Maine Central Coach #2001 Donated to Colebrookdale Railroad

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BOYERTOWN, PA. The Titanic had been at the bottom of the sea just two years when the Colebrookdale Railroad’s newest addition was built. Constructed by the Pullman Company as a smoking coach for the Maine Central Railroad, car 2001 spent its life in the majestic White Mountains of New Hampshire.

“The car is a now- very rare example of a once ubiquitous design for the first generation of steel train cars, making its preservation a worthy goal and its value as restored immeasurable,” said Nathaniel Guest, executive director of the Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust

The car was donated to the Trust, , the non-profit restoring the Colebrookdale Railroad. It will be stabilized and stored as funds are raised for its restoration. “It needs work, but it’s remarkably complete for a 101-year-old,” said Guest. “I wish we had it in service right now, as we need the capacity, but good things take time—and this will be a very good thing when completed,”

The car travelled on a truck through New Hampshire and Vermont, then to Albany, Oneonta, and Binghamton, New York, crossing into Pennsylvania with a stop in Scranton.

Support the Trust by making a donation at www.colebrookdalerailroad.com.

Mismatched equipment snags railroad project in Boyertown

NOTICE the incorrect truck is from MEC #949!

Third Street in Boyertown was closed for much of the day Friday between Chestnut and Pear Streets as crews from the Colebrookdale Railroad worked on a new antique rail car from the early 1900's.

Nathaniel Guest, executive director of the Colebrookdale Railroad Trust, said a tractor-trailer delivered the car from New Hampshire. The trucks, also known as the wheels, the rail car would ride on were shipped separately from Maine. The two were joined together for the first time Friday, but the rail car and the trucks did not match up as officials expected.

"The original trucks for the car were gone," Guest said. "We needed to find new ones, and obviously finding 101-year-old trucks to mount with a car (is difficult).

"They're close, but there's some work that's going to need to be done to join them together."

Guest said the work to make the rail car and the trucks compatible will take place over the coming weeks.In the interim, crews worked Friday to remove the car from the middle of Third Street so the street could be reopened and to move it into position for work to be done on it. The car was expected to be moved into the parking lot of the railroad and put up on cribbing so that work can be completed.

Guest added that another car will be arriving in a few weeks and both cars then will be craned back onto the railroad tracks.

He said the arrival of the car Friday was very exciting for the railroad."There's very few cars this vintage and not many at all in this kind of condition," Guest said. "This was a very common type of car back in 1914 - it was the first generation of steel cars. Before then, the cars were wooden."Most of them have been scrapped or severely modified, so we're very lucky to be able to save it."

Historic Rutland Railroad Coach Finds a New Home

(SOURCE:  WCAX.com - By Ali Freeman)

RUTLAND, Vt. -  "It's pretty interesting to see them lift a train -- and to rotate it," said Rutland resident Donna Zeller.

Zeller was among dozens of spectators who gathered on West Street in Rutland Sunday to watch a crew move a 51-ton railcar. The sight of the 60-foot car being moved drew a crowd -- and so did the railcar itself.

"This is the original 1913 passenger rail car that came in and out of Rutland and throughout Vermont every  single day.  So passengers were really coming in and out on the train you see, and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Tom Donahue with the Rutland Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The railcar was donated by the Vermont Rail System -- and thanks to $5,000 in donations from the Vermont Country Store and Omya, the train was restored and moved to its permanent location next to the Vermont Farmers Food Center.

"It's one of the most visible places in Rutland. It's a very well traveled road -- it's virtually two blocks away from downtown Rutland," said Food Center's Greg Cox.

Cox said every Saturday more than 2,000 people flock to the site for a farmers market, so it will be a great place for people to enjoy a piece of Rutland history. "We want to have this as a public treasure, open to the public as often as possible so people can see and really touch and feel what the train history of Rutland was," he said.

Cox said they will be building a shelter around the train and will be open for public viewing October 22nd. The railcar will be free for everyone to explore. Donahue says railroads are a significant part of Rutland's history -- both freight and passenger trains have been rolling through the city for over a century. "It is a very, very important -- not only part of our history -- but a part of our future. Rutland is still a major switching yard for the entire State of Vermont," he said.

And although some locals were just there for the heavy machinery, others say they can't wait for it to be stationed in the city permanently. "This is good. There are a lot of people that comes to the farmers market. Trains are really important to Rutland history, so having it here is really pretty cool,"  Zeller said.
   
Bringing back a 100-year-old railcar, to take the city into the future.

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For MBTA, Canceling Railcar Contract Last Resort

(source: Boston Globe)

Hyundai Rotem, the sluggish South Korean railcar builder, must feel it has the MBTA and its riders over a barrel. Sure, the company lags far behind its schedule for providing 75 badly needed double-decker coaches. Sure, the four test cars it finally did provide in 2012, more than two years late, have been rife with faulty workmanship. Sure, the original $190 million contract brought suspicion on the MBTA, after it became clear the company had hired a senior T official’s father to help win a contract in Philadelphia. But what’s the MBTA going to do about it now? Cancel the whole contract and start all over again?

That’s just what the T has threatened to do in a letter to Hyundai Rotem last month, but it’s unclear how realistic a threat that is. Canceling the contract outright should be the last resort. The T has declined to comment on what its Plan B is, or, indeed, if it even has one. According to public-transportation analysts, it can easily take five years between the day a contract is put out to bid and when the new coaches start carrying passengers. Five years? The desperate need for more reliable equipment — now — is one of the reasons the questionable Hyundai deal was rammed through so quickly in the first place. That was in 2008.

Speed is not the only consideration, of course. The T’s letter raised serious questions about the quality of the four test cars, which had chassis and wiring problems. If in the T’s estimation the cars are unsafe, or will create an ongoing maintenance nightmare for the agency, it must cancel the contract. But if those issues can be addressed, and the T has no clear backup plan to fill the need more quickly than waiting for Hyundai, the best course for T officials is to grit their teeth and stick with the plan. That is what the transit agency in Philadelphia did after similar problems arose with its Hyundai Rotem deal. Philadelphia’s cars were more than a year late, but more than 90 percent of them have now arrived, and more than 100 are in service.

Whatever the T decides, the clear lesson is that the agency must take a hard look at its flawed contracting process. This is not the first major rail contract that has gone sour, with direct consequences for riders. In 1993, bowing to backroom political interference, the agency purchased concrete ties that turned out to be faulty; passengers paid the price with cancellations as the ties were replaced in 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $91.5 million. A 1995 deal with Breda for new Green Line trolleys also turned into a fiasco.

Perhaps the lesson is that the T just isn’t very good at handling big equipment contracts. There is an alternative: Even as the T mulls what to do with the Hyundai Rotem deal, the agency is also considering a new contract to operate the commuter rail system itself. The existing model has been for the T to buy cars and locomotives for the operator, but giving the contractor a longer-term deal and the responsibility to buy equipment could save the T some headaches. The delayed Hyundai cars are a powerful argument for trying a different approach.