well heres the trip robby has been dieing to see, lol
start out Saturday
Jordan & I get ready to go out while we wait for the SB to get its authority the switch job is bringing cars back from the west side of town
we wait some time they get a crew & head south
here they are at weston. i didnt really fix this pic up cuz i wanted to get these done before i got more pics piled up so i didnt get behind but i might fix it up now cuz of good reasons.
some coal power was here too, wish i coulda got a better pic if we wernt in a hurry.
Again at Mosinee as famous on RP
Lake Du Bay
some rd outside of Junction City also famous on RP
at JO
now to what robby has been dieing to see
maybe not this one
or this one
yes
something we all like
hehehe
this is sweet
last shot of the day
It is officially the beginning of the end for the Comet IIIs. While I'm not particularly a fan of the CIIIs, it's always sad to see the oldest of the fleet go. Last year it was the Comet Is, and now its the IIIs.
On the NJ Transit forum on another site, it has been reported that 18 Comet Is were moved from Bay Head yard to the MMC last night (there were 3 strings of 9 cars, so two came up). And about 20 Comet IIIs were sent down for storage.
Also, with PL42s becoming regulars in BH, I assumed that we would start seeing MLs down there. It has also been reported that there is one Multilevel car, hooked up to a PL42, down there for training. When I go down for Thanksgiving, I'll check out the situation.
Alex, are your MLs in service yet, or are they still in testing?
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Which cars are the Comet IIIs? Are they the ones that look like C1s but with doors in the middle, or are they shiny with fluted sides?
To be brief, yes, they are the ones that look like CIs with middle doors.
Give me a few minutes, and I'll give you a full explanation of all the cars.
Ok Tyler, here's a basic course in identifying NJ Transit cars:
Comet I Brushed aluminum, thin window band, no center doors. On cabs, the door window is higher than the other two, and some have the tiger stripes. All cars now retired.http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1833131
Comet IIMBrushed aluminum, thick window band, no center doors. All original CII cabs were rebuilt as trailers.I don't have a photo for these, but it's easy to find one.
Comet IIIBrushed aluminum, thin window band, center doors. All cabs have orange and white tiger stripes.http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1650343
Comet IVBrushed aluminum, thick window band, center doors. All cabs have orange and white tiger stripes, and have no engineer's door. In right of photo.http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1833133
Comet VStainless steel, no window band, "Faded Disco" stripe along bottom edge, center doors. Cabs lack engineer's door, and step well on fireman's side of vestibule (opposite engineer).http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1833112
MultiLevel/Multilevel/Multi-LevelStainless steel, no window band, "Faded Disco" stripe between levels, quarter-point doors. Cabs lack engineer's door, and step well on fireman's side of vestibule. Obviously different from Comets. On the left of photo.http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1833103
Arrow IIIStainless steel, fluted sides, center doors, no window band. Multiple units, can be single units or married pairs. On married pairs, pantograph is on the B end of the B car (inside end of even-numbered car).http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1833096
And that's it. I didn't include the Comet IBs, though. They have the stainless steel fluted sides, and have the center doors welded shut, and were retired with the Comet Is. They were rebuilt as straight passenger cars (trailers and cabs) from Arrow I MUs.I have more pix of the CVs, MLs, and Arrows that I haven't uploaded yet, since I wanted to get this done.
Any questions, just ask.
Our ML's are still in testing, and still a long time from being in service. They had quite a few surprises and problems so far.
They were testing them on the Deux-Montagnes line that will use them with the ALP45-DP's. For the test they were using an F59PHI. This line has catenary, since the line usually sees MR-90 electric MU's. Well the F59, being so tall actually got tangled in a section of catenary, which shut the line down for the rest of the day as well as damaging the F59 electrically (It sure wasn't designed to get zapped by 25 kV AC!).
They also found out the hard way that there are some clearance issues at Central. They ran them in and they ended up getting all banged up after coming in contact with the concrete platforms...
Speaking of platforms, they also found out that the high level doors on the cars are 5 inches too high for the platforms. This I don't understand. There must be some kind of standard for high level platforms, railroads can't all have platforms at different heights!
Finally, one of the crew left the handbrakes on the cars, so now they all have very bad flat wheels. All are out of service until the wheelsets are swapped out.
Yey AMT for screwing up SOOOO bad....
Alex
All I can say is wow.
Consist management (the people who assign what cars and locos run together, and on what trains)up at AMT must really suck. They bought the Multilevels because regular Bomber Bi-Levels would have clearance issues. So they use a F59 to test them. This would be the equivalent of Transit sending, say, a PL42 into the North River Tunnels, and the PL42 getting stuck inside the tunnel because it would jam itself in there. Transit was smart when they bought the P40s for ACES, cause they knew NOTHING else would fit into NYPS.
In Hoboken, the MLs are permitted, except on tracks 1 and 14, because the bottom of the car would strike the low platforms. And you'd THINK that AMT would measure the platform height before buying 100-something cars, which turn out to be taller than the platforms...All high level stations have the same height, except apparently for Central.
