Commuter Rail Electrification

rethcir wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2024 3:58 pm Electric cars are capable of warming the battery off "mains" power while plugged in - since these trains should be hooked to the catenary at rest, it would follow that much of the battery conditioning will be done while "plugged in".

Do you really think that will always happen? If a problem is going to happen it will. There are too many items that can fault.

All trains now are plugged in overnight. So whether they're left on catenary or plugged into layover terminals, yes, they should always be on power when shut down.

All tracks at South Station have power except 13.

west point wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2024 10:15 pm
Do you really think that will always happen? If a problem is going to happen it will. There are too many items that can fault.

Sure sounds like what people were saying when diesel engines were taking over from steam or Westinghouse brakes or any other system that changed things drastically. The sky isn't going to fall and yes there will be hiccups there are always hiccups.

wicked wrote:Are the far tracks at South Station used by the Fairmount Line electrified?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe tracks 1-10 at South Station are electrified and 11-13 are not. That could have changed, but that's what I remember.

I can check in a few days

11 and 12 are, 13 is not.

is there still room under the "train shed" of South Station to put electrified tracks in a lower level?

No, that space was wiped out by the Silver Line tunnel and the Artery project.

The solons did the grip-and-grin today:

https://www.mass.gov/news/healey-drisco ... -rail-line

Side thought: Perhaps Rhode Island could go to Keolis and ask them to add a few BEMUs to the order so they can run Westerly-Providence, or at least a shuttle between downtown Providence and PVD.

So, we are spending $56M for this project. What are we getting? Charging stations in Readville, presumably leased. How many BEMU cars are we leasing and for how many years? How will cars and brakes couple? How much for Keolis to supervise? Nuggets are Eng says we will save $1.6M gallons of (diesel) fuel, I will assume annually, and assume $4/gal conservatively post-Biden so $4.8M/year assuming he is not forgetting the diesel-equivalent in natural gas to generate electricity. 50% increase in service, so 150% of the cars presently on the line plus spares + padding. These are FRA compatible cars meeting buff strength requirements? Some official said they will have enough cars to run additional pilot service including on the NEC so it will have to be Amtrak approved too.

Interesting that they can run under wire and presumably charge from the Amtrak wires.

Actually, the sublevel loop was partially destroyed during the Station shrinkage and there is a high probability that the piles for the two towers finished the job. It is too bad as it would have been perfect for these new BEMUs

Although the concept art depicts Stadlers, could an off-the-shelf M-8 be adapted to battery/catenary?

Another option could be to wait and see on the BBD/Alstom Multilevel MUs due at NJT in late 2024 or 2025. These
are 3-car sets with motors and trailers.

In principle I suppose M8s could be adapted to battery power, but you would need to rearrange everything on the underbody.

The multilevel EMUs will be catenary only. There's nowhere to put batteries on them.

Take the M8, remove the heavy 25Hz capable transformer, remove the DC compatibility gear.

IMO, BandA nails it. I've always hated the LRV on steroids concept of DMUs and could never understand why they couldn't be EMU equivalents. What I've really always wanted is diesel electric compatible RDCs (RDCs were direct drive and could not MU with locomotives) that could be control cars that you fire up and run solo off peak. BEMUs are a perfect opportunity to try this out and reap the greatest benefit out of a capital investment. Cars that charge off 480v power supplies could be plugged in to existing layover terminals AND be charged while part of a conventional train to broken off and run solo after the peak. If they are to have pantographs, I feel they'd be better off as straight electrics and the dorchester should be wired up. The feds could help fund that project as it would benefit Amtrak as well by providing a secondary route into Boston. Or, if Amtrak doesn't pitch in, we could use that as leverage to get Amtrak to upgrade the existing corridor substations to support our capacity to Providence.

There is a lot of potential to a project like this that I fear is being overlooked.