bob adermann profile
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Page 1 of 9
Wolf R (Bob) Adermann ndash Education Sydney Technical College The University of Sydney McGill University
Denied a high-school education (a few teachers of brown-shirt tutelage took implacable offence at his name) he
migrated to Australia and worked with the Sydney Metropolitan Water Sewerage amp Drainage Board in the kind
of job most jobseekers ditched after about a week Four years later he had finished high school in the evenings
while during daytime he had helped provide sewer connections to about ten-thousand Sydney homes
After graduating in aeronautical engineering at The University of Sydney he became structural engineer with
Comeng licensee to the Philadelphia Budd Companyrsquos stainless steel technology Three months later he
initiated ndash with aeronautical engineering lecturer Alan Fien ndash a structural engineering collaboration between
Comeng and Sydney University A year later he became BuddComeng design issues point man effectively
apprenticing him to some of the engineers who decades earlier had designed and built stainless steel airplanes
Synergy from university team-up and inspired leadership by Comengrsquos new chief engineer Harry Anthony
ushered in the halcyon years of Comeng innovation engineering that ndash building on Budd technology and taking
it to a whole new level ndash propelled the company to the industryrsquos cutting edge
Comengrsquos decade of pioneering stainless steel bilevel design and construction gifted him specialised problem
understanding as well as the skills and capabilities to drive innovation Responsible for five of the companyrsquos six
bilevel structural designs for the domestic market he oversaw associated research and development including
software as well as a raft of structural tests conducted at both Comeng workshops and university labs
Engineers at the forefront of paradigm shifts soon receive job-offers But unfinished passenger safety business
kept him at Comeng Then the unthinkable happened Already a world-class company ndash producing attention-
grabbing stainless steel bilevels (France Canada and China had sent delegations to view them) and playing a
rail-vehicle design global leadership role ndash Comeng was dealt a vicious blow from which it never recovered
After eleven years of service he resigned from a company whose hard-won internationally acclaimed expertise
was nipped in the bud to join the Canadian Alcan group for five more years of learning the art of designing in
aluminium Again he was offered a rare apprenticeship This time with the erarsquos leading aluminium railroad car
designer Ian Tomaka who among other things introduced him to Canadian and US heavy haul
News of a contract for ten stainless steel bilevels awarded to Comeng by Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) plus an
offer to participate in the design reached him in Europe via Comengrsquos Harry Anthony who also disclosed that
his own participation in the project hinged on that offerrsquos acceptance Harry Anthony moreover disclosed that a
timetable for Comengrsquos liquidation for its real estate value would stop the company from constructing the cars
Mr Anthony didnrsquot mention the just executed fire sale of the still non-existent bilevel-design to Mitsui
Bilevels seemed to be a brinkmanship idea by LIRR who knew full well that to fit the tunnels under Manhattan
the cars had to be as slender as any Comeng had built yet had to have four times the crush strength by law
This physical contradiction was why the experts dismissed the idea as lsquoundoablersquo Yet desperate for the extra
passenger carrying capacity LIRR had searched the world for qualified bilevel-builders and had found Comeng
The company had never head-hunted former employees But as one of the leading actors in that recurring rail-
vehicle design revolution that took place at Comeng during the 1970s he had more experience and detailed
expertise in the requisite engineering discipline than any of the companyrsquos structural engineers before or after
He also worked well with Mr Anthony and the old team ndash And his Canadian experience was the cherry on top
Page 2 of 9
So would he rejoin the old choir for its swan song ndash And for a last Hurrah ndash Except that the more likely result
would be going to hell in a handbasket ndash Safer to give LIRR a miss and just fade away ndash But no way to go for a
company that had redefined an industry And to succeed would be going huge It would surpass anything
Comeng had done before So he told Mr Anthony ldquoLetrsquos go to hell fighting in our bootsrdquo It struck him only later
that this wasnrsquot a moon-shot as the moon was known to be there ndash This was a shot in the dark
Six months ndash not on the brink nor on the ragged edge but on a pencil-tip1 ndash later he delivered the goods2 and
became one of the lsquoComeng-Fourrsquo the by now legendary Australian designer quartet that created the future of
US rail with its C1-Prototypes [p6] ndash Those game-changing bilevels of simple and elegant design that charmed
American train riders3 with new standards of comfort and safety and delighted American railroad operators
with unmatched levels of quality efficiency and reliability in addition to the extra capacity (The ldquoboxy shaperdquo is
the only functional shape that will fit into existing tunnels and will allow the specified interior dimensioning)
When the C1-Prototype (lsquoCrsquo stands for Comeng) passed the AAR (American Association of Railroads) load test ndash
witnessed also by the World Bank ndash the drop-jawed rest-of-the-worldrsquos car-builders scrambled to brand their
own versions Yet try as they might to no avail The Comeng-Four had set the bar too high and US railroad
operators no longer settled for less So despite a large and lucrative new US market for sought-after railroad
cars none of the worldrsquos major car-builder responded to invitations to submit their design(s)
The C1rsquos adroitly counterpoised design constraints ndashpassenger safety interior space compliance with US law
material parameters and tunnel compatibility allowing just one specific genus of design ndash confounded the rest
of the worldrsquos car-builders It took fifteen years for the best of them to equal the bar set by the Comeng-Four
(independently replicated the design) but none of them has yet reset it (developed a superior design variant)
Hence all of the C1-successors now plying Northeast Corridor territory and greater Montreal are C1-replicas or
C1-close-enough-clones as none of the specific details of the C1-Prototypersquos make-or-break structural design
may be changed or substituted for ndash Any variation of any of the details of that design standard would crimp
passenger space scrape tunnels andor trip over that passenger safety lynchpin the AAR compression test In
other words not even a slight divergence from that design standard would have seen the light of day
Fully prequalified after building the ten C1-Prototypes Tokyu Car Co (TCC) had expected to build the C1 follow-
ups also And aware that Prototype and follow-up designs had to be similar TCC built a 110-car suitable
assembly line at the start for better overall profit results But with most profit exacted by Mitsui4 TCC quit
1 The profiled believed that sidewall-embedded purlins could take the AAR-load ndash a prospect doubted by many They warned of a
