Riverside, Ca – Marking another milestone in Complete Coach Works’ 25 year history was the arrival on Wednesday October 28th, of the first of two San Francisco MUNI Light Rail Vehicles which were recently awarded to Complete Coach Works for accident repair work.
While working on rail cars is not new to Complete Coach Works, whose list of existing rail customers includes AMTRAK, Metro Link, San Diego’s Red Trolley and Bombardier, rehabing rail cars on property is, and requried specialty trucks to do the hauling, as well as modifications to the facility to accommodate the vehicles once they arrived.
Innovative approaches to all of our projects is one our many strengths and this project was no exception, requiring us to develop a portable rail spur that can be set in place in one of our many work centers when required, but removed and stored when the work area is needed for tranditional rubber wheeled buses. this innovative approach provides added flexibility by giving us the option to quickly and easily convert a work center to accommodate rail cars.
Our work on the SF MUNI railcars involves body and structural work to repair accident damage these cars sustained during service with one of the railcars requiring an all new door and articulating step system.
David Ramirez and his crew, featuring Kenneth McCown providing welding talent as well as structural and body expertise, are already busy with initial tear down and prep work.
Once all of the work has been completed the new door system and articulating steps will need to be carefully tested and adjusted to insure safe and reliable service. Since these trains run on 600 volts, special power supply systems had to be integrated into our test procedures and these systems are ready to go when testing times arrives.
Since San Francisco MUNI is one of America’s oldest public transit agencies having been founded in 1912, and today is responsible for transporting over 200 million passengers per year, it is a real honor for Complete Coach Works to have been awarded this work.