Equipment on the NEC

The long standing observation of all A3's on the NEC on weekends was shattered when a Comet set was found heading to MET around 10pm last Sat. Today, I spotted another 46, heading to MET around 12pm, and reminded myself that today was Saturday.

I know A3's are reserved for rush hours and weekends on the NEC, but they decided to mix the equipment?

Well, I have seen about one or two Comet sets used on weekends within the past year. Most of the time, they are used in the weekend "peak" direction. But 97% of the time, you'll have an Arrow train.

I saw a GP40 pulling two Comet IVs passing PJC around 7:00.

I'm pretty sure it was an engine move, but they'er still Comets.

It's the weekly Atlantic City equipment change out.

For equipment moves on revenue trackage, how can an engineer be called to do it?

TR-00 wrote:It's the weekly Atlantic City equipment change out.

oh, so it happens every week at the approximately the same time?

F40 wrote:For equipment moves on revenue trackage, how can an engineer be called to do it?

They simply call out an extra crew, if that particular train isn't part of an assignment. They would call a conductor engineer and maybe rearbrake depending to do equipment moves and maybe even a move or two in the yard itself.

But tehre are some jobs, particularly in Bay Head now, that their normal assignment is a fuel move to Hoboken to fill'er up.

nick11a wrote:Well, I have seen about one or two Comet sets used on weekends within the past year. Most of the time, they are used in the weekend "peak" direction. But 97% of the time, you'll have an Arrow train.

10- and 11-car Comet trains (with Comet 2-5 cars) run some trips on the NEC, electric push-pull trains. I have seen these consists regularly on my trips to Philadelphia. However, I have only been on MUs on the NEC.

Adam E. Moreira wrote:

nick11a wrote:Well, I have seen about one or two Comet sets used on weekends within the past year. Most of the time, they are used in the weekend "peak" direction. But 97% of the time, you'll have an Arrow train.

10- and 11-car Comet trains (with Comet 2-5 cars) run some trips on the NEC, electric push-pull trains. I have seen these consists regularly on my trips to Philadelphia. However, I have only been on MUs on the NEC.

On weekends? I've only seen 8-car Comet Trains on weekends. But you are correct, 10-11 car Comet trains can be seen on weekdays. But usually the majority of 8+ car trains on the NEC are MUs. 10 car Comet trains are also routinely found on MidTown Direct Dover during peak and on peak on the NJCL.

Comet 3 #5004 was spotted on the NEC today. It was fun to see it parked outside of NYP this afternoon, and see it head back again to the city at Secaucus in the evening.

F40 wrote:Comet 3 #5004 was spotted on the NEC today. It was fun to see it parked outside of NYP this afternoon, and see it head back again to the city at Secaucus in the evening.

Yeah, Comet 3s have become a highlight of my days. To many engineers though, it is less of a highlight and more of bad luck.

Why bad luck?

F40 wrote:Why bad luck?

Well according to what I've read here, some of the engineers here just do not like the Comet 3s for whatever reason. It may be do to comfort (or lackthereof) or the controls etc. Maybe one of the engineers in here can elaborate a little more.....

I love the C3s (and the C4s for that matter.) Especially because of their horns. All of the cabs (C3, C4 and C5) and ALPs and diesels have basically the same horns. The problem is, on most of the Comet Vs, the air control was altered as to decrease the noise. As a result, the C5 cab horns sound pretty puny compared to the C3s and C4s. The ALPs also have the same issues I believe. The altered air flow is why the higher chimes on the C5s sound more prominently than the lowers ones and why the lower chimes on the ALPs speak more prominently than the high ones. The C3s and C4s just have that plain old beautiful louds sounding horn. Plus, all ove the chimes speak just about evenly. Keep in mind also that most of the chimes on the C3s and C4s actually face backwards and you can still hear it pretty darn good! There are exceptions, Comet V car 6004 (which actually has the car number about a foot higher on the cab door than the rest of the fleet) sounds pretty good. It was on the Gladstone this morning at 6:47 AM. I though it was a C4 or C3 cab but it was 6004. It wasn't my first runin with the cab and I remembered it having a nice sound.

On another note, I saw a train today with 3 cab cars stuck in the middle of it at Secaucus (excluding the actual cab end). I guess NJT likes doing this often in recent weeks.

F40 wrote:On another note, I saw a train today with 3 cab cars stuck in the middle of it at Secaucus (excluding the actual cab end). I guess NJT likes doing this often in recent weeks.

Huh, yep that is a lot. I haven't seen that much much at all. Another thing that has been occruing in the last six months which really didn't occur that much before is seeing mid-train Comet 3 and 4 cabs. The common thing to see is a Comet 5 mid-train cab.