by nick11a
Yesterday I took my usual trek back from Berkeley Heights to New Brunswick. This time I decided to go through Hoboken rather than Secaucus. So after the 10-15 minute break at Summit, we were off again. From Short Hills to about the MMC I drifted off asleep (college is killer.) Then, when I woke up at the MMC, I woke up to silence and no lights. We were apparently in the Phase Gap at the MMC and were heading about 5 or less mph. I heard the sound of the air brakes releasing. Since I have never experienced something like this yet, it was a surprise. Usually, all the times I was on the MUs going through a PG, we were going at a good speed and when we entered the gap, the dynamic braking provided the cars with power. My question is if an MU is going slow during and losing speed in a gap, can an engineer turn off dynamic braking so that the train can carry on its momentum to get through it? I figured it was either that or we were going so slow that the dynamic braking wasn't generating enough electricity and became ineffective. Towards the end of the black out, we started going real slow. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it. But if we cleared the gap itself but didn't reach the restart point, then the engineer could just by himself restart the train right?
Last edited by nick11a on Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Moderator of the "widely popular" NJT Rail Forum! What once was first is now seventh!