Nicholas Chen wrote:ESA will use the 63rd Street Tunnel which was meant for subway cars (upper level) and M1/M3 cars on the lower level. C3 bilevel cars didn't exist yet at the time. However, I don't think that there are that many bilevel LIRR trains into Penn Station (are they rush hour only?), so this shouldn't be an issue.
NC, RW and Everyone:
There are as of now two peak round trips from both Port Jefferson and Speonk for a total of four
daily trains. All four of these trains use 8 car sets of C3 cars with DM30s on each end. There is a
single through round trip to and from Oyster Bay which is 4 or 5 C3 cars with two DM30s at each
end. During the Summer months add the 12 car Cannonball which operates on Friday afternoons
eastbound and Sunday evenings westbound. This is literally the longest diesel train that the LIRR
operates requiring double stops at platforms to discharge 6 cars at a time. Any LIRR diesel train
longer then 6 cars is usually doubleheaded with two DM30s for through Penn Station trains or the
straight diesel DE30s for other trains.
I will second that when the 63rd Street Tunnel was constructed in the 1970s that it was designed
for the use of MU cars only long before there was any thought of dual mode locomotives and C3
cars which began LIRR service during the 1990s...MACTRAXX
EXPRESS TRAIN TO NEW YORK PENN STATION-NO JAMAICA ON THIS TRAIN-PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING TRAIN DOORS