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  • Comet 1 Mixed Consists

  • Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.
Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.

Moderators: lensovet, Kaback9, nick11a

 #1344984  by R36 Combine Coach
 
Prior to the IIM rebuild, I-Bs (Comarrows) were often mixed with II/IIB equipment, particularly on the RVL and Coast Line and occasionally on the Hoboken DIvision. The IIM rebuild program segregated the I and I-B equipment to Hoboken Division diesel service (where they ran mixed) until 2007-09, when Multilevels bumped Comet Vs over to replace the I/I-Bs.

Pre-IIM rebuild, the answer would be yes for II/IIB and I/I-B compatibility. However IIIs, IVs and Vs have never (to my knowledge) operated in service with the former EL Comet Is or Comarrows.
 #1345157  by nick11a
 
R36 Combine Coach wrote:Prior to the IIM rebuild, I-Bs (Comarrows) were often mixed with II/IIB equipment, particularly on the RVL and Coast Line and occasionally on the Hoboken DIvision. The IIM rebuild program segregated the I and I-B equipment to Hoboken Division diesel service (where they ran mixed) until 2007-09, when Multilevels bumped Comet Vs over to replace the I/I-Bs.

Pre-IIM rebuild, the answer would be yes for II/IIB and I/I-B compatibility. However IIIs, IVs and Vs have never (to my knowledge) operated in service with the former EL Comet Is or Comarrows.
Not quite. The Comet IBs were compatible (sort of) with the Comet IIMs, IIIs, IVs, and Vs. There was a retro-switch that enabled it to work with them. This was almost never done however. I personally saw it only once myself during a snow storm in 2002 or 2003 and I believe Sirsonic saw it once on the Pascack Valley Line.

I do not know how the doors train-lined with this type of mixed consist. I've always assumed that the doors would only open locally by a crewman or when they received an "Open High" command from another car.

The Comet Is though were not compatible with the newer cars nor were the pre-rebuild Comet IIs and IIBs. Also, the older Metro North West of Hudson cars were not compatible with the newer cars.
 #1346397  by nick11a
 
jackintosh11 wrote:But if the Comet 1s ran in mixed consists with low door and high door cars, were there separate door commands for the low cars and the high cars?
Comet Is did run in mixed consists. They ran with the non-long door equipment which consisted of high door Comet Is, low door Comet Is, and Comet IBs... and sometimes with Metro-North's older/non-long-door equipment. When running in these types of consists, crews were responsible for opening the doors in a safe manner as all of these different car types could open up simultaneously from a single door command. Typically, these cars were setup with like types of cars grouped together. Low-door Comet Is were almost always grouped together next to the engine and high trap door cars (of any type) were grouped with the cab car as all cab cars became high-door equipment. A crewman stationed at the right location and setup could open up all of the low doors together at low platforms and all of the high cars together at high platforms. There were non commands with these equipment to differentiate between the different level of doors.

Please note that when I'm referring to high doors or high trap doors, I'm not referring to the more modern cars with long doors, as in Comet IIMs, Comet IIIs, Comet IVs, Comet Vs, and the Multi-Levels.

The Comet IBs were also capable of working with long door equipment in a pinch, but this rarely ever happened. There was a switch somewhere in the cars that enabled this to work. I do not know how the doors handled the trainlining in this setup. I've always assume that the IBs would react to an "Open/Close High" command but not to an "Open/Close Low" command. I've also always assumed that the IB would pass on an "Open/Close Low" command to the other cars.