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CTrain U2 AC Cars (2101 & 2102)


LRT

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Noticed the bogies for one of the AC cars have been removed from Anderson Garage tarmac and may now be possibly installed on one of the cars!

Good news!! (or bad for some) 2102 is in the shop powered up and almost ready to go into service. Expect to see 2102 out and about soon, maybe on a road test. As for 2101, it has not been touched, it will be next for new tires and a bogie rebuild.

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Good news!! (or bad for some) 2102 is in the shop powered up and almost ready to go into service. Expect to see 2102 out and about soon, maybe on a road test. As for 2101, it has not been touched, it will be next for new tires and a bogie rebuild.

Yeah, it was out on the test track yesterday. The amount of time and money they've spent trying to get those to work after buying them 'cheap' from Edmonton, they might as well have bought two new SDs....

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Yeah, it was out on the test track yesterday. The amount of time and money they've spent trying to get those to work after buying them 'cheap' from Edmonton, they might as well have bought two new SDs....

I don't believe the cars were ever owned by Edmonton. The cars were delivered to Edmonton, but as far as I know, the cars were owned by the Province. Following the test period in Edmonton, the cars were shipped down to Calgary so they could test them. I guess eventually Calgary purchased the cars from the Province.

The cars were built a little bit more to Calgary specs, with the lights beside the destination sign, something Edmonton cars never had.

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I don't believe the cars were ever owned by Edmonton. The cars were delivered to Edmonton, but as far as I know, the cars were owned by the Province. Following the test period in Edmonton, the cars were shipped down to Calgary so they could test them. I guess eventually Calgary purchased the cars from the Province.

The cars were built a little bit more to Calgary specs, with the lights beside the destination sign, something Edmonton cars never had.

They did (and still do) have Edmonton Transit on the plates at either end of the cars....technically, all LRVs are purchased by the province (at least in part). I would've assumed that they were built for use in Edmonton if they put the flying E on both cars.

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They changed the tires (wheels) as Calgary uses street car rails, they installed the V.I.S and thats about it as far as I know. Just a note, the car ran great today with the SD160s, I did notice the car runs a bit louder then usual. I was speaking to a tech the other day I guess the cars trucks were pretty worn out, they got a complete overhaul, new brakes, bushings, and the motors got some TLC too.

Pics to come (and maybe a video too)

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They changed the tires (wheels) as Calgary uses street car rails, they installed the V.I.S and thats about it as far as I know. Just a note, the car ran great today with the SD160s, I did notice the car runs a bit louder then usual. I was speaking to a tech the other day I guess the cars trucks were pretty worn out, they got a complete overhaul, new brakes, bushings, and the motors got some TLC too.

Pics to come (and maybe a video too)

Yeah I need to get a video or sound recording of one of those! Very sweet sounding units!
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They did (and still do) have Edmonton Transit on the plates at either end of the cars....technically, all LRVs are purchased by the province (at least in part). I would've assumed that they were built for use in Edmonton if they put the flying E on both cars.

No, Edmonton left those cars in plain white during the year or so they had them, as 3001 and 3002. I have slides of them from 1989. Calgary left them white for quite a few years after they got the cars, before striping them. They got their current numbers 2101 and 2102 in about 1999.

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No, Edmonton left those cars in plain white during the year or so they had them, as 3001 and 3002. I have slides of them from 1989. Calgary left them white for quite a few years after they got the cars, before striping them. They got their current numbers 2101 and 2102 in about 1999.

That would be cool if you can share those pics, I know they said something about Alberta Transport on the side of them but don't remember what it said exactly

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Got to drive 2210 2102 2268 the other day, very smooth operating consist, even smoother then a all SD160 consist! Noticed when you power through an isolater ever so slightly, the lights on car 2102 flicker on and off.

Saw that consist out yesterday when I was at SAIT yesterday with a friend. The lights on both 2101, 2102 often flickered in the past as well while passing an isolator. Especially noticable when going through the cemetary tunnel.

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Car 1034 in Edmonton does that, due to it having a static conventor instead of a rotary convertor.

Saw that consist out yesterday when I was at SAIT yesterday with a friend. The lights on both 2101, 2102 often flickered in the past as well while passing an isolator. Especially noticable when going through the cemetary tunnel.
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Here is a quote out of Modern Tramway March 1986 about 2101 and 2102

Turning to local industry, the Alberta Government has signed a C$3.5M contract with Siemens to develop ac powered motors for transit systems. It is expected that two prototype cars will be built for evaluation in Calgary and Edmonton. Siemens has also reached an agreement with UTDC which may result in its building the cars in Canada.

Were 2101 and 2102 built in Canada?

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Here is a quote out of Modern Tramway March 1986 about 2101 and 2102

Were 2101 and 2102 built in Canada?

I suspect not. The photos I have on my website show them as shells when they arrived in Edmonton so likely it was ETS staff, or Siemens staff at ETS facilities, that installed the electrics afterwards.

I would assume they would have been shipped as complete units from UTDC, like the SD's, if indeed UTDC had assembled them.

None the less, a nice find!

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I don't recall if I posted this on the board before or not, so here it is!

The first modern North American light rail equipment to employ a.c. propulsion was a pair of modified Siemens Duewag U2 vehicles completed in 1988 for a test program on the Edmonton and Calgary light rail systems. These cars employ two independent current supply inverters, one for each power truck, which are fitted with a hermetically-sealed evaporative bath cooling system designed to overcome the dust or dry snow problems that might be encountered with a more conventional air-cooled arrangement. All heat-generating components of the inverters are cooled by a refrigerant which is vaporized and re-condensed on the casing walls.

The two vehicles employ microprocessor-based traction controls, which also monitor such automatic safety functions as wheelslip and jerk control, and activation of mechanical braking where necessary. A fault detection package is also included. Each power truck is fitted with two 136 kW (182 hp) transverse-mounted self-ventilated six-pole squirrel cage induction motors, each driving one axle through a double-reduction gear train.

This was on page 3 on this website: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m121...ag=content;col1

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  • 2 weeks later...

2102 is now in a new consist 2266 2102 2243.

2102 has some issues today, for no reason it would fault at any given time, then clear, it was stuck at Haysboro for 20 minutes before it was able to head out for the evening rush hour.

When ever 2102 is in a consist, that consist will accelerate and brake so smoothly. It is a great running car...to bad it has some bugs that will probably never be worked out.

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Car 2102s disc brakes were stuck on at haysboro today, they had to be manualy realesed, then towed back to Anderson Garage.

Like I've said a few times before, they need to scrap those car and stop wasting resources on them. While those that have never had the misfortune of operating them as a lead car (or passengers) may think it a novelty, they're just not reliable in general and are more trouble than they're worth. Just wait till it gets cold...the problems earlier this week at Haysboro are just the beginning.

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