hermetic design envelope (design resources stretched beyond doable limits) only making the search for a window all the sterner a task ndash especially when the computers no longer coped But that crucial window or narrow lsquoportholersquo permitting just a single design variant was serendipitously located by inching forward ndash using hand-analysis ndash into never before visited realms of Ramberg-Osgood where computer programs became lsquoill-conditionedrsquo It was a daring and unprecedented engineering journey
2 Into the headwind of a sudden bombshell event involving the venal Ferrari driving board of directors of holding company ANI
(Australian National Industries) bringing the LIRR project to a virtual standstill six weeks before design completion and sharply advancing the scheduled end to Comengrsquos twelve-year death spiral 3 ldquoWell enjoy them while they last No bells No whistles Just perfection ndash The words of one train rider speaking for many (The link
httpwwwnyctransitforumscomforumsshowthreadphpt=27632 has been removed)
4 Prototype unit price progressed from $2-million for Comengrsquos to $224-million for ComengTCCrsquos to $33-million for MitsuiTCCrsquos
Page 3 of 9
LIRR had funding for 100 follow-ups but Mitsuirsquos premium and TCCrsquos opt-out almost forced a reversion to
single-deck cars and delayed proceedings by a couple of years In the end the ldquoC3srdquo were given the go-ahead
and a tender process ndash to which semi-prequalified Bombardier and KHI (Kawasaki Heavy Industries) were given
access ndash was initiated After all there had to be a non-Mitsui design variant out there somewhere and these
industry giants would know how to track it down Three years since C1-Prototype certification seemed ample
time for design development while proven lsquodoabilityrsquo provided incentive Or so it seemed Comengrsquos shoes
suddenly appeared much harder to fill when only non-conforming tender offers were received
In Nov 1994 KHI won the contract for 134 C3s beating Bombardier to the punch Did KHI win because they had
an army of PhDs swirling around a NEC supercomputer (that then was the worldrsquos most powerful) or because
they had designed and built the Boston MBTArsquos BTC-4s ndash Obviously neither counted for much or they wouldnrsquot
have needed LIRRrsquos life-line tossed them at their Kobe headquarters at contract kick-off in Dec 1994
At this meeting LIRR Chief Engineer Phil Strong formally presented KHI with a copy of Comengrsquos C1 structural
analysis5 plus blueprints it referenced together with instructions to follow these documents to the lsquoTrsquo as a
stone-faced KHI top echelon nodded grudging consent
Does that mean that after four years of running their supercomputer at prodigal speed KHIrsquos PhDs had come up
empty-handed Sure does and ditto Bombardier or they wouldnrsquot have been beaten to the punch And the
winner of the Comeng C1-design wasnrsquot decided on merit or qualification Chances are a Dutch auction decided
who would supply the greater number of cars for the price of a hundred
To enable a Dutch auction Mitsui would have had to allow a variable contract (within limits) and sure enough
Maryland MTA jumped on piggy-back with 50 C3s for MTA and 13 for VRE via later piggy-back extension taking
advantage of just such a contract for a never to be repeated price KHI then relabelled the lsquoC3srsquo to lsquoL3srsquo (with lsquoLrsquo
for Long Island) to erase all memory of Comeng
Though those 63 piggy-backs may have sweetened the pot a little KHI was looking at a loss-maker every which
way it craned its neck ndash A loss-maker that would reveal them incapable of designing their own flagship bilevels
and expose them to the ignominy of building same to an Australian lsquobackyarderrsquosrsquo design A design moreover
licensed to them just for this contract and a backyarder whose earlier JV-offer theyrsquod rejected So KHI plumped
a deal that would have made anyone squeal ndash Except Bombardier who vied for that same deal
Why ndash Both car-builders needed to know what it was that made the C1-Prototypes tick and so befuddled their
PhDs They had to know if they wanted to develop their own designs Little did they know ndash though TCCrsquos opt-
out might have alerted them ndash that the porthole on the C1rsquos design-envelope admitted no design variants
This fact dawning on KHI they felt hard done by and sought a remedy in the process aiming to shake off the
Mitsui millstone even as they tried ndash under the umbrella of the AAR test waiver applying to replicas of certified
5 The materialrsquos properties taking the computer beyond the edge of its capabilities the C1-design had to be analysed by hand (an
extinct skill ndash but ever more pertinent and indispensable) and via hand-analysis was guided to a design envelope lsquoportholersquo that
wasnrsquot yet known to exist (cf Flight Captain Sullenberger facing a situation that took his A320 flight director beyond its capabilities
flew the plane by hand and safely landed it on a lsquoportholersquo that wasnrsquot even known to exist on the planersquos manoeuvre envelope)
Page 4 of 9
designs ndash to impose their own non-viable variant Never mind if this required LIRR instruction to follow the C1-
design to be flouted and the LIRRKHI agreement securing that waiver to be breached
Thus as LIRR C3-design reviewer the profiled got enmeshed in a disquieting game of KHI one-upmanship and
had to put a brave face on his brief to dissuade KHI from morphing their C3 into something other than the
required C1-clone Only after repeated standoffs punctuated by daunting KHI augury of court action to retrieve
assembly line hold-up costs in excess of $10-million was he able to bring KHI to their senses But not until
Maryland MTA cracked under stress and asked to pay for a successful test to end the deadlock MTA never paid
and LIRRrsquos instruction was duly followed ndash KHI later asked LIRR ldquoWho are these JACH6 peoplerdquo
They are the people who ndash under threat of financial ruin ndash insisted on safety and quality to be maintained The
results speak for themselves the C3 inherited enough of the C1rsquos structural integrity in terms of car-body
strength and rigidity to lend it the requisite poise and dynamic stability for travel at 125mph (201kph) The FRA
(Federal Railroad Administration) cleared KHIrsquos Comeng-designed C3s for operation by Maryland MTA at this
speed ndash the highest legal train speed in the USA and an unheard-of speed for bilevels anywhere ndash echoing into
the future the direction in which US rail is moving In fact the nominally much greater rigidity of the bilevel car-
body makes it a serious candidate for high-speed train application (The US would in fact be a high-speed train
innovator if it decided to upgrade the existing C1-design to full high-speed performance standards)
In 2005 more than ten years after KHIrsquos access to the Comeng design world 1 car-builder Bombardier finally
reached the summit on which the Comeng flag was first planted fifteen years earlier Hence itrsquos a safe bet to say
that unless Comeng had blazed the trail to that summit the Canadian multinational wouldnrsquot have needed just
fifteen years to equal the feat but more likely a multiple of that Bombardier also benefited from ongoing
research into stainless steel structures during the fifteen years that had passed since C1-design certification
Doability matters a great deal Only after proof of it is furnished a lot of the risk of innovation is removed and
new technologies will be approached with fewer misgivings Scalability comes next But if Bombardier was able
to learn how to do it (if slowly while benefitting from new research) once Comeng pioneers had demonstrated
doability there is no guarantee other car-builders will be able to follow suit
