, too.)

Yes but as I understand it the very limited freight service on the peninsula just runs to a nearby UP yard. These are not big long-distance freight trains

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#135

Post by immibis »

stackghost wrote: post #98
immibis wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW Deutsche Bahn is just one of many train operators in Germany. On my recent trip back from Köln to Berlin, I experienced a whole lot of delays in the Rhine-Ruhr region (on trains not operated by DB) and no meaningful delay on the enno, Abellio or DB Regio segments from there on.

>FWIW Deutsche Bahn is just one of many train operators in Germany I know but they're the only German operator I have significant experience with.

If you had a journey that wasn't entirely by ICE there's a good chance one leg wasn't DB. It's seamless - you still booked one continuous ticket through DB's website. This is opposed to the operators like FlixTrain which run entirely separate systems and can't be booked on the same ticket.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#136

Post by creer »

aeternum wrote: post #133
creer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are any significant number of them accidental?

Yes, often a car that is stopped on the tracks then the driver panics when the gates start to come down. Starting with cameras only at the crossings would prevent these with extremely low cost, and crossings are also the only places where the train must blow the horn.

Okay. I wonder why this isn't already a thing. (Also probably, "extremely low cost" underestimates the ease with which all crossings and many stations on the Peninsula have already been built up to crazy levels.)

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#137

Post by inferiorhuman »

hashmush wrote: post #120
inferiorhuman wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's here? The UK and most of Europe, for instance, still has plenty of diesel service.

Sounds like Sweden, except the chaotic booking system. I don't think I've ever seen a diesel train, ever. In fact, for a long time I was (blissfully) unaware of their existence and the fact that they do exist still surprises me...

Sure, but that's helped by things like the biogas train that's fueled with confiscated alcohol instead of diesel.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#138

Post by browningstreet »

conroy wrote: post #16
browningstreet wrote: post #8

I was just looking at Caltrain routes yesterday wondering how there’s a route from Sunnyvale to SF that takes over 2 hours. Driving (at times) should be about 45 minutes. Didn’t make sense to me.

Make sure you're looking at the new schedules ( https://www.caltrain.com/media/33909 ) which go into effect on September 21 of this year. The slowest trips between SF and Sunnyvale are ~65 minutes and the fastest is ~50 minutes.

Thanks, missed that in my efforts.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#139

Post by shiroiushi »

kkfx wrote: post #125
shiroiushi wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe it's a translation issue: for locomotive I mean a both a dedicated wagon with no passengers and a single or two wagons with motors and passengers while all the others have no motors are just pushed/pulled by the "locomotive". That's exactly what a locomotive is. The shinkansen trains don't have them. All the cars have motors and propel themselves. >The issues with passengers is that you need to move them every…

My point is simple: in a future of resource scarcity due to overpopulation, needed mass relocations and supply chains reorganizations due to climate changes there is already and there will be no room for cities and trains. What's there will remain of course for longer, becoming a bit at a time a receptacles of poor and desperate who do not see nothing outside their bar-less prisons, a thing we can already witness in…

> due to climate changes there is already and there will be no room for cities and trains.

This idea is simply stupid, for lack of a nicer word. Seriously stupid. You think having everyone live in suburbs and drive everywhere is better for the climate? Really, really stupid.

> I'm pretty sure most trains in Japan are not self-propelled for all wagons, as in the EU.

Again you're totally clueless. All passenger trains here have self-propelled cars. Locomotives are only used for freight trains.

>too much for high-resource intensive big stuff like cities.

Again, this shows you stupid you are. Cities use fewer resources per person than any other lifestyle: smaller homes, shared walls, less motorized transport all add up to far less resource consumption. Of course, idiotic rural Americans don't see it that way because they can't imagine a world without big gas-guzzling trucks to drive around in and just see the large number of people in cities without being able to think about anything in a per-capita sense.

>A notorious tract of any dictatorship notoriously ending in deep sufferance and disruption. Cars are needed because collective transportation means can't substitute them, BUT, cars can substitute collective transportation means, that's why a SANE economy choose to ditch other transportation means.

Ok you're obviously a complete lunatic. I give up.

Re: Caltrain's new electric trains

#140

Post by DerekL »

FredPret wrote: post #70
dkga wrote: post #51

I’d be interested to hear about how these trains (and others) would behave in an earthquake. I remember a work colleague who lived through the Loma Prieta going from Berkeley to San Francisco and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. PS.: huge fan of trains and public transportation here, hopefully other places in North and South America would follow suit!

The Shinkansen cuts power to the train and then hits the breaks as soon as tremors are detected. Perhaps the rails are also designed so the train doesn't hop off.

* brakes
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