NJT Locomotives damaged by Sandy

[mmm1000]

How many Locomotives did NJT loose to Sandy, and do we know if any arn't coming back??

[henry6]

We know 65 were under water....where, to what degree, how high, salt or fresh water, etc., we do not know. Ten locomotives...including at least 2 duals, and 2 or 3 MNRR units were taken from somewhere to M&E shops at Morristown.  Do know there were several stored up on the Port Jervis line in places like Otisville and Campbell Hall on the controlled sidings; how many or if touched we don't know.  There are 4 trains from Port Jervis and 3 trains from Suffern, three trains from Hackettstown and one from Mt Olive and about a handful from Spring Valley operating and returning daily at this time. Which ones and on what lines we haven't heard.  And those are just diesels.   I would assume between 6 and 10 electric units are out of Dover and maybe 3 out of Montclair.  Don't know about the Corridor, they could be all MU's or they might be a mix out of Morrisville Yard.  NJT's communications have been coming out of Trenton and have been directed at the service not the hardware (as it should be).  There is so much not being said or explained.  The day will come,  Soon.  

[aegrotatio]

This is really serious and this Reuters piece treats it harshly. Was it a simple mistake based on incompetence, negligence, or something else? Major damage to one-third of its locomotives and a quarter of its passenger cars. The article states that nine dual-powered locomotive engines (at least $1M apiece) and 84 multi-level rail cars purchased over the past six years at a cost of about $385 million are severely damaged.

What in the world is going on, and why?! Port Jervis isn't so far off. Anywhere on the Bergen, Main, or the further north Port Jervis line would have been a good place to store these hugely expensive assets to wait out Hurricane Sandy!! Maybe I'm just being silly with common sense, but why risk these assets when 48 hours were available to move them to safety?

Exclusive: New Jersey railway put trains in Sandy flood zone despite warnings:http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-jersey-railway-put-trains-sandy-flood-zone-020644706.html

PS... This new forum editor really stinks!!

[henry6]

aegotatio: there is already a continuing discussion including this material under "commuter rail preps for Sandy" in this forum.   And maybe Reuters didn't treat this as harshly as it could have but it does overlook the fact that NJT does not own or dispatch the Corridor from NYP to Trenton, Amtrak owns and operates it and has been forthcoming with their story all along.   I have repeatedly stated that there are a lot of places the equipment could have been moved to including any yard west of Newark to Port Morris including the main line tracks since they weren't running trains.  MNRR or someone on the MNRR division west of Suffern or east of Port Jervis did park trains on sidings in Otisville and Campbell Hall.  

[Firelock76]

Concerning the Hoboken flooding and the subsequent damage to NJ Transits locomotives and rolling stock, there was an article on www.northjersey.com  yesterday about the same.  In a nutshell, there has NEVER been flooding to that extent in the Hoboken yard even during the worst of storms, "Sandy" was an anomaly.  Overconfidence?  Maybe, but I'm sure the next time there's a storm a-brewin' NJ Transit will move the equipment to the North Pole if they have to.

[erikem]

Sandy definitely was an anomaly with the very high storm surge. I had been checking the NWS webpage on storm surge projections before Sandy hit, the highest surge forecasts  were for parts of the NJ coast nearest NYC, so the abnormally high surge was predicted.

Mike Smith's weather blog also mentioned the hazard of the high storm surge and specifically mentioned that a surge of 13 feet at lower Manhattan would result in flooding of the subway tunnels. He pointed out that while Sandy's wind speed was barely hurricane force, the more important fact was that the low pressure in the eye was unusually low.

- Erik

[beaulieu]

I wonder what will happen if NJT's Insurance company says that NJT failed to take Due Diligence and refuses to pay for the damaged locomotives and cars. BTW The Dual-power locomotives cost $7m each.

[henry6]

NJT, like many railroads, are probably self insured...