And so with Comeng showing the way Bombardier finally built large numbers of close-enough- C1-clones with
no Mitsui millstone calling them lsquomultilevelsrsquo 508 all told for New Jersey Transit (NJT) 160 for Montrealrsquos AMT
and 54 for Maryland MTA (Bombardier though left in the dust by Comeng does however manage to compete
ndashif slowlyndash with Boeing and Airbus Whatrsquos telling here is that a bit of innovative skill and specialised knowledge
in the hands of just a couple of people can reduce an industry titan to irrelevance)
All 919 C1-successors are thus C1-clones or close-enough C1-clones All owe their existence to that fastidiously
calibrated counterpoise of massive design constraints and minimal design resources the Comeng-Four had first
achieved for the C1-Prototypes and the rest of the worldrsquos car-builders ndash including top-tier KHI and Bombardier
ndash had uniformly failed to achieve for at least the next fifteen years
Thus the Comeng-Four created ndash besides thousands of permanent American jobs ndash a North American bilevel
market conservatively estimated at $20-billion ($10-billion for new bilevels of which orders for $2-billion are
6 JACH was Mr Anthonyrsquos consulting company contracted by LIRR for C3 contract review The profiled was contracted by JACH
Page 5 of 9
filled and $10-billion to replace existing center-sill bilevels of dubious crashworthiness) Not based on the
exclusivity premium levied by Mitsui on the C1-design but on the standard average 20 design component of
contract price the Comeng-Four created $400-million of realized and $36-billion of yet to be realized wealth
Not bad for six months of work by four Australian engineers even if none of that wealth benefits Australia
Meanwhile the C1-Prototypes thrust the vanished Comeng to posthumous railroad car design supremacy and
brought ndash unnoticed in Australia ndash international acknowledgment and recognition to the long-since scuttled
standard-bearer of Australian engineering excellence Only Alan Fien senior lecturer in flight-vehicle structures
at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the profiled remain of the Comeng-Four As surviving authors of
the LIRR C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance structural configuration they are sole Australian custodians of
the secret formula that provides the keys to the kingdom so to speak And as authors and Australian custodians
of a remarkable engineering expertise no-one else in the world had been able to match in fifteen years they
continue to uphold Australian pre-eminence in an engineering discipline of consummate significance
The profiled pulled off the hat-trick with a third apprenticeship alongside Dr GHKatzenberger the main
driving force behind the development of the concrete prefabrication technology that enabled the Burj Khalifa
The most outstanding members of the Comeng-Four Comeng chief-engineer Harry Anthony and rail-vehicle
architect John Dunn are no longer with us (Though he took no part in engineering the crucial structural system
that vouchsafed the C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance under the gruelling AAR compression test that put
the very first true bilevels of aircraft-type body-shell on the North American map John first conceptualised the
design idea in 1964 and later turned it into a string of architectural masterpieces John also assisted LIRR with
laying the groundwork for the C1-Prototypes)
Due credit also goes to the C1-designrsquos implementers ndash the tiger team from the old Comeng glory days and the
greatest team in Comengrsquos history that uplifted and buoyed the Comeng-Four The latterrsquos accomplishment
hinged on this teamrsquos achievement as much as team success hinged on the Comeng-Fourrsquos
Last but not least credit must go to Comeng Granville General Manager Reg Graham who at all times provided
unstinting and unwavering support and who helped save the project from collapse when the underhanded
money-shuffling activities by the board of ANI Comengrsquos owners were discovered and impugned
Incidentally those center-sill bilevels of doubtful crashworthiness are representative of a standard ubiquitous
American design that was first revealed as unsafe in the 1972 Chicago accident that took 45 lives and was most
recently revealed unsafe at the cost of twenty-five lives in the 2008 Los Angeles accident See ruptured centre-
sill [p7]
Wolf R Adermann (Principal) PS The above account is just the tip of the iceberg Much more will be added to this story in a weekly or bi-weekly blog And there will be continuous coverage of much new information on stainless steel and stainless steel structures PPS One consulting company iComengcom (registered domain) is a leader in high-performance stainless steel structures design worldwide It offers authoritative design solutions to satisfy customers needs and aims to exceed customers expectations in the marine automotive aircraft and railroad car manufacturing industries A sister consulting company ADtrainzcom (registered domain) provides hawkeyed oversight of stainless steel rail equipment procurement worldwide It will guarantee the customer savings in time and money while most importantly also guaranteeing peace
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 2 of 9
So would he rejoin the old choir for its swan song ndash And for a last Hurrah ndash Except that the more likely result
would be going to hell in a handbasket ndash Safer to give LIRR a miss and just fade away ndash But no way to go for a
company that had redefined an industry And to succeed would be going huge It would surpass anything
Comeng had done before So he told Mr Anthony ldquoLetrsquos go to hell fighting in our bootsrdquo It struck him only later
that this wasnrsquot a moon-shot as the moon was known to be there ndash This was a shot in the dark
Six months ndash not on the brink nor on the ragged edge but on a pencil-tip1 ndash later he delivered the goods2 and
became one of the lsquoComeng-Fourrsquo the by now legendary Australian designer quartet that created the future of
US rail with its C1-Prototypes [p6] ndash Those game-changing bilevels of simple and elegant design that charmed
American train riders3 with new standards of comfort and safety and delighted American railroad operators
with unmatched levels of quality efficiency and reliability in addition to the extra capacity (The ldquoboxy shaperdquo is
the only functional shape that will fit into existing tunnels and will allow the specified interior dimensioning)
When the C1-Prototype (lsquoCrsquo stands for Comeng) passed the AAR (American Association of Railroads) load test ndash
witnessed also by the World Bank ndash the drop-jawed rest-of-the-worldrsquos car-builders scrambled to brand their
own versions Yet try as they might to no avail The Comeng-Four had set the bar too high and US railroad
operators no longer settled for less So despite a large and lucrative new US market for sought-after railroad
cars none of the worldrsquos major car-builder responded to invitations to submit their design(s)
The C1rsquos adroitly counterpoised design constraints ndashpassenger safety interior space compliance with US law
material parameters and tunnel compatibility allowing just one specific genus of design ndash confounded the rest
of the worldrsquos car-builders It took fifteen years for the best of them to equal the bar set by the Comeng-Four
(independently replicated the design) but none of them has yet reset it (developed a superior design variant)
Hence all of the C1-successors now plying Northeast Corridor territory and greater Montreal are C1-replicas or
