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Construction proceeding on Wisconsin Talgo trains
Is this our tax dollars at work or what!
Well, if you can get rid of Walker, maybe some more decent rail service will come your way, Cheeseheads!!
When was that photo taken? I saw it (or one much like it) a week ago at South Mountain rest area between Frederick and Hagerstown.
It looks longer than 14 feet to me.
Definitely longer than 14’ overall length. I saw one outside Indianapolis, Indiana. Talked to the driver and got pics, he stated he picked it up out of Maryland and was heading to Wisconsin. The one I saw was all white with no graphics on it yet. At first I thought it was a new buss body till I got to looking at it closer then went over to talk to the driver. Cool to see up close.
Wow, that’s ugly. I was thinking they would look nicer than that.
The picture of the cab car on the truck flat bed sure looks a lot longer than the 14 ft. as stated in the article. Also, the 43 ft. sounds short for the passenger car.
14 feet is quite short for a cab car, it would seem. What is the length really?
Why is the Oregon Department of Transportation involved with an Illinois-Wisconsin railroad? It doesn’t sound logical.
I thought Talgo was closing up the plant in Milwaukee because the governor turned down Obama’s High-Speed Rail money. Obviously those sources were totally unreliable.
It sounds like they will be very nice trains, but man is that front end ugly.
Brian, I took that image on Thursday night in Northern Illinois. Quite possible it may have been the same. A friend of mine who used to be a heavy haul driver said a lot goes in to planning these moves, what with permits, clearance and weight issues. What one would think would be the best or most direct route may not always be.
When will these trains be going in service? It seems rather odd that cab cars and whatnot are being shipped by truck. It’s too bad that the latest order for cars for the Midwest aren’t going to be Talgos as well. I’ve read about the possibility of service to the Twin Cities and one thing they could do is order at least one sleeper so that, say, the last northbound train to Milwaukie could go overnight to the Twin Cities and the first southbound train of theday could originate in the Twin Cities.
Our local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) had a chance to tour the Talgo plant last week - a very thorough guided tour but photography was restricted to one member unfortunately. The cars are shorter than usual passenger cars – not 14 feet, 14 cars – and the articulation is over a single set of weeks (I don’t say single axle because there IS not axle – that is the essence of the Taglo tilting system.
Oregon DOT is ALSO buying trainsets. So they can spread the R&D cost out over more cars.
I’ll reserve final judgement until I see a full trainset on the rails, but my initial visual impression of the locomotive is not overwhelmingly favorable. Still, it’s great to see any new train being built!
The cab cars have to be longer than 14 feet. Must be a typo.
The Oregon DOT bought Talgos and the Talgo Company agreed to give a lower price per unit if Illinois-Wisconsin added to the total order. This helps to spread out the fixed costs. It is like buying 4 apples for 80 cents or 5 apples for 90 cents. Four apples cost 20 cents each. Five apples cost 18 cents each.
Rode the Cascade Talgo from Portland to Seattle and back. The ride was quiet and smooth. Nice to sit there and watch the traffic on I-5 being passed. Fare was less than cost of gas, wear and tear on the car, and parking.
Try it. You’ll like it.
Oregon went in with Wisconsin on a order for 4 trainsets total, 2 for each state. This plant was supposed to be Talgo’s facility for the emerging North American market. As the likelihood of additional orders is very remote in the near term, the plant will close when these sets are completed later this year.
Well let’s hope since they are built for WI weather than means protection from snow at speed. Blowing snow from movement plus wind likes to clog up and freese everything.
And a side note; assuming they make an event out of the first new trainset to be debuted on that corridor, I’ll laugh out loud if Gov. Walker (assuming he is still our govenor) uses it as a prop for his long winded job creation claims. You know, something about 800+ million dollars would have gone a lot farther here…