Circus train

They look different, and one of them has a Catarpillar diesel engine

LINYARailfan wrote:

lilbluefoxie wrote:

lirr415 wrote:It's coming in 2 weeks.

oh wow, I almost forgot about this.

Do you know the exact date its pulling in to Garden City?

March 19th(the Monday of that week) is when the train is due on the property. They are at Nassau Coliseum 3/21-3/26. Last year the train came in around 3PM the police usually close the roads off ahead of time so the earlier you get there, the better. This is all I know as of right now.

So the train would come in on the 19th, then out on the morning of the 27th?

I've been examining the schedules of NJ Transit trains into Penn Station to determine when the train would pass through. Last year, I caught the train passing through Queens Village, Jamaica, and Penn Station on its way out, (passing it along the way of course).

The train passed through Penn Station on track 12 at about 14:30 March 21st, during a gap in service of about 25 minutes in length. I examined the schedule for similar gaps in service eastbound into Penn. Here's what I found.

11:55 to 12:21 ... 26 minutes, with 2 Amtrak trains (0086 and 0644) scheduled.
12:48 to 13:21 ... 33 minutes, with 1 Amtrak train (0646) scheduled.
13:51 to 14:17 ... 26 minutes, with 0 Amtrak trains scheduled.

It could use any of those intervals, but then again, it could use something else, throwing everyone off. At least we know which track it will pass through Penn on: 11.

New York Gets the Blue unit this year, I counted 61 Cars in this video..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHMFtS9NyZk

Anyone know what time the Circus Train will enter the mainline on the 19th?

Mid-afternoon

@lirr415 I don't see the reply button so I'll have to reply with an @. But what I was going to ask you was, do you know what time during mid-afternoon? 1:00 maybe 1:30 PM?

1:46:52....it must enter the LIRR system at this time unless the wormhole will close and the elephants wont like that too much......

lirrfan wrote:@lirr415 I don't see the reply button so I'll have to reply with an @. But what I was going to ask you was, do you know what time during mid-afternoon? 1:00 maybe 1:30 PM?

last year it came around 2pm to the spot on Clinton Road. My Suggestion, be there by about noon-12:30 and be prepared to hang out for a lil while, since theres no real set time. Your paitence will be rewarded with seeing the circus train head down the Garden City secondary.

lilbluefoxie wrote:

lirrfan wrote:@lirr415 I don't see the reply button so I'll have to reply with an @. But what I was going to ask you was, do you know what time during mid-afternoon? 1:00 maybe 1:30 PM?

last year it came around 2pm to the spot on Clinton Road. My Suggestion, be there by about noon-12:30 and be prepared to hang out for a lil while, since theres no real set time. Your paitence will be rewarded with seeing the circus train head down the Garden City secondary.

Do you know what time it will leave Penn Station? As I live near Forest Hills so I would like to see it pass by at Forest Hills Station.

The usual time is between 2, and 4pm for arrival, so you guys would know the proper arrivals. Unless trackwork (which has occurred in past) causes the Circus train to arrive in an overnight, this is the normal time for it to arrive every Monday it comes!

Four MP-15ac's up front and two on the rear, or three up front and one on the rear ??? BTW, anyone know if the LIRR's last group of Alco Century 420's, #'s 222-229, ever handle this run from & back to Sunnyside ??? Thanks, lads.

The L-2's(C-420's) would get the duty after the the GP-38-2's took over as "front line" power on passenger trains, at least 2-3 units would be used,
the "trailing" unit would help on switching moves after arrival on the secondary trackage.

It usually arrives with four units on the head end and a single unit on the rear. How they go about switching once they arrive seems to vary. Last year, they ran all the engines to the west end at Clinton Road and shoved the train the rest of the way. In years past, they've cut the train at the Clinton Road crossing, and had the single chase engine shove the remaining half of the train by itself once the coaches and animal cars are clear. Either way, it's an interesting operation to watch.

Would anybody know when LIRR is going to send out the engines for the Circus Train? And would it go down the Lower Montauk as it's coming from Morris Park or would it go down the Mainline?

According to the Road Scratch Sheet 4 crews to report to Morris Park at 7am to pick up locomotives.RF1 RF2 RF3 RF4 all included Conductor and Engineer.