Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

Its not realistic for a bunch of reasons that we are all familiar with but this was an interesting take on using Buffalo Central in combination with some LRRT movement and upgrades.

http://buffalorising.com/2015/08/60532/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have never understand everyone's dislike for Exchange Street, its seems perfectly serviceable and decently located to me.

Railjunkie wrote:Saw this posted last night. As of Monday Aug 24th approx. 35000 cement ties will be delivered to Albany, starting with 10 trucks a day, with more to follow as they add a new exit to the old parking area. The new CP138 is cut in and working as intended. The tie and rail project continues south between CP103 and Barrytown, track one is back in service between CP103 and Hudson. Work continues on the second track sub road bed west through Colonie/Schenectady.

The TLM may be up here next spring havent heard anything definite

Thanks for this update. Was hungering for solid info. And every truckload of ties delivered makes me feel better, LOL.

btw, For others besides myself with erratic brain function, by "TLM" Railjunkie means a Track Laying Machine.

Woody wrote:

Railjunkie wrote:Saw this posted last night. As of Monday Aug 24th approx. 35000 cement ties will be delivered to Albany, starting with 10 trucks a day, with more to follow as they add a new exit to the old parking area. The new CP138 is cut in and working as intended. The tie and rail project continues south between CP103 and Barrytown, track one is back in service between CP103 and Hudson. Work continues on the second track sub road bed west through Colonie/Schenectady.

The TLM may be up here next spring havent heard anything definite

Thanks for this update. Was hungering for solid info. And every truckload of ties delivered makes me feel better, LOL.

btw, For others besides myself with erratic brain function, by "TLM" Railjunkie means a Track Laying Machine.

And here I thought it was "Too little movement"

I wonder why they are trucking concrete ties up there when they could be shuffling them up via railcar. I guess not enough railcars and it probably would take too long at 30mph. Amtrak has their own concrete tie plant at Bear DE.

A few thoughts on this. Crews, Albany is a little short on the conductor list. I dont think they want dual modes yanking loaded tie cars up the Empire tunnel, they have enough issues as it is without the extra moves/weight. However we did a loaded stone train outta NYP, dont remember the power. Space is likely the biggest concern with the project going on there is nowhere to unload and store the cars, one spot maybe but you would still require a flatbed to get them to the storage area. The new yard tracks are in and next to the area were they intend to store the ties but as of last week were still not in service.

My first thought was, "would they allow such trains through NYP or the North River Tunnels (coming up from Bear) but then realized they'd just keep them on the west side of the Hudson on CSX.

Railjunkie wrote:

ApproachMedium wrote:For a modern day bureaucratic project it seems to be moving along at a livable pace. The dual mode engines are literally held together by duct tape these days. The wonderwangons they are, because sometimes you wonder!

Everytime I crack the throttle on one of those wonderful machines...

Time to send them to Morristown & Erie to work whatever magic they used on these?

They allow these trains in the tunnels. We fed the TLM on the Hell Gate line with tie cars from Bear via NYP a few years ago. And they wouldnt put them on WOH on CSX, because that costs amtrak more money but it is possible. The tie cars dont need to be unloaded they just couple up to the TLM and the machine comes back and gets the ties and unloads them into the TLM. Old ties return to the cars and then those can either be unloaded up there or shipped back south for recycling.

Once again no room at the Inn for storage and as they dont intend to start laying track till April '16 truck them up and make big piles of ties. It s a 142 miles to NYP from Albany and at 30 mph thats just over 4 hours one way assuming you get a good trip. Then add on the trip NYP to Bear unload load time and the truck looks better. As an engineer I look at it as less$$ and jobs for the terminal

The max freight speed up there is 30mph?

ApproachMedium wrote:I wonder why they are trucking concrete ties up there when they could be shuffling them up via railcar. I guess not enough railcars and it probably would take too long at 30mph. Amtrak has their own concrete tie plant at Bear DE.

Put the ties on a railcar, lightly loaded so it only weighs as much as a loaded coach, and attach them to Regionals running through Penn Station!

So, funny enough, I was driving through Rensselaer today and caught in front of me two tractor trailers with.. you guessed it.. concrete ties on them heading to the Rensselaer yard.

45 to a truck. So we're looking at 1,200+ truck loads? That seems stupid to me.

ApproachMedium wrote:The max freight speed up there is 30mph?

50 MPH MAX but Im not sure about loaded tie cars and the max speed on the Metz, 50? I think. Books are in my locker. As for the suggestion of regional trains and freight cars two diferent braking systems. Graduated vs. direct release 110psi brake pipe vs. 90psi

Railjunkie wrote:

ApproachMedium wrote:The max freight speed up there is 30mph?

50 MPH MAX but Im not sure about loaded tie cars and the max speed on the Metz, 50? I think. Books are in my locker. As for the suggestion of regional trains and freight cars two diferent braking systems. Graduated vs. direct release 110psi brake pipe vs. 90psi

You can run graduated and direct release cars in the same train, just has to run in direct release. That does not affect the train speed. However, nothing will change the fact that the tie cars are freight cars in the timetable and only good for freight car speeds which is pretty much 50mph max on amtrak territory.

Currently all Empire Corridor trains departing from NYP this afternoon are suffering departure delays of over an hour due to "Mechanical Problems in Sunnyside Yard." NJT and other Amtrak services appear unaffected. Anyone have any insight here? Agents keep saying "should only be 10 more minutes."