News Archive: 2nd quarter 2004

June 19 — After a long drought without updates (thanks to my busy schedule) I am pleased to make a big adjustment to the site. First of all, the Roster Page has been updated to reflect the ordering of a double decker DMU and a double decker commuter trailer by the Florida Dept. of Transportation (see the April 16 news item) and the pending construction of two new cars for Alaska Railroad (see the April 1 news item). I haven't confirmed the latter order yet, but expect to have that nailed down next week, and probably have the expected car numbers as well.

I talked with Tom Janaky last week, and he said that construction has begun on the new DMU and trailer for Florida DOT. We can expect to see some photos here fairly soon, I hope. He also confirmed that the double Decker DMU's cab windshields will be raked back at a 45 degree angle similar to the illustration at the top of this page.

And finally, I have dropped a number of enlarged photos, mostly in the Rocky Mountaineer, Holland America and DMU sites. I also added new photos of Rocky Mountaineer 9521 and 9523, which I toured in Kamloops last month. (Beautiful cars, by the way..) as well as RMR stablemates 9502 and 9509, and VIA's single level dome 1722.

April 20 — The flavor of my words (a correction): Backing up to my news item of March 31, I ran the math again, and it turns out that Rocky Mountaineer 9523 wasn't the 30th car built by Colorado Railcar after all. With the delivery of the Holland America cars ahead of the 9523, that honor fell to one of that group. According to David Beagle, construction order was HALX 1055, 1057, 1054 and 1056. That would make the 1055 officially the 30th car. Sorry for the confusion. I have updated the appropriate roster pages.

April 19 — A DMU clarification, and and update. The DMU prototype, CRMX 2002, has been sold to the Florida Department of Transportation, and will be operated by Tri-Rail. This is big, exciting news for Colorado Railcar. I spoke briefly with Tom Janaky, CRM's VP of Sales, a few days ago, and he seemed confident that the company would be delivering 6-8 new DMUs next year. It looks like things are starting to come together in that venue. We've also updated the 2002's roster page accordingly.

Also, I came across a photo yesterday of a Rocky Mountaineer dome car trailing Kamloops Heritage Railway's ex-Canadian Northern 2-8-0 2141. After firing off a few e-mails, I am pleased to present a few photos from last year's KHR Kamloops Railway Days, which include a few guests that I think you will enjoy.

April 16 — Colorado Railcar has made a significant redesign in its website, signaling a shift from emphasis on luxury touring cars to commuter vehicles. Most interesting is the new section on double-decker DMUs, which includes some interesting conceptual illustrations. One notable design change is the inclusion of two sets of doors on the double-deckers, rather than one as on earlier drawings. It also appears that the stairways to the upper level have been reduced in size, and seating capacity has been increased slightly to 200 people.

For plenty of new DMU information, including a PDF version of Colorado Railcar's double-decker DMU brochure check out this link.

But that's not the only big news from the site. Details of the Florida Tri-Rail DMU purchase were posted today as well. You can read the full text of the press release at this link. It looks like Tri-Rail will purchase the DMU prototype, as well as prototypes of a double Decker DMU and a double Decker trailer. That should be interesting.

April 1 — Alaska Railroad currently has an RFP open for the purchase of two luxury dome cars that are to enter service in 2005. The RFP contains some interesting specifications, which I compiled into a conceptual photo-illustration of what the car could look like if built by Colorado Railcar. Mind you, this is purely fictional (for now...) but I hope you enjoy. Oh, and I just realized what date it is today. Despite that, this is serious.