Interesting Consist Discussion for the North Side

Diverging Route wrote:The other day I was on a five car set, with an 18xx cab car and four BOMbers. No potty. New tag line, "Go before you go!"

SEPTA gets royalties from any use of that slogan in a commuter rail context...

Dunno what if anything it means for North Side in general, but the 04-12-2017 400 left Wachusett on time at 0450 with a total of 4 flats and 1 bi and pushed by a functioning HSP for 4 more 400 axles through the 40.2 than has been recent practice.

2-0 was the 0513/04-14-2017 axle-count for the 40.2 on 2, and given 400's advertised 0512 Shirley time, that sounds like 400 is back to being a short train.

More 700's are on the Northside today.

Was on the Newburyport Express this morning and this train consisted of 1646-1622-900-723-GP.

We passed another train pulling out of North Station as we were pulling in that has car 777 attached to it.

Thought I was on the unicorn express tonight. Train 1111 out of North Station at 8:30pm to Rockport had the following Consist.

1818-722D-745D-825-838-GP40MC 1135


I thought 3 Bi-Levels was the rarest sight on the north side until I saw this configuration. 5 Bi-levels and entirely made up of Bi-levels.

Anyone ever see any consists like this on the north side before? Also, why the D's on the 700's?

Looks like you found a very lost Old Colony set! The D is for power doors, which allows conductors to simply press a button to open all the doors on the train on trains operating on the Old Colony lines, which all have high level platforms.

On a semi-related note, do the doors on the K-cars and the Rotems trainline?

The 722 and 745, like all the rebuilt Kawasakis, got power doors when being rebuilt.

diburning wrote:Looks like you found a very lost Old Colony set! The D is for power doors, which allows conductors to simply press a button to open all the doors on the train on trains operating on the Old Colony lines, which all have high level platforms.

On a semi-related note, do the doors on the K-cars and the Rotems trainline?

Thanks for the info on the doors.

Also noticed something odd on Car 838. Above the Electronic Displays was what appeared to be Cameras. Haven't seen this before either on the north side and I pretty much always shoot for the bi-level car when riding the commuter rail. Is this another sign this is a very lost set?

Surprisingly, they have 3 of the bi-levels full of passengers when leaving North Station, wasn't expecting that many riders 8:30 on a Saturday night. I don't take the train frequently on the weekends, but when ever I do usually it's just 2 cars open. The bi-level and one standard car.

Looks like the set of 5 bi-level coaches is still running on the North Side. I saw it pulling out of North Station this morning while my train was arriving.

RenegadeMonster wrote:
Also noticed something odd on Car 838. Above the Electronic Displays was what appeared to be Cameras. Haven't seen this before either on the north side and I pretty much always shoot for the bi-level car when riding the commuter rail. Is this another sign this is a very lost set?

Good catch! The monster double decker set is outfitted with cameras for people counting purposes. It has been recently operating on the South Side. It is now operating North to get counts for the Eastern Route on the weekends. Once they are done getting the data they need, it will return South. Until then it will operate North randomly during the weekdays.

Fascinating. Does every double decker in this set have the cameras or just 838?

sery2831 wrote:Good catch! The monster double decker set is outfitted with cameras for people counting purposes. It has been recently operating on the South Side. It is now operating North to get counts for the Eastern Route on the weekends. Once they are done getting the data they need, it will return South. Until then it will operate North randomly during the weekdays.

Any idea why they're doing counts for the Eastern Route on the weekends?

My guess is it's related to the upcoming weekend closures and/or Beverly Draw replacement. Maybe they're figuring out how many shuttle buses they'll need.

Every double decker has cameras.

No busing on the Eastern Route for the PTC shut down.

Welded rail train has moved from Worcester to Reading today.

Saw it this morning going through Auburndale. Quite impressive, how long is a length of welded rail?
I presume it continued to the Grand Junction?