C1-close-enough-clones as none of the specific details of the C1-Prototypersquos make-or-break structural design
may be changed or substituted for ndash Any variation of any of the details of that design standard would crimp
passenger space scrape tunnels andor trip over that passenger safety lynchpin the AAR compression test In
other words not even a slight divergence from that design standard would have seen the light of day
Fully prequalified after building the ten C1-Prototypes Tokyu Car Co (TCC) had expected to build the C1 follow-
ups also And aware that Prototype and follow-up designs had to be similar TCC built a 110-car suitable
assembly line at the start for better overall profit results But with most profit exacted by Mitsui4 TCC quit
1 The profiled believed that sidewall-embedded purlins could take the AAR-load ndash a prospect doubted by many They warned of a
hermetic design envelope (design resources stretched beyond doable limits) only making the search for a window all the sterner a task ndash especially when the computers no longer coped But that crucial window or narrow lsquoportholersquo permitting just a single design variant was serendipitously located by inching forward ndash using hand-analysis ndash into never before visited realms of Ramberg-Osgood where computer programs became lsquoill-conditionedrsquo It was a daring and unprecedented engineering journey
2 Into the headwind of a sudden bombshell event involving the venal Ferrari driving board of directors of holding company ANI
(Australian National Industries) bringing the LIRR project to a virtual standstill six weeks before design completion and sharply advancing the scheduled end to Comengrsquos twelve-year death spiral 3 ldquoWell enjoy them while they last No bells No whistles Just perfection ndash The words of one train rider speaking for many (The link
httpwwwnyctransitforumscomforumsshowthreadphpt=27632 has been removed)
4 Prototype unit price progressed from $2-million for Comengrsquos to $224-million for ComengTCCrsquos to $33-million for MitsuiTCCrsquos
Page 3 of 9
LIRR had funding for 100 follow-ups but Mitsuirsquos premium and TCCrsquos opt-out almost forced a reversion to
single-deck cars and delayed proceedings by a couple of years In the end the ldquoC3srdquo were given the go-ahead
and a tender process ndash to which semi-prequalified Bombardier and KHI (Kawasaki Heavy Industries) were given
access ndash was initiated After all there had to be a non-Mitsui design variant out there somewhere and these
industry giants would know how to track it down Three years since C1-Prototype certification seemed ample
time for design development while proven lsquodoabilityrsquo provided incentive Or so it seemed Comengrsquos shoes
suddenly appeared much harder to fill when only non-conforming tender offers were received
In Nov 1994 KHI won the contract for 134 C3s beating Bombardier to the punch Did KHI win because they had
an army of PhDs swirling around a NEC supercomputer (that then was the worldrsquos most powerful) or because
they had designed and built the Boston MBTArsquos BTC-4s ndash Obviously neither counted for much or they wouldnrsquot
have needed LIRRrsquos life-line tossed them at their Kobe headquarters at contract kick-off in Dec 1994
At this meeting LIRR Chief Engineer Phil Strong formally presented KHI with a copy of Comengrsquos C1 structural
analysis5 plus blueprints it referenced together with instructions to follow these documents to the lsquoTrsquo as a
stone-faced KHI top echelon nodded grudging consent
Does that mean that after four years of running their supercomputer at prodigal speed KHIrsquos PhDs had come up
empty-handed Sure does and ditto Bombardier or they wouldnrsquot have been beaten to the punch And the
winner of the Comeng C1-design wasnrsquot decided on merit or qualification Chances are a Dutch auction decided
who would supply the greater number of cars for the price of a hundred
To enable a Dutch auction Mitsui would have had to allow a variable contract (within limits) and sure enough
Maryland MTA jumped on piggy-back with 50 C3s for MTA and 13 for VRE via later piggy-back extension taking
advantage of just such a contract for a never to be repeated price KHI then relabelled the lsquoC3srsquo to lsquoL3srsquo (with lsquoLrsquo
for Long Island) to erase all memory of Comeng
Though those 63 piggy-backs may have sweetened the pot a little KHI was looking at a loss-maker every which
way it craned its neck ndash A loss-maker that would reveal them incapable of designing their own flagship bilevels
and expose them to the ignominy of building same to an Australian lsquobackyarderrsquosrsquo design A design moreover
licensed to them just for this contract and a backyarder whose earlier JV-offer theyrsquod rejected So KHI plumped
a deal that would have made anyone squeal ndash Except Bombardier who vied for that same deal
Why ndash Both car-builders needed to know what it was that made the C1-Prototypes tick and so befuddled their
PhDs They had to know if they wanted to develop their own designs Little did they know ndash though TCCrsquos opt-
out might have alerted them ndash that the porthole on the C1rsquos design-envelope admitted no design variants
This fact dawning on KHI they felt hard done by and sought a remedy in the process aiming to shake off the
Mitsui millstone even as they tried ndash under the umbrella of the AAR test waiver applying to replicas of certified
5 The materialrsquos properties taking the computer beyond the edge of its capabilities the C1-design had to be analysed by hand (an
extinct skill ndash but ever more pertinent and indispensable) and via hand-analysis was guided to a design envelope lsquoportholersquo that
wasnrsquot yet known to exist (cf Flight Captain Sullenberger facing a situation that took his A320 flight director beyond its capabilities
flew the plane by hand and safely landed it on a lsquoportholersquo that wasnrsquot even known to exist on the planersquos manoeuvre envelope)
Page 4 of 9
designs ndash to impose their own non-viable variant Never mind if this required LIRR instruction to follow the C1-
design to be flouted and the LIRRKHI agreement securing that waiver to be breached
Thus as LIRR C3-design reviewer the profiled got enmeshed in a disquieting game of KHI one-upmanship and
had to put a brave face on his brief to dissuade KHI from morphing their C3 into something other than the
required C1-clone Only after repeated standoffs punctuated by daunting KHI augury of court action to retrieve
assembly line hold-up costs in excess of $10-million was he able to bring KHI to their senses But not until
Maryland MTA cracked under stress and asked to pay for a successful test to end the deadlock MTA never paid
and LIRRrsquos instruction was duly followed ndash KHI later asked LIRR ldquoWho are these JACH6 peoplerdquo
They are the people who ndash under threat of financial ruin ndash insisted on safety and quality to be maintained The
results speak for themselves the C3 inherited enough of the C1rsquos structural integrity in terms of car-body
strength and rigidity to lend it the requisite poise and dynamic stability for travel at 125mph (201kph) The FRA
(Federal Railroad Administration) cleared KHIrsquos Comeng-designed C3s for operation by Maryland MTA at this
speed ndash the highest legal train speed in the USA and an unheard-of speed for bilevels anywhere ndash echoing into
the future the direction in which US rail is moving In fact the nominally much greater rigidity of the bilevel car-
body makes it a serious candidate for high-speed train application (The US would in fact be a high-speed train
