Washington Metro 7000 Series

By -
I thought I'd mention something I read about in the news this week. Yes, the 7000 Series rolling stock has commenced revenue service on the Metro system in Washington, DC and this time, it's a Kawasaki (they seem to have been making good progress in selling commuter stuff to the northeast these years, hopefully high speed trains to follow soon).

This 7000 Series is the first Washington Metro rolling stock to look drastically different from everything that precedes it. Sometimes change is good. Although I'm not so sure about the styling at first glance. I can see some family resemblance from the new Metro North and New Haven commuter EMUs from Kawasaki though. Also unlike anything before the 7000 Series, the EMU's car body is constructed of stainless steel and not aluminum.

Metro 7000-Series railcar debut 3.jpg
"Metro 7000-Series railcar debut 3" by Ben Schumin - Flickr: Metro 7000-Series railcar debut. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.


Metro 7000-Series railcar debut 5.jpg
"Metro 7000-Series railcar debut 5" by Ben Schumin - Flickr: Metro 7000-Series railcar debut. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I'll leave most of the talking to this Wikipedia page (to keep this blog short and sweet? Or am I just being lazy... either way) which I'm quoting from. Oh, one interesting thing I find I have to mention here though, so far all the sources I can find (including an WMATA document) all state that the Metro in Washington is 1/4 inch narrow than standard gauge... not sure why or if all these numbers are typos. Enjoy the pictures and YouTube video.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amtrak NPCU

By -
Image
The NPCU or Non-powered Control Units are control cars used by Amtrak that are modified from surplus EMD F40PH locomotives. A control car is a generic term for a non-powered railroad vehicle that can control operation of a train from the end opposite to the position of the locomotive. They can be used with diesel or electric motive power, allowing push-pull operation without the use of an additional locomotive. Control cars first appeared in the USA and France in 1960s. Trains operating with a locomotive at one end and a control car at the other do not require the locomotive to run around to the opposite end of the train when reversing direction. In the United States, most control cars are modified from retired locomotives by removing tractive equipment and adding side baggage doors and have been used on several passenger railroads. The control cars are connected through the consist of the train by standard AAR 27-wire multiple unit jumper cables. The NPCUs at Amtrak are a
Read more

Briefly on the AAR Coupler Part 2

By -
Image
Last week, we've identified the Janney coupler and briefly looked at its elegant design. This week, let's, again, very briefly, look at the different types of Janney coupler that are widely used today. I will only talk about the head of the coupler, and ignore anything that the general public may need to trespass onto railroad property and get in a unsafe situation in order to have a good look at. As far as coupler heads are concerned, there are 3 types in used today. Type E, F, and H. Types E and F are used on freight, and H used on passenger equipment. Since the withdrawal of passenger service in North America by private railroads, the Type H standard is no longer maintained by the Association of American Railroads, a trade group formed of major freight railroads, but is under the control of the APTA, the American Public Transportation Association. Now let me introduce another term, slack. Slack is an allowed gap between two coupled up couplers. In other words, when most
Read more

SD70ACu

By Yi -
Image
After the post on the shiny rebuilt GE road power, it's only fair to have a look into what Progress Rail has to offer on their side of the table. I'm using the company's recently-changed, formal name of course. For those who are not up-to-date on the current state of North American railroading affairs, Progress Rail is the company (owned by Caterpillar) that purchased EMD a few years ago. The SD90MAC was arguably the biggest gong show in EMD's recent memory. It happened at a time when they were comfortably resting on their laurels, unaware the fateful changes that were about to occur in the locomotive market in the not-so-distant future (they got beaten badly by GE). What was supposed to be one of the most remarkable locomotives whose presence is to grace the mainlines in modern history, turned out to be an utter disaster (I'll redirect further readings to Wikipedia). As a result, today, the number of SD90s still in operation on a Class 1 Railroad is, if not id
Read more