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American General Trackless Trolleys; what happend...
Topic Started: Feb 6 2006, 08:26 AM (1,820 Views)
newflyer_8008
A person with a transit intrest
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why did our trackless trollies catch hell? The airconditioning in the floor sucked, and if u had the heat on going cross an incinerator, the pole would come off.
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Transit_Advocate929
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The AMGs were lemons even before they came onto the property. They were so bad that an AMG plant had to be built nearby so that repairs could be made to them. The AC was not in the floor. It was on the roof, but it did not work very well. However, when they put the Thermo-Kings on 811 and 857, they were literally the coolest coaches in the system. And the word is insulator, not incinerator, LOL. I would hope they would have not had an incinerator on them. I do not want to burn up riding a trackless, Lol. Plus, the pole would come off regardless of whether the heat was on or not. As much as I loved the riding quality of them, they really were that bad. I just hope that SEPTA gets the NFI E40LF and if so, I hope they operate better than their predecessors. But that's just my opinion. Until next time, see ya'.
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Tritransit Area
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Are you sure it was on the roof - if so, where on the roof was it located, i was sure the compressor was underneath or something.

The New Flyers would certainly be much better. AMG built bad buses on a whole, but New Flyers...well, look at their track record across North America now!

I'm having a hard time picturing the SEPTA scheme on the New Flyer TTs though...
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newflyer_8008
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i think it was in the floor, cause like 857, the thermo king unit is visable from the top, but i think it was in the floor because by time u felt the cool air, then by time u get to the top of the bus, u was HOT!!!!
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Transit_Advocate929
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Quote:
 
i think it was in the floor, cause like 857, the thermo king unit is visable from the top, but i think it was in the floor because by time u felt the cool air, then by time u get to the top of the bus, u was HOT!!!!




Maybe it was. Either way I never felt any airflow until they started putting them crappy units on the roof (save for 811 and 857).
[/b]
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Mark
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Elmwood9109
Feb 6 2006, 06:57 PM
The AMGs were lemons even before they came onto the property. They were so bad that an AMG plant had to be built nearby so that repairs could be made to them. The AC was not in the floor. It was on the roof, but it did not work very well. However, when they put the Thermo-Kings on 811 and 857, they were literally the coolest coaches in the system. And the word is insulator, not incinerator, LOL. I would hope they would have not had an incinerator on them. I do not want to burn up riding a trackless, Lol. Plus, the pole would come off regardless of whether the heat was on or not. As much as I loved the riding quality of them, they really were that bad. I just hope that SEPTA gets the NFI E40LF and if so, I hope they operate better than their predecessors. But that's just my opinion. Until next time, see ya'.

He's right. It's a miracle they lasted as long as they did [1980-2002]. They were the vehichles that were impossible to keep on the road.

Out of 110, 109 barely managed to operate [843 never operated], and by 1990, about 35 of them were out of service completely, the rest of them died piecemeal. In 1992, SEPTA reduced the fleet to the best 66 coaches, and stored the rest, eventually using them for parts.
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newflyer_8008
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man, i only rode one of those one, thats when i was a lad
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Septa_kid
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I rode these everyday... too bad I was too young to remember... 2! Me and my crazy schemes. But in all seriousness, I really miss those AMG's, and the New Flyer's could never replace them
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Mark
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Do you know that AM General and Flyer are cousins? In the 1970's AM General [the truck-bus unit of American Motors -- formerly Rambler, maker of Jeeps before Chrysler bought the brand in the 80's, think those 70's Gremlins - Google AMC Gremlin and see what the car looked like] , joined with Flyer and redesigned the D700[then sold only in Canada], and created the D800 series bus with Flyer selling them in Canada, and AM General selling them in the USA [using the Metropolitan label]. When the Feds tried to shove Transbus down bus manufacturers' throats in 1977, AM General dropped out. When Transbus went belly up [because GM/Flxible told the Feds to "Go to Hell", and they came out with their own ADB models], Flyer stepped in to sell their buses in the US[ the flat-front D901], mostly to West Coast systems like Seattle Metro, AC Transit, then to Eastern and midwest systems like CTA, MBTA and Suffolk County NY systems. The reason is that many of those systems did not trust the quality of the ADB's [with teething problems of the Flx 870, and some RTS problems as well].

So those AMG trolleys had their origin with Flyer, interesting that their replacements came from Flyer and they took the AMG fleet numbers.

SEPTA should have piggybacked their trolley order with MUNI in 1975 and got their trolleys directly from Flyer. If they did, they probably would have retired them in 2005 like MUNI did with their 1975/76 Flyers.
Edited by Mark, Oct 5 2008, 04:49 PM.
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Septa_kid
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I always wondered why the 01-05 Flyers somewhat resembled the AMG's
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