New SEPTA MU Cars

[ngauger]

Got the chance to ride one of the new Passenger Cars I was on the way to a "new" car show so I even had the good camera

Builders Plate???
   

Doors are now in the center of the cars, not at the ends.
   

Tropicana Advertisement "skin"
   

Details of the paint scheme with Logo
   

[LiveSteamer]

Great pictures Mikey. They sure look beautiful. Thanks for sharing them.

Do they ride nice and smooth?

[railohio]

Nice catch. I got to check out the new, not yet in service, Hyundai-Rotem bi-level commuter cars on Tri-Rail when I was in Florida last weekend.

[ngauger]

Great pictures Mikey. They sure look beautiful. Thanks for sharing them.

Do they ride nice and smooth?

They rode a bit nicer than the older ones... they start and stop a lot smoother, but that could have been the Engineer The seats are a bit more soft and they are a bit wider and the cars look "roomier" inside...

I questioned the Conductor on how "they all" like them ( we were in an older car on the way in). His answer was "Not Really" and "one Engineer was hurt already with the glass in the cab". He didn't say weather it was with the door or the side window glass.. but he commented they all have to get used to the newness....

On the way home (new car), I asked the conductor what he thought of the cars.. he said we have a lot of Gremlins to kick off of every train... There's a lot of "new" things not quite right.
I said - Well kick them off while it's moving so maybe they wont jump back on.
We both chuckled.....
Then he said - "They really are nice overall, but we all have to just .... get used to them"...

The greatest thing I noticed was every car has a "standard sounding" female announcement "voice". She announces the "next stop" just as the train leaves the station, and as you approach the next station she repeats the name and also lets you know if the station is handicap accessible. I don't know how the sequence is triggered but I'm sure it's somehow automatic. My friend said it may be tied to the digital clock that was showing on the monitors in between announcements and ads.

This "next station" information is duplicated on a video monitor at each end of the train and also on 2 overhead "text" Crawl signs in the center of the car.. Really neat!!!!

Of course, while the train announcements are not running, the displays at both ends show paid ads or the clock.. There were 5 rotating ads.... all were 2012 Christmas ads for jewelry, other gifts and the Ballet that ran from Dec 25th to Jan 5th or something like that. So I guess they aren't updating them regularly.

But overall, it was nice riding in a newer car with nice seats and it was on time... of course

[LiveSteamer]

Well that is good to hear Mikey. Sounds like it was a good time.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Eh, I've taken a ride in them once. If they didn't block off the front seat, I'd like them more. However, these cars were questionable to start, but when they were reassembled in philadelphia, the people doing the work reportedly were laborers and not necessarily SEPTA or railroad related people.

For a while there were concerns that some of the cars might actually have to get sent back, though i didn't think that would be likely, and I see them shooting up and down out the center-city tunnel onto the fomer Reading Company lines all the time.

Here is a photo of the new Silverliner V with the cars they replaced. The Silverliner II 9001 is the first Reading Company Silverliner II, delivered in the early 1960s. The location is Chelten Hills East.



Currently, the only other Silverliners in service with SEPTA are the Silverliner IVs, delivered between February 1974 and late 1975. These are still the predominate Silverliners, with 231 in service (only 1 was lost in a collision, #9020). There will only be 120 Silverliner Vs, so the Silverliner IVs are likely to stay for some time.

For a trip through time, Check out this article from when the Silverliner IVs first showed up!

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[ngauger]

Interesting article.. And you can see the difference in the width of the newer cars, which allows the seats to be wider too Nice!!!