| Last updated on November 3, 2020
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The France-based locomotive and trainset manufacturer recently debuted a new video showing how Alstom engineers and designers collaborate to make digital three-dimensional models of new equipment including the Avelia Liberty.
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All that “research” and they still don’t look as good as what draftsmen came up with using slide rules and pencils 80 years ago.
It looks like we will get snoots like the Japanese Shinkansen.
Infrastructure improvements are saddled with US structural administrative problems. The soft costs of permitting, hearings, inevitably of court costs, EIS(1,2,3 etc) often times exceed the hard costs of actual construction. You can’t get ahead of infrastructure requirements no matter how much money you throw at it if soft costs exceed hard costs.
As Jim noted, digital videos is the pathetically easy part of a simple sales pitch.
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Unfortunately designing, building a factory and actually building a prototype doesn’t even assure you passing crash tests and approval from FRA. Just ask a certain Japanese car builder who hasn’t been able to deliver on a 110 mph rated bi-level coach delivery after five years or so that has basically screwed over several dedicated corridor passenger services in Cali & Midwest. US is really getting sad on delivery of what is considered basic infrastructure in the rest of the developed world.
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Or my latest favorite, BART in the Bay Area has new cars ready to go in service to kick off their car replacement program but still waiting on state to sign off. Sounds like complete red tape fiasco from another government agency that for all intents and purposes is complete overkill
It’s really easy to make a whiz-bang video including the use of virtual reality equipment to create an image. The big question is how does that all translate into real reality on rails with a life expectancy of 50 years or so?
Great video.
But, keep in mind that an earlier generation of designers at EMC, GE, Alco, BLH, Baldwin, and Fairbanks Morse also created some truly great locomotives. And they did it without a computer, instead applying slide rules, LeRoi lettering sets, and a love of their craft.
One of my dearly departed professional and academic colleagues, Willis B. Miller, was one of those Alco designers. In his late 70s and still working, I found he had forgotten more railroading than I will ever come to know.
If you, TRAINS readers, have encountered and been enriched by true mentors, perhaps you should occasionally send them a silent word of gratitude.