I have talked to both Metro-North and Shoreline East engineers & mechanics. Other than the electrical design was not meant for their operating environment (unneeded automation was how it was worded).

M-N had an average of 9 days between failure IIRC, but SLE usually averaged 240+ days. Most likely it was the same mind-set problem the original RDCs had. On M-N you had Locomotive Mechanics and Engineers working on what they considered oversized Buses, whereas SLE hired Bus Mechanics and trained new operators to drive the SPVs.

Biggest general problem was combining an open brush generator head on the APU for powering HVAC & all electrical system needs, with electric fuel pumps on all 3 engines engines, at least one of the main engines should have had a mechanical fuel pump. So if the generator shorted because of snow or wet leaves, and the operator doesn't notice the flashing light for APU failure, they are now running the lights and fuel pumps on small NiCad batteries (the whole bank is not much larger than 1.5 regular 8VDC locomotive battery). Once the batteries are drained engines shut down, lights go off, the radio is dead and there is no way to restart the motors. Thus some unlucky person (maybe they were actually the lucky one, not being the one left to deal with the customers) had to walk to the nearest phone and call for a rescue engine to be sent to get them.

This is why they were rechristened to Seldom Propelled Vehicles (within the railroading world) from the original acronym Self-Propelled Vehicle for the year 2000 .

Rich C.

The auction has concluded.

Seven cars sold to an unidentified party for the minimum bid of $100 each.

Three cars--1621, 1629, and 1671--sold for slightly more, $152.50 each, to what appears to be an individual long connected to tourist promotion in Grapevine, Texas. Make of that what you choose to. This is obviously not a scrapper!

Car 1001, which had been rebuilt by CDOT into a conference/business car with half coach seating and half long conference table with office-style chairs, was sold for $810 to 16-year-old Orion Newall-Vuillemot, who also owns B&M boxcar 72249, previously posting here as "B&M boxcar kid": viewtopic.php?t=39937

See https://www.facebook.com/orion.newallvu ... 0674750507

Best of luck and success to Orion and the Grapevine gentleman!

Wait. $100 for a passenger car??? Seriously?

Yeah I know that they're weird and they need a lot of work having not moved in many years, but I would think that those cars are worth more than that in scrap. I suppose that this is not necessarily a bad thing, but I find this to be quite puzzling that those cars went for cheap.

Thus are the oddities of the used-equipment market.

This field is full of cases where, as but one example, a PCC is sold for $200, costs $6,000 to truck on the cheap, then needs a $10,000 motor swap--or, the rest of the car is parted out and the motors are used for cores for a rebuild.

Scrapping a car of any kind costs money. I have personally witnessed scrappers tasked with a scrapping job go broke on acetylene and abandon a job half-way through, then get sued for not finishing his contracted job. Even if the scrapper is local to the cars and has a siding (fat chance), the railroads will still probably charge $1,000+ just to switch it a mile across town. Gone are the days when railroads co-operate with getting rid of their old stuff. If they scrap this on site, he's got to truck in the stuff, truck in a couple dumpsters and pay for them to be hauled off (one for scrap metal and another for seats, windows, gaskets, etc.), pay an insurance bond to be on the site, pay his workers, have the cranes or dozers running, etc. And the odds are slim to none of one of us contacting him for a set of trucks, windows, etc. to flip for a quick mark-up (although he can liquidate the air horns quickly if they're there!).

Think about it long enough, and you'd have to be a crazy gambler to play this game. But if you want crazy, someone paid $152.50 each to apparently send them to Texas or something...... THAT'S gonna be a freight bill........

Nice looking business car. So did the cab cars still have motors in them?

I assume these were still road worthy, right. What would it have taken to get them ready to move? About how much would it cost to move them?

Aren't these cars made of $tainless $teel? If you're going to use them in Excursion service how much modding would you have to do. I still am surprised Amtrak diden't take them as I thought a lot of parts would be interchangeable. Rust and Rot always seem to be a problem and with these cars you would have neather.

Well the problem with some of the SPVs that were stored over the last decade is that they were trashed while parked... I did see a picture of 1001's conference end last night, and at least that end seems a hell of a lot better than some of the others... Everything's covered in dust and the carpet needs a REALLY good cleaning, but it certainly looks better than I would've expected...

I hope the people that bought them, know that the braking system while compatible with standard WABCo/NyABCo based RR Air Brake systems are unique.
--The Brake cylinders are like that of a Maxi-Can used on a tractor trailer. Each wheel has one and they all have a spring in them, so when the system looses air they all apply purely on spring power. All the linkage is mounted on the brake cylinder assembly (cylinder, linkage, shoe holder, key and brake shoe). I assume this was done for redundancy and ease of repairs, to make sure the train always stopped.
--The Triple Valve is also special as it doesn't have the provision to send reservoir air to the cylinders to apply them, only to release them. Though it will vent pressure relative to what is happening with the train line.

Rich C.

The 7 cars won't be going to scrap.

All I can say at the moment. Stay tuned.

Our 7 cars made it to Cayce, SC last night around 1725. Safe and sound, except for some new flat spots, and tons of graffiti.

But it could be worse, seats weren't cut up, windows weren't damaged, and the $20k worth of HEP and MU lines locked in a bathroom were not touched.

Clean up and evaluations of the electrical systems and bathrooms will commence this weekend.

Pics to follow.

A video of them going through Ashland, VA on Friday, the 8th. When the image flips to the other camera you can see the exterior tagging on the first three cars. Being almost entirely on the stainless steel, I think we can get that off pretty easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfXk5IIu2TE

I didn't see the tagging in the video, did it happen in transit? Someone posted a photo here of an Alaska park steam engine all tagged up and a concerned family out there with a quart jug of something commercially available removing it all in a few hours, so if you get on it fast the tagging should come off quick. All in all I would say you did well, getting CSX to move those cars instead of needing to truck them saved you a great deal of money I am sure.

You think that's graffiti? THIS is graffiti!

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england- ... link-train

The outside is nothing. You should see the insides...

Aw, [BLEEP].

Nice save!

Later!
Mr. Ed