What Happened to the C1's?

For those of us (myself proudly included) who live out in LIRR diesel territory have heard of the C3s- (or even better have not just heard of them) the LIRR’s cool-looking bi-level coaches that get pulled by diesel engines.

But what few know is that the C3s actually had a predecessor- the C1s. The C1s were prototype cars built by Kawasaki for the LIRR to tour around the railroad to show off these new, futuristic systems and amenities to see if it appealed to passengers and to see if it would “work” on the LIRR.

To be honest, the C1s were basically just a scaled-back version of the C3s. They had the same basic general design, and the same basic features, with the C3 just including a more full “suite of amenities.” The LIRR and Kawasaki basically just collected input from passengers to create the trains we now call the C3s. They only built them for testing purposes and not to stay in the fleet, explaining why only 10 were built. Time for a fun fact? Did you know that the FRA changed it’s definition in the book therefore the way that some C1s were coupled would be considered a “married pair”, similar to what we see on the M3s, M7s, and M9s, therefore technically there were 5 sets of C1s roaming around!

Here are a couple of videos for if you’d like to see these cars when they were in service:

When the LIRR made one of it’s best decisions to purchase the beloved C3s, the C1s became the oddballs of the fleet with no real purpose. They could only be pulled by certain modified engines, and to add insult to the injury, they couldn’t even be paired up with the C3s. And why weren’t they you may ask? They’re literally supposed to be very similar cars? Well, it’s the LIRR and who knows why. The C1s had different couplers and the C1s couplers proved to be a big limiting factor for those cars. The C1s couplers were actually quite similar to those found on the M1s and M3s, however, they obviously couldn’t be coupled to them as those were MU cars and these were powerless coaches and they couldn’t be coupled to C3s (or their engines for that matter) as the C3s had more conventional couplers and the C1s had 27-point jumpers (like just about every other railroad in the world), meanwhile the C3s had 36-point jumpers, a very odd choice. The C1s were also known to be a pain maintenance-wise requiring heavy maintenance and being a pain to maintain.

So, in the end, it would’ve cost much more to retrofit these cars for service with the other cars then it would to just buy 10 more C3s, therefore the LIRR chose the sad but much more logical decision. While the C1s had a short life, it was a fulfilling one and as a matter of fact, the C1s were also the first cars to get to experience dual-mode technology as they were the first cars to run on the LIRR’s new dual-mode train from Port Jefferson to Penn Station on weekday and as you can guess, people really took a liking for these 1 seat rides as we now have 11 of them per weekday!

(Photo: s2vAA777 on YouTube)

But whatever happened to the C1s?

When the LIRR was through with the C1s, they sat collecting dust for a while before being sold elsewhere to various heritage railways.

These C1s belonged to the Saratoga & North Creek Heritage Railway in Upstate NY which as of July 2018, sadly closed its doors. 

These C1s have been found on the Rio Grande Senic Railroad, however I can’t tell whether or not those cars are still there.

And if you'd like to actually board the C1s, the Cape Cod Central Rail Road also has some in service and as a added bonus, they are pulled by FL9's as they were in LIRR service.

And, I may even be visting Cape Cod Central Railway this Winter to ride the Polar Express train and experience these cars for myself, something I never got to experience before.

If you’d like to see more photos of this train, there’s a website with them. 

In conclusion, the C1s will always hold a special place in my heart for being the prototype to my favorite railcars. 

'Middleseatphobia'

There it is… the little seat that couldn’t. The dreaded middle seat. Walk down just about every single train, rush hour or not, tons of standees, or no standees, and you’ll see just about every seat but the middle seat filled.

Photo: MTA LIRR

If your most people, like me, you’ll have no problem sitting in the end seat (not that the window seat isn’t much better, but also not that it matters since you can’t see out the window!), but if asked to stand or sit in the middle seat, most people will choose to stand. If you sit in this dreaded seat, your squished in between two other people, have no armrests, and if one of the people next to you is smelly, loud, et cetera, then it could mean a hell of a ride for you.

On the LIRR & MNR, the middle seat is only on the MU equipment (M7s, M8s, M9s), as it’s a 3-2 seating arrangement,  and on the Shoreliners and C3 equipment, the bodies are narrower so they can only fit four seats per row. 

The main reason for these seats is because of ADA requirements. Because of all the ADA required things for accessible riders, which is a very good thing, but also means that they have a significant reduction in seating capacity meaning they had to include the middle seat.

An almost (or more) uncomfortable seat is the facing seats, for the reason of it being impractical to have all seats per car facing the same way as some prefer to sit one way versus the other, and therefore they have to meet somewhere in the middle of the car. However, these seats are annoying because their very cramped and the legroom is abysmal.

Photo: The LIRR Today

What makes this whole “Middle seat” situation even worse is when the LIRR calculates ridership numbers, and more importantly, standee numbers, they calculate loading percentages, assuming that every seat (including the middle seat is filled). So for the vast majority of the LIRR & MNR’s rush hour trains, the standee counts are all screwed up and because of this, the LIRR thinks it’s fine to run less then 12 cars on those trains and everyone will allegedly have a seat.

But the truth is, walk down any rush-hour train, and chances are, only a couple of middle-seats in an entire 12 car consist will actually be filled. I think to help fix this issue, the LIRR should only factor window seats and end seats into their calculations, maybe including one or two middle seats per pair. Because the number of “end seats” and “window seats” tallys up to 144 seats per M7 pair, and that number excludes the 51 middle or facing seats that people will avoid, and the 16 fold-down seats that also are avoided (though not in as high contempt as the middle seats)

As it turns out, ‘Middleseatphobia’ (or whatever you’d prefer to call it) is a real thing among LIRR & MNR commuters, and the fact that people would rather stand then sit their pretty much proves my point. In a perfect world, the LIRR & MNR would try to base their equipment rotations and loading factors better on the seats that are actually used, not just the ones that exist.

Also, before I go, happy last day of work or classes before the holidays!