A small fire at Downtown Crossing northbound shut down the Orange Line for about half an hour just after 4pm. When I arrived at Downtown Crossing, there was a thin haze of smoke in the station, but despite it, a southbound train pulled in and I got on the lead car, glad to be dodging that mess just in time. Or so I thought.
When we made our station stop at Chinatown, I heard the ratchet-clank of a handbrake being applied eminating from the operator's cab, and thought "uh oh... that sounds like we're going to be here for a while". Sure enough, the guard comes on the PA and announces that we were going to be standing by for a while due to "power problems". I correctly deduced this as related to the fire at Downtown Crossing - Boston Fire Department wanted the third rail power shut off because they were going to be in the track pit. I overheard the Central Control dispatcher calling trains at North Station and Ruggles and everywhere in between, telling them to hold at their location and apply handbrakes.
The third rail power was then shut down between State Street and Chinatown, and all of the lights in our car went out except for the battery-powered emergency lights. We sat for about 20 minutes like that. The guard was very good about making announcements every so often apologizing for the delay and saying we'd get going as soon as possible. At least we were at a station and the doors were open, and some folks had gotten off and were milling about on the platform or gave up and left (I had only one stop to go, but I didn't particularly feel like getting soaked).
Finally I overheard the okay to restore power and shortly after that the lights blinked back on and the air compressors started humming again. It took a few minutes longer for us to actually get going again because there was apparently a balky door stuck open somewhere in the train. I bailed out at New England Medical and had to make my way through a pretty impressive crowd of people waiting for the train I had just gotten off.
Another adventure commute!
When we made our station stop at Chinatown, I heard the ratchet-clank of a handbrake being applied eminating from the operator's cab, and thought "uh oh... that sounds like we're going to be here for a while". Sure enough, the guard comes on the PA and announces that we were going to be standing by for a while due to "power problems". I correctly deduced this as related to the fire at Downtown Crossing - Boston Fire Department wanted the third rail power shut off because they were going to be in the track pit. I overheard the Central Control dispatcher calling trains at North Station and Ruggles and everywhere in between, telling them to hold at their location and apply handbrakes.
The third rail power was then shut down between State Street and Chinatown, and all of the lights in our car went out except for the battery-powered emergency lights. We sat for about 20 minutes like that. The guard was very good about making announcements every so often apologizing for the delay and saying we'd get going as soon as possible. At least we were at a station and the doors were open, and some folks had gotten off and were milling about on the platform or gave up and left (I had only one stop to go, but I didn't particularly feel like getting soaked).
Finally I overheard the okay to restore power and shortly after that the lights blinked back on and the air compressors started humming again. It took a few minutes longer for us to actually get going again because there was apparently a balky door stuck open somewhere in the train. I bailed out at New England Medical and had to make my way through a pretty impressive crowd of people waiting for the train I had just gotten off.
Another adventure commute!