innovator if it decided to upgrade the existing C1-design to full high-speed performance standards)
In 2005 more than ten years after KHIrsquos access to the Comeng design world 1 car-builder Bombardier finally
reached the summit on which the Comeng flag was first planted fifteen years earlier Hence itrsquos a safe bet to say
that unless Comeng had blazed the trail to that summit the Canadian multinational wouldnrsquot have needed just
fifteen years to equal the feat but more likely a multiple of that Bombardier also benefited from ongoing
research into stainless steel structures during the fifteen years that had passed since C1-design certification
Doability matters a great deal Only after proof of it is furnished a lot of the risk of innovation is removed and
new technologies will be approached with fewer misgivings Scalability comes next But if Bombardier was able
to learn how to do it (if slowly while benefitting from new research) once Comeng pioneers had demonstrated
doability there is no guarantee other car-builders will be able to follow suit
And so with Comeng showing the way Bombardier finally built large numbers of close-enough- C1-clones with
no Mitsui millstone calling them lsquomultilevelsrsquo 508 all told for New Jersey Transit (NJT) 160 for Montrealrsquos AMT
and 54 for Maryland MTA (Bombardier though left in the dust by Comeng does however manage to compete
ndashif slowlyndash with Boeing and Airbus Whatrsquos telling here is that a bit of innovative skill and specialised knowledge
in the hands of just a couple of people can reduce an industry titan to irrelevance)
All 919 C1-successors are thus C1-clones or close-enough C1-clones All owe their existence to that fastidiously
calibrated counterpoise of massive design constraints and minimal design resources the Comeng-Four had first
achieved for the C1-Prototypes and the rest of the worldrsquos car-builders ndash including top-tier KHI and Bombardier
ndash had uniformly failed to achieve for at least the next fifteen years
Thus the Comeng-Four created ndash besides thousands of permanent American jobs ndash a North American bilevel
market conservatively estimated at $20-billion ($10-billion for new bilevels of which orders for $2-billion are
6 JACH was Mr Anthonyrsquos consulting company contracted by LIRR for C3 contract review The profiled was contracted by JACH
Page 5 of 9
filled and $10-billion to replace existing center-sill bilevels of dubious crashworthiness) Not based on the
exclusivity premium levied by Mitsui on the C1-design but on the standard average 20 design component of
contract price the Comeng-Four created $400-million of realized and $36-billion of yet to be realized wealth
Not bad for six months of work by four Australian engineers even if none of that wealth benefits Australia
Meanwhile the C1-Prototypes thrust the vanished Comeng to posthumous railroad car design supremacy and
brought ndash unnoticed in Australia ndash international acknowledgment and recognition to the long-since scuttled
standard-bearer of Australian engineering excellence Only Alan Fien senior lecturer in flight-vehicle structures
at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the profiled remain of the Comeng-Four As surviving authors of
the LIRR C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance structural configuration they are sole Australian custodians of
the secret formula that provides the keys to the kingdom so to speak And as authors and Australian custodians
of a remarkable engineering expertise no-one else in the world had been able to match in fifteen years they
continue to uphold Australian pre-eminence in an engineering discipline of consummate significance
The profiled pulled off the hat-trick with a third apprenticeship alongside Dr GHKatzenberger the main
driving force behind the development of the concrete prefabrication technology that enabled the Burj Khalifa
The most outstanding members of the Comeng-Four Comeng chief-engineer Harry Anthony and rail-vehicle
architect John Dunn are no longer with us (Though he took no part in engineering the crucial structural system
that vouchsafed the C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance under the gruelling AAR compression test that put
the very first true bilevels of aircraft-type body-shell on the North American map John first conceptualised the
design idea in 1964 and later turned it into a string of architectural masterpieces John also assisted LIRR with
laying the groundwork for the C1-Prototypes)
Due credit also goes to the C1-designrsquos implementers ndash the tiger team from the old Comeng glory days and the
greatest team in Comengrsquos history that uplifted and buoyed the Comeng-Four The latterrsquos accomplishment
hinged on this teamrsquos achievement as much as team success hinged on the Comeng-Fourrsquos
Last but not least credit must go to Comeng Granville General Manager Reg Graham who at all times provided
unstinting and unwavering support and who helped save the project from collapse when the underhanded
money-shuffling activities by the board of ANI Comengrsquos owners were discovered and impugned
Incidentally those center-sill bilevels of doubtful crashworthiness are representative of a standard ubiquitous
American design that was first revealed as unsafe in the 1972 Chicago accident that took 45 lives and was most
recently revealed unsafe at the cost of twenty-five lives in the 2008 Los Angeles accident See ruptured centre-
sill [p7]
Wolf R Adermann (Principal) PS The above account is just the tip of the iceberg Much more will be added to this story in a weekly or bi-weekly blog And there will be continuous coverage of much new information on stainless steel and stainless steel structures PPS One consulting company iComengcom (registered domain) is a leader in high-performance stainless steel structures design worldwide It offers authoritative design solutions to satisfy customers needs and aims to exceed customers expectations in the marine automotive aircraft and railroad car manufacturing industries A sister consulting company ADtrainzcom (registered domain) provides hawkeyed oversight of stainless steel rail equipment procurement worldwide It will guarantee the customer savings in time and money while most importantly also guaranteeing peace
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 3 of 9
LIRR had funding for 100 follow-ups but Mitsuirsquos premium and TCCrsquos opt-out almost forced a reversion to
single-deck cars and delayed proceedings by a couple of years In the end the ldquoC3srdquo were given the go-ahead
and a tender process ndash to which semi-prequalified Bombardier and KHI (Kawasaki Heavy Industries) were given
access ndash was initiated After all there had to be a non-Mitsui design variant out there somewhere and these
industry giants would know how to track it down Three years since C1-Prototype certification seemed ample
time for design development while proven lsquodoabilityrsquo provided incentive Or so it seemed Comengrsquos shoes
suddenly appeared much harder to fill when only non-conforming tender offers were received
In Nov 1994 KHI won the contract for 134 C3s beating Bombardier to the punch Did KHI win because they had
an army of PhDs swirling around a NEC supercomputer (that then was the worldrsquos most powerful) or because
they had designed and built the Boston MBTArsquos BTC-4s ndash Obviously neither counted for much or they wouldnrsquot
have needed LIRRrsquos life-line tossed them at their Kobe headquarters at contract kick-off in Dec 1994
At this meeting LIRR Chief Engineer Phil Strong formally presented KHI with a copy of Comengrsquos C1 structural
