2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

Steve Wagner wrote:Re this morning's commute from West Concord: A train of all single-level coaches -- I think only five of them -- ran nonstop westbound about 7:30. About 7:40 the "Super Express" (nonstop from South Acton to Porter) ran through eastbound, about 25 minutes late. Sometime before 8:00 the set that had hurtled west showed up. I'm surprised that we didn't have many people standing in the last coach after we left Waltham. An announcement made on the train before we reached Porter (about fifteen minutes later than #406's schedule calls for) indicated that it was the train set that was supposed to run as #408 that had problems at Fitchburg; the train set that was supposed to run as the #406 was held to cover the 408's schedule, and a new train set was sent from Boston to Littleton, making the 406's usual stops inbound from there. Actually I think the T Commuter Rail handled this one quite well.

The set "sent from Boston to Littleton" that you mentioned was 352's set/crew. So 352 was sacrificed to shore up the Fitchburg problems.

BlueFreak wrote:We were already at crush load leaving Sharon, yet they're still running us local, even with 812 minutes behind.

Final tally: 810 left Mansfield 35 minutes late and was 65 minutes late into South Station, meaning we lost an extra 30 minutes on the way. Past Canton Junction, we continued to stop at the normal station stops, but they became "waving stops" in that we stopped only long enough for the conductors to wave at the waiting crowd. I didn't wait up, but apparently 812 was 35-40 minutes late as well, which would have put them about 15 minutes behind us.

For what it's worth, the signal problems seemed to impact us from just south of Canton Junction all the way to Hyde Park, as we were running stop-and-go for quite a while. We only got back to running normal speed in the southwest corridor.

An unknown F40 died on 156 this morning leaving Rowley. They got it running again, but delays rippled across the Rockburyport lines, and 156 is more than 35 minutes late at Beverly.

Edit: Made it to Boston 55 minutes late.

BlueFreak wrote:Final tally: 810 left Mansfield 35 minutes late and was 65 minutes late into South Station, meaning we lost an extra 30 minutes on the way. Past Canton Junction, we continued to stop at the normal station stops, but they became "waving stops" in that we stopped only long enough for the conductors to wave at the waiting crowd. I didn't wait up, but apparently 812 was 35-40 minutes late as well, which would have put them about 15 minutes behind us.

But wait, there's more! Apparently, 812 was held up yesterday for a few minutes because of a "police action," which ended up being a horse on the tracks. Of course, 810 was so slow 812 still managed to gallop ahead and only be a few minutes behind 810.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up...

T-alerts says there's a speed restriction this morning on the Worcester line inside 128, delays of 10-15 min. This is definitely the first time I've ever heard of this happening on the line during the winter, wonder what's up.

deathtopumpkins wrote:An unknown F40 died on 156 this morning leaving Rowley. They got it running again, but delays rippled across the Rockburyport lines, and 156 is more than 35 minutes late at Beverly.

Edit: Made it to Boston 55 minutes late.

The engine didn't die the train stalled trying to get over the hill leaving Rowley due to wheelslip.

8th Notch wrote:

deathtopumpkins wrote:An unknown F40 died on 156 this morning leaving Rowley. They got it running again, but delays rippled across the Rockburyport lines, and 156 is more than 35 minutes late at Beverly.

Edit: Made it to Boston 55 minutes late.

The engine didn't die the train stalled trying to get over the hill leaving Rowley due to wheelslip.

News to me. All the T alerts said mechanical problem (rather than slippery rail), and the conductor said it was an engine problem that they managed to get fixed.

If it was just wheelslip causing the train to stall, why did that hold it up for 40 minutes? (Genuinely curious here)

Depending who the conductor is im sure they just gave a general reason to the delay and not the specifics. I don't know all of the details because I was not running the train however I was close by when the engineer on 156 radioed to the dispatcher out of Rowley that she could not get the train going due to wheelslip in the first notch.

Just got clarification, the false wheelslip alarms were due to a bad traction motor.

8th Notch wrote:Just got clarification, the false wheelslip alarms were due to a bad traction motor.

That would do the trick.

I feel some relief ... I had lost my faith in sand!

butts260 wrote:I feel some relief ... I had lost my faith in sand!

For the record. The F40 whos traction motor went bad was the #1033.

All Rowley has for 'hills' are 1) a climb of less than 10 ft. from the lowest part of the causeway from Ipswich to the Rowley River bridge (~500 ft. of .72%), and 2) a climb of maybe another 5 ft. to the depot (~1000 ft. of .38%). The track charts don't show any descent to the Parker River causeway, which must be higher overall due to its more exposed situation.

Is this chart you are using from the current arrangement? Because there are small grades over the two bridges on either side of Rowley.

#1069 died in Sharon this morning on train #806, and AMTK 66 came to the rescue, coupled on and shoved the dead set into Boston....1069 was cut this afternoon