And how do you leave the handbrakes on on ALL of the cars. On the outside of each car, they have those lights that are red, yellow, red, and blue. If the brakes are off, the light is green. If they're applied, it's yellow. If they're fully applied and the train is stopped, it's red. If the handbrake is set it's blue.So you can't argue, "well, they thought that the handbrakes were off, but the regular brakes were applied."I could see if they missed one, maybe two, cars, but all of them???The only time that Transit trains get flat spots (about 99% of the time, this is the cause), are during the fall. Especially on the Morris & Essex, when the trains run over the leaves, it leaves a really slippery paste on the rails. Then, when the brakes are applied, the trains just keep sliding. So Transit developed Aqua Track, which uses 10,000 psi to wash this stuff off.Just east of Summit, there's a huge hill. In the fall, the trains can't get enough traction to get up to speed and make it up the hill, so many trains bypass Short Hills to make sure they have the speed.
I know, I went off on a tangent, but moral of the story is, AMT sucks at life...
AMT EPIC FAIL!
Total damages:
Estimated cost: A whole heck of a lot!-------------------------
Over in Boston, we've lit a couple transit cars on fire, derailed them in tunnels, rear-ended other trains twice because the operators were texting, ran a commuter train into a lumber car that rolled away, ran a commuter train into a MOW crew working on the tracks, and right now we're running two operators for each two-car train on the Green Line (pretty much all of them) because the door systems aren't compatible, but so far we haven't done anything near that much testing new cars!
Well...the Type 8s came close!
Just to clarify:
As far as I know, the doors are too high on the cars because of a miscommunication between Bombardier and AMT, so I don't know who is at fault on that one.
AMT has announced that dispite all their troubles (which they tried to keep from slipping out into public) has annouced that the new cars will be in service on the St-Hilaire line starting a week from now (November 23rd). I guess the damaged wheelsets have been replaced!Also, I am starting to wonder if the doors ARE actually too high. If they were, why would they be put into service anyways?
Well EJ&E 663 was spotted at Neenah recently, so that means Joliet loses another J to the WC side. The WC is up to 6 SD38-2s, while the J is down to 7 plus a SW1001 and 703. I know everyone up there loves seeing the Js, but this is exactly what I did not want to happen in Joliet. I really hope they don't start reassigning more Js up there now, but that seems to be the direction we're going. Soon the J is gonna be pretty much extinct in Joliet, all scattered across Wisconsin, Iowa and central Illinois instead. I'm getting more and more glad I got all the photos and videos I did, but these only tell half the story. You gotta be there experiencing it live for the real excitement!
If this J power keeps going up there I may have to make a trip up there to get some Js I haven't seen for a while again, such as 662 and 665.
Railfan Alex As far as I know, the doors are too high on the cars because of a miscommunication between Bombardier and AMT, so I don't know who is at fault on that one.
IMO, AMT is completely 100% at fault here. They went ahead and assumed (you know what happens when you assume, right !) that a car that was designed to work for another railroad (in this case, it was Transit), that it would work for them.WRONG.They did absolutely nothing to change these cars to make them work for them, with the exception of the long doors and lack of traps on the end doors. I bet they never went ahead and checked clearances.When the first MLs arrived on Transit, they attached a rubber material around key points on the car that could possibly have clearance issues. The rubber had a special coating, so that, if it rubbed something (no matter how gently), it would rub off, and they would know that somewhere, there was a problem.
Now, what I don't understand, is how the Comet Is and Comarrows work at Central, but teh MLVs don't... Or do the Comets also have the 5" problem, too. Because I'm 99.99% sure they have the same floor height, starting with the original Comet IIs from 1983 (most of the CIs, including the ones in Montreal, were rebuilt in 1987 with both high and low level capabilties).And 5" is A LOT when it comes to something like that. If it were one inch, so what. But 5 inches is like adding a whole nother step. This is WAY more than the common "watch your step," where it is ususally just a small bump, like the door track.How long till someone trips and sues AMT for that? I say sometime within the first year of service.Now completely changing the subject...
I'm going into NY on Tuesday, and likely taking MidTOWN Direct into NYP (NYP, NYPS, New York, Penn Station, whatever you wanna call it...).To keep my post consistent... Maybe I'll be lucky to be on a train that runs with ML equipment... Without the 5" difference in height between the floor of the car and the platform...
ns3010How long till someone trips and sues AMT for that? I say sometime within the first year of service.Now completely changing the subject...
Sue? Nobody sues in Canada for stuff like that! Only you guys do that.
Railfan AlexSue? Nobody sues in Canada for stuff like that! Only you guys do that.
True that. Someone would definately do that here, especially if someone would sue McDonalds because their coffee is HOT...
I can see someone sueing Transit saying, "My train was 30 seconds late, and I want a million dollars to pay for personal damage." And Transit would say, "If you paid attention, trains are considered 'on time' up to 5:59 after the scheduled departure. And what do you mean personal damage? Last time we checked, you don't own 'time, nor is it a part of you...'"
Ah, the joys of stupid people...
Alex lives in a normal place! Have any of you heard about the guy who got drunk, went to Boston South Station, climbed ON TOP of the Acela, got zapped by the catanary wire, then sued Amtrak and won?
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@ Robby: Don't change the subject! We're finally talking about something not in the Midwest, and better yet, over heeeeere!