analysis5 plus blueprints it referenced together with instructions to follow these documents to the lsquoTrsquo as a
stone-faced KHI top echelon nodded grudging consent
Does that mean that after four years of running their supercomputer at prodigal speed KHIrsquos PhDs had come up
empty-handed Sure does and ditto Bombardier or they wouldnrsquot have been beaten to the punch And the
winner of the Comeng C1-design wasnrsquot decided on merit or qualification Chances are a Dutch auction decided
who would supply the greater number of cars for the price of a hundred
To enable a Dutch auction Mitsui would have had to allow a variable contract (within limits) and sure enough
Maryland MTA jumped on piggy-back with 50 C3s for MTA and 13 for VRE via later piggy-back extension taking
advantage of just such a contract for a never to be repeated price KHI then relabelled the lsquoC3srsquo to lsquoL3srsquo (with lsquoLrsquo
for Long Island) to erase all memory of Comeng
Though those 63 piggy-backs may have sweetened the pot a little KHI was looking at a loss-maker every which
way it craned its neck ndash A loss-maker that would reveal them incapable of designing their own flagship bilevels
and expose them to the ignominy of building same to an Australian lsquobackyarderrsquosrsquo design A design moreover
licensed to them just for this contract and a backyarder whose earlier JV-offer theyrsquod rejected So KHI plumped
a deal that would have made anyone squeal ndash Except Bombardier who vied for that same deal
Why ndash Both car-builders needed to know what it was that made the C1-Prototypes tick and so befuddled their
PhDs They had to know if they wanted to develop their own designs Little did they know ndash though TCCrsquos opt-
out might have alerted them ndash that the porthole on the C1rsquos design-envelope admitted no design variants
This fact dawning on KHI they felt hard done by and sought a remedy in the process aiming to shake off the
Mitsui millstone even as they tried ndash under the umbrella of the AAR test waiver applying to replicas of certified
5 The materialrsquos properties taking the computer beyond the edge of its capabilities the C1-design had to be analysed by hand (an
extinct skill ndash but ever more pertinent and indispensable) and via hand-analysis was guided to a design envelope lsquoportholersquo that
wasnrsquot yet known to exist (cf Flight Captain Sullenberger facing a situation that took his A320 flight director beyond its capabilities
flew the plane by hand and safely landed it on a lsquoportholersquo that wasnrsquot even known to exist on the planersquos manoeuvre envelope)
Page 4 of 9
designs ndash to impose their own non-viable variant Never mind if this required LIRR instruction to follow the C1-
design to be flouted and the LIRRKHI agreement securing that waiver to be breached
Thus as LIRR C3-design reviewer the profiled got enmeshed in a disquieting game of KHI one-upmanship and
had to put a brave face on his brief to dissuade KHI from morphing their C3 into something other than the
required C1-clone Only after repeated standoffs punctuated by daunting KHI augury of court action to retrieve
assembly line hold-up costs in excess of $10-million was he able to bring KHI to their senses But not until
Maryland MTA cracked under stress and asked to pay for a successful test to end the deadlock MTA never paid
and LIRRrsquos instruction was duly followed ndash KHI later asked LIRR ldquoWho are these JACH6 peoplerdquo
They are the people who ndash under threat of financial ruin ndash insisted on safety and quality to be maintained The
results speak for themselves the C3 inherited enough of the C1rsquos structural integrity in terms of car-body
strength and rigidity to lend it the requisite poise and dynamic stability for travel at 125mph (201kph) The FRA
(Federal Railroad Administration) cleared KHIrsquos Comeng-designed C3s for operation by Maryland MTA at this
speed ndash the highest legal train speed in the USA and an unheard-of speed for bilevels anywhere ndash echoing into
the future the direction in which US rail is moving In fact the nominally much greater rigidity of the bilevel car-
body makes it a serious candidate for high-speed train application (The US would in fact be a high-speed train
innovator if it decided to upgrade the existing C1-design to full high-speed performance standards)
In 2005 more than ten years after KHIrsquos access to the Comeng design world 1 car-builder Bombardier finally
reached the summit on which the Comeng flag was first planted fifteen years earlier Hence itrsquos a safe bet to say
that unless Comeng had blazed the trail to that summit the Canadian multinational wouldnrsquot have needed just
fifteen years to equal the feat but more likely a multiple of that Bombardier also benefited from ongoing
research into stainless steel structures during the fifteen years that had passed since C1-design certification
Doability matters a great deal Only after proof of it is furnished a lot of the risk of innovation is removed and
new technologies will be approached with fewer misgivings Scalability comes next But if Bombardier was able
to learn how to do it (if slowly while benefitting from new research) once Comeng pioneers had demonstrated
doability there is no guarantee other car-builders will be able to follow suit
And so with Comeng showing the way Bombardier finally built large numbers of close-enough- C1-clones with
no Mitsui millstone calling them lsquomultilevelsrsquo 508 all told for New Jersey Transit (NJT) 160 for Montrealrsquos AMT
and 54 for Maryland MTA (Bombardier though left in the dust by Comeng does however manage to compete
ndashif slowlyndash with Boeing and Airbus Whatrsquos telling here is that a bit of innovative skill and specialised knowledge
in the hands of just a couple of people can reduce an industry titan to irrelevance)
All 919 C1-successors are thus C1-clones or close-enough C1-clones All owe their existence to that fastidiously
calibrated counterpoise of massive design constraints and minimal design resources the Comeng-Four had first
achieved for the C1-Prototypes and the rest of the worldrsquos car-builders ndash including top-tier KHI and Bombardier
ndash had uniformly failed to achieve for at least the next fifteen years
Thus the Comeng-Four created ndash besides thousands of permanent American jobs ndash a North American bilevel
market conservatively estimated at $20-billion ($10-billion for new bilevels of which orders for $2-billion are
6 JACH was Mr Anthonyrsquos consulting company contracted by LIRR for C3 contract review The profiled was contracted by JACH
Page 5 of 9
filled and $10-billion to replace existing center-sill bilevels of dubious crashworthiness) Not based on the
exclusivity premium levied by Mitsui on the C1-design but on the standard average 20 design component of
contract price the Comeng-Four created $400-million of realized and $36-billion of yet to be realized wealth
Not bad for six months of work by four Australian engineers even if none of that wealth benefits Australia
Meanwhile the C1-Prototypes thrust the vanished Comeng to posthumous railroad car design supremacy and
brought ndash unnoticed in Australia ndash international acknowledgment and recognition to the long-since scuttled
standard-bearer of Australian engineering excellence Only Alan Fien senior lecturer in flight-vehicle structures
at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the profiled remain of the Comeng-Four As surviving authors of
the LIRR C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance structural configuration they are sole Australian custodians of
