Why has there been so much difficulty getting any production out of them?
For those who do not know, they are the “next-gen” DMU’s built here in the US for higher speed rails.
Lack of demand?
Interesting to see that they are partnering with Relco.
That’s the old Colorado Railcar (before that, Rader Railcar), the company was seized by Portland (who paid for equipment never delivered) in bancruptcy and then sold to US Railcar when Rader went out of business. I’ll bet they are having the same problems as Rader did convincing anyone to take a chance on delivery time, reliability, and confidence the company will still be around after the equipment is in service to honor those warranties.
They have a new design, no doubt with lots of proprietary components and ideas. To make sales they have to demonstrate that they have a BETTER design, that it is cost effective to buy it and that it will work as promised. No one wants to be the first but everyone will be glad to be the second one to buy. Their best bet is new start ups, I think, since I assume that existing systems and operators will be cool to the idea of adding incompatible parts to their inventories.
Are the new designs electromotive? I never understood why the bi-levels had two engines and two torque converters instead of a generator and traction motors.