Original NH Catenary Replacement Progress

[Rockingham Racer]

When Woodlawn tower was operating "back when", the director would dump the train onto its assigned track on the New Haven side, and let 'em die there if there was an issue. Ran trains around them until the problem got fixed.

I haven't been to Woodlawn in years. A couple of questions: What's the speed limit now at Woodlawn for a diverging move to the New Haven?
And in the PM rush, do New Haven trains ever come up Harlem 2 and go up New Haven 1 over the bridge?

[DutchRailnut]

yes the flyover is used for both east and westbound New Havens,
The Harlem speed thru CP 112 is 60 except for track 4 (inbound Harlem)
and speeds from New Haven are 45 for flyover but 60 for both the other tracks.
Since going east there was hardly any problems changing over , even one or twopantographs up would pull you up the hill, but westbound was a problem since if even one pantograph stayed up or switchover was not made you ended in middle of interlocking and if you went as far as woodlawn you just converted a m2 to third rail only.

[Nasadowsk]

Weren't the Washboards ledgendary for snagging there pans at Woodlawn, too?

[grabber]

When Woodlawn tower was operating "back when", the director would dump the train onto its assigned track on the New Haven side, and let 'em die there if there was an issue. Ran trains around them until the problem got fixed.

From experience,
You did not know there was an issue with change over going eastbound until he was under the wire and then it was too late to do anything but work around the affected train.
Westbound If they did not make change over they almost always stopped before the signal and rarely tied up Woodlawn interlocking.
The tower personnel was to observe the trains coming off the New Haven to insure that all pans were down coming out from under the wire. And stop the train by radio to prevent them from making it into the interlocking. They also had to make sure as the train passed in front of the tower that there were no bouncing pans. I only saw one train make it to the interlocking with a pan up and when it hit the bridge the noise was not something you would soon forget.

[DutchRailnut]

From experience I know the tower closed long before changover was moved, so for a while there was nobody to tell if incomplete switchover was affecting train, the engineer was to busy going thru interlockings of CP212 and CP112 to keep looking at pandown light.

[Noel Weaver]

One big problem with the railroad between Woodlawn and Mount Vernon
was the presence of a number of low overhead bridges. In the winter
time with the use of salt on the overhead bridges, seepage of water with
the salt caused grounds in the overhead and related problems as well.
This whole area was often one of various wire problems and relocation of
the changeover location got ride of most of the problems of this nature.
In my opinion, it was a move that made a lot of sense.
Noel Weaver

[shlustig]

Two other problems that occasionally arose:

1. Vern Interlocking (4 tracks to 3 tracks going towards GCT) was on a curve, and we had a couple of times that NH trains had pans snag the catenary tearing down the wires.

2. The rare instances when a Harlem train would be misrouted onto the NH due to operator error because someone down the line "lost the sheet".
The extremely short section of 3rd rail on NH #2 Tk. meant that only one car remained on 3rd rail if the train pulled clear of the reverse signal.

[Clean Cab]

Changeover was moved further east for one reason..............

The many low bridges between Pelham and CP 212. In the winter time ice would constantly build up and cause the wire to go to ground. MN had two choices............

1. Raise all the overpasses. Not an easy task due to the ownership of them. Some are state owned, some city owned and one county owned.

2. Continue the 3rd rail until it clears all low overpasses.

We now know which they chose.

[RearOfSignal]

2. The rare instances when a Harlem train would be misrouted onto the NH due to operator error because someone down the line "lost the sheet".
The extremely short section of 3rd rail on NH #2 Tk. meant that only one car remained on 3rd rail if the train pulled clear of the reverse signal.

Aren't there illuminated direction arrows just south of CP 112, like the ones at CP 4?

Also,

Are the turnout speeds on Harlem trk 4 & NH trk 3 (fly-over) 45mph or 60 mph. I am wondering if the engineer ever gets suprised with an unusual routing though CP 212 or CP 112 and suddenly end up on NH trk 3 or Harlem 4, and have to slow down to 45 from 60 on a Normal Cab?

[grabber]

Aren't there illuminated direction arrows just south of CP 112, like the ones at CP 4?

Yes but the signal IIRC needed to be better than a medium for them to indicate the route.
It was also sometimes a more expedient move to let the misroute take the signal onto the NH and then back him off and reroute than to wait for a signal wind down and tie up the interlocking.

[SubaruWRX]

Question here since I just came to and from GCT yesterday it was really dark so I did not really look outside the window but I do have a sound file but does the train disconnect from the 3rd rail and coasts for a few until the Pantograph is raised?

at 5 secs in you can hear the power dip then come back up at 10 seconds the power is cut.

sorry for the person coughing.. it was pretty packed.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2SJHCBY4

[Clean Cab]

The entire train must clear the 3rd rail before the engineer can change the operating mode and raise the pantographs. Depending on what type of equipment is used, it can take as long as 30 seconds for a complete changeover.

[SubaruWRX]

ah.. well that was just a small clip near the end the power was cut for about that time limit and by that time we left out of GCT.

[Clean Cab]

Catenary "C" (CP 241 to CP 261) has begun. Track #3 was taken out of service between CP 241 and CP 255 as of 0600 hrs December 1, 2007 and will remain out of service for 5 months to allow for foundation construction for the many new catenary towers.

Catenary "B" (CP235 to CP 241) is still on indefinate hold due to the delay of underpass replacement at South Norwalk and Darien. All new catenary work has been completed on track #3.

[L'mont]

Is this why the late night trains have been diesel?