the secret formula that provides the keys to the kingdom so to speak And as authors and Australian custodians
of a remarkable engineering expertise no-one else in the world had been able to match in fifteen years they
continue to uphold Australian pre-eminence in an engineering discipline of consummate significance
The profiled pulled off the hat-trick with a third apprenticeship alongside Dr GHKatzenberger the main
driving force behind the development of the concrete prefabrication technology that enabled the Burj Khalifa
The most outstanding members of the Comeng-Four Comeng chief-engineer Harry Anthony and rail-vehicle
architect John Dunn are no longer with us (Though he took no part in engineering the crucial structural system
that vouchsafed the C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance under the gruelling AAR compression test that put
the very first true bilevels of aircraft-type body-shell on the North American map John first conceptualised the
design idea in 1964 and later turned it into a string of architectural masterpieces John also assisted LIRR with
laying the groundwork for the C1-Prototypes)
Due credit also goes to the C1-designrsquos implementers ndash the tiger team from the old Comeng glory days and the
greatest team in Comengrsquos history that uplifted and buoyed the Comeng-Four The latterrsquos accomplishment
hinged on this teamrsquos achievement as much as team success hinged on the Comeng-Fourrsquos
Last but not least credit must go to Comeng Granville General Manager Reg Graham who at all times provided
unstinting and unwavering support and who helped save the project from collapse when the underhanded
money-shuffling activities by the board of ANI Comengrsquos owners were discovered and impugned
Incidentally those center-sill bilevels of doubtful crashworthiness are representative of a standard ubiquitous
American design that was first revealed as unsafe in the 1972 Chicago accident that took 45 lives and was most
recently revealed unsafe at the cost of twenty-five lives in the 2008 Los Angeles accident See ruptured centre-
sill [p7]
Wolf R Adermann (Principal) PS The above account is just the tip of the iceberg Much more will be added to this story in a weekly or bi-weekly blog And there will be continuous coverage of much new information on stainless steel and stainless steel structures PPS One consulting company iComengcom (registered domain) is a leader in high-performance stainless steel structures design worldwide It offers authoritative design solutions to satisfy customers needs and aims to exceed customers expectations in the marine automotive aircraft and railroad car manufacturing industries A sister consulting company ADtrainzcom (registered domain) provides hawkeyed oversight of stainless steel rail equipment procurement worldwide It will guarantee the customer savings in time and money while most importantly also guaranteeing peace
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 4 of 9
designs ndash to impose their own non-viable variant Never mind if this required LIRR instruction to follow the C1-
design to be flouted and the LIRRKHI agreement securing that waiver to be breached
Thus as LIRR C3-design reviewer the profiled got enmeshed in a disquieting game of KHI one-upmanship and
had to put a brave face on his brief to dissuade KHI from morphing their C3 into something other than the
required C1-clone Only after repeated standoffs punctuated by daunting KHI augury of court action to retrieve
assembly line hold-up costs in excess of $10-million was he able to bring KHI to their senses But not until
Maryland MTA cracked under stress and asked to pay for a successful test to end the deadlock MTA never paid
and LIRRrsquos instruction was duly followed ndash KHI later asked LIRR ldquoWho are these JACH6 peoplerdquo
They are the people who ndash under threat of financial ruin ndash insisted on safety and quality to be maintained The
results speak for themselves the C3 inherited enough of the C1rsquos structural integrity in terms of car-body
strength and rigidity to lend it the requisite poise and dynamic stability for travel at 125mph (201kph) The FRA
(Federal Railroad Administration) cleared KHIrsquos Comeng-designed C3s for operation by Maryland MTA at this
speed ndash the highest legal train speed in the USA and an unheard-of speed for bilevels anywhere ndash echoing into
the future the direction in which US rail is moving In fact the nominally much greater rigidity of the bilevel car-
body makes it a serious candidate for high-speed train application (The US would in fact be a high-speed train
innovator if it decided to upgrade the existing C1-design to full high-speed performance standards)
In 2005 more than ten years after KHIrsquos access to the Comeng design world 1 car-builder Bombardier finally
reached the summit on which the Comeng flag was first planted fifteen years earlier Hence itrsquos a safe bet to say
that unless Comeng had blazed the trail to that summit the Canadian multinational wouldnrsquot have needed just
fifteen years to equal the feat but more likely a multiple of that Bombardier also benefited from ongoing
research into stainless steel structures during the fifteen years that had passed since C1-design certification
Doability matters a great deal Only after proof of it is furnished a lot of the risk of innovation is removed and
new technologies will be approached with fewer misgivings Scalability comes next But if Bombardier was able
to learn how to do it (if slowly while benefitting from new research) once Comeng pioneers had demonstrated
doability there is no guarantee other car-builders will be able to follow suit
And so with Comeng showing the way Bombardier finally built large numbers of close-enough- C1-clones with
no Mitsui millstone calling them lsquomultilevelsrsquo 508 all told for New Jersey Transit (NJT) 160 for Montrealrsquos AMT
and 54 for Maryland MTA (Bombardier though left in the dust by Comeng does however manage to compete
ndashif slowlyndash with Boeing and Airbus Whatrsquos telling here is that a bit of innovative skill and specialised knowledge
in the hands of just a couple of people can reduce an industry titan to irrelevance)
All 919 C1-successors are thus C1-clones or close-enough C1-clones All owe their existence to that fastidiously
calibrated counterpoise of massive design constraints and minimal design resources the Comeng-Four had first
achieved for the C1-Prototypes and the rest of the worldrsquos car-builders ndash including top-tier KHI and Bombardier
ndash had uniformly failed to achieve for at least the next fifteen years
Thus the Comeng-Four created ndash besides thousands of permanent American jobs ndash a North American bilevel
market conservatively estimated at $20-billion ($10-billion for new bilevels of which orders for $2-billion are
6 JACH was Mr Anthonyrsquos consulting company contracted by LIRR for C3 contract review The profiled was contracted by JACH
Page 5 of 9
filled and $10-billion to replace existing center-sill bilevels of dubious crashworthiness) Not based on the
exclusivity premium levied by Mitsui on the C1-design but on the standard average 20 design component of
contract price the Comeng-Four created $400-million of realized and $36-billion of yet to be realized wealth
Not bad for six months of work by four Australian engineers even if none of that wealth benefits Australia
Meanwhile the C1-Prototypes thrust the vanished Comeng to posthumous railroad car design supremacy and
brought ndash unnoticed in Australia ndash international acknowledgment and recognition to the long-since scuttled
standard-bearer of Australian engineering excellence Only Alan Fien senior lecturer in flight-vehicle structures
at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the profiled remain of the Comeng-Four As surviving authors of
the LIRR C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance structural configuration they are sole Australian custodians of
the secret formula that provides the keys to the kingdom so to speak And as authors and Australian custodians
of a remarkable engineering expertise no-one else in the world had been able to match in fifteen years they
continue to uphold Australian pre-eminence in an engineering discipline of consummate significance
The profiled pulled off the hat-trick with a third apprenticeship alongside Dr GHKatzenberger the main
driving force behind the development of the concrete prefabrication technology that enabled the Burj Khalifa
The most outstanding members of the Comeng-Four Comeng chief-engineer Harry Anthony and rail-vehicle
architect John Dunn are no longer with us (Though he took no part in engineering the crucial structural system
that vouchsafed the C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance under the gruelling AAR compression test that put
the very first true bilevels of aircraft-type body-shell on the North American map John first conceptualised the
design idea in 1964 and later turned it into a string of architectural masterpieces John also assisted LIRR with
laying the groundwork for the C1-Prototypes)
Due credit also goes to the C1-designrsquos implementers ndash the tiger team from the old Comeng glory days and the
greatest team in Comengrsquos history that uplifted and buoyed the Comeng-Four The latterrsquos accomplishment
hinged on this teamrsquos achievement as much as team success hinged on the Comeng-Fourrsquos
Last but not least credit must go to Comeng Granville General Manager Reg Graham who at all times provided
unstinting and unwavering support and who helped save the project from collapse when the underhanded
money-shuffling activities by the board of ANI Comengrsquos owners were discovered and impugned
Incidentally those center-sill bilevels of doubtful crashworthiness are representative of a standard ubiquitous
American design that was first revealed as unsafe in the 1972 Chicago accident that took 45 lives and was most
recently revealed unsafe at the cost of twenty-five lives in the 2008 Los Angeles accident See ruptured centre-
sill [p7]
Wolf R Adermann (Principal) PS The above account is just the tip of the iceberg Much more will be added to this story in a weekly or bi-weekly blog And there will be continuous coverage of much new information on stainless steel and stainless steel structures PPS One consulting company iComengcom (registered domain) is a leader in high-performance stainless steel structures design worldwide It offers authoritative design solutions to satisfy customers needs and aims to exceed customers expectations in the marine automotive aircraft and railroad car manufacturing industries A sister consulting company ADtrainzcom (registered domain) provides hawkeyed oversight of stainless steel rail equipment procurement worldwide It will guarantee the customer savings in time and money while most importantly also guaranteeing peace
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 5 of 9
filled and $10-billion to replace existing center-sill bilevels of dubious crashworthiness) Not based on the
exclusivity premium levied by Mitsui on the C1-design but on the standard average 20 design component of
contract price the Comeng-Four created $400-million of realized and $36-billion of yet to be realized wealth
Not bad for six months of work by four Australian engineers even if none of that wealth benefits Australia
Meanwhile the C1-Prototypes thrust the vanished Comeng to posthumous railroad car design supremacy and
brought ndash unnoticed in Australia ndash international acknowledgment and recognition to the long-since scuttled
standard-bearer of Australian engineering excellence Only Alan Fien senior lecturer in flight-vehicle structures
at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the profiled remain of the Comeng-Four As surviving authors of
the LIRR C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance structural configuration they are sole Australian custodians of
the secret formula that provides the keys to the kingdom so to speak And as authors and Australian custodians
of a remarkable engineering expertise no-one else in the world had been able to match in fifteen years they
continue to uphold Australian pre-eminence in an engineering discipline of consummate significance
The profiled pulled off the hat-trick with a third apprenticeship alongside Dr GHKatzenberger the main
driving force behind the development of the concrete prefabrication technology that enabled the Burj Khalifa
The most outstanding members of the Comeng-Four Comeng chief-engineer Harry Anthony and rail-vehicle
architect John Dunn are no longer with us (Though he took no part in engineering the crucial structural system
that vouchsafed the C1-Prototypersquos extreme performance under the gruelling AAR compression test that put
the very first true bilevels of aircraft-type body-shell on the North American map John first conceptualised the
design idea in 1964 and later turned it into a string of architectural masterpieces John also assisted LIRR with
laying the groundwork for the C1-Prototypes)
Due credit also goes to the C1-designrsquos implementers ndash the tiger team from the old Comeng glory days and the
greatest team in Comengrsquos history that uplifted and buoyed the Comeng-Four The latterrsquos accomplishment
hinged on this teamrsquos achievement as much as team success hinged on the Comeng-Fourrsquos
Last but not least credit must go to Comeng Granville General Manager Reg Graham who at all times provided
unstinting and unwavering support and who helped save the project from collapse when the underhanded
money-shuffling activities by the board of ANI Comengrsquos owners were discovered and impugned
Incidentally those center-sill bilevels of doubtful crashworthiness are representative of a standard ubiquitous
American design that was first revealed as unsafe in the 1972 Chicago accident that took 45 lives and was most
recently revealed unsafe at the cost of twenty-five lives in the 2008 Los Angeles accident See ruptured centre-
sill [p7]
Wolf R Adermann (Principal) PS The above account is just the tip of the iceberg Much more will be added to this story in a weekly or bi-weekly blog And there will be continuous coverage of much new information on stainless steel and stainless steel structures PPS One consulting company iComengcom (registered domain) is a leader in high-performance stainless steel structures design worldwide It offers authoritative design solutions to satisfy customers needs and aims to exceed customers expectations in the marine automotive aircraft and railroad car manufacturing industries A sister consulting company ADtrainzcom (registered domain) provides hawkeyed oversight of stainless steel rail equipment procurement worldwide It will guarantee the customer savings in time and money while most importantly also guaranteeing peace
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 6 of 9
of mind ADtrainzcom also does train crash damage and repairability assessment as well as other rail industry forensic and investigative work
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 7 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Page 9 of 9
Page 9 of 9