Hampton Roads/Norfolk/Newport News NE Regional Service

I don't have a problem with a technical discussion over catenary operations, but I don't think this thread about Hampton Roads (Norfolk or Newport News) thread is the proper thread to hold this discussion. Golly, there isn't even a catenary south of the Potomac River and D.C.

electricron wrote:I don't have a problem with a technical discussion over catenary operations, but I don't think this thread about Hampton Roads (Norfolk or Newport News) thread is the proper thread to hold this discussion. Golly, there isn't even a catenary south of the Potomac River and D.C.

Agreed. Perhaps a moderator can split the posts related to cost of stopping trains and set up a separate thread. More than likely, they'll all end up deleted or land in the NJ Nonsense thread though....or maybe that's just my posts.

Official Service Alert is now out which I'll post in its entirety because they tend not to stay up on the website.

Limited Parking at the Richmond Station

Effective Immediately
The parking lot adjacent to the Richmond station (Staples Mill Road) is typically full by 8:00 am on weekdays and most weekends. Passengers who require parking after 8:00 am should refer to the following information:

Allow extra time to arrive at the station. If possible, plan to be dropped off and picked up. Alternate parking is available at the Henrico County Park and Ride. The Henrico County Park and Ride is located about five blocks from the station at the intersection of Cloverdale Avenue and Crockett Street. Transportation is not available from the Park and Ride to station. Passengers parking at this location must walk back to the station. (Walking directions: From the lot, make a left on Staples Mill Road. Make right at the first traffic light (Crockett Street). The station is straight ahead. Thank you for traveling with Amtrak. We appreciate your patronage and apologize for any inconvenience. Reservations and the most up-to-date arrival and departure times are available on Amtrak.com, our free mobile apps and at 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

PSN 0313-47

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1623564137

ThirdRail7 wrote:[
This assumes that there is another train in the section that is drawing power at the same time the other train is regenerative braking. If not and the particular substation can't store the return, there is nothing to backfeed.

Substations don't store electricity.

It's thoertically possible to feed all the way back into the transmission system, but the locomotives / substations may not be set up to do this. My guess - and it's only a guess - is that the new stuff will be set up to feed HEP first (along with the motor's auxiliary loads), then try to feed back into the catenary. The latter is assuming the protective gear won't trip from it (they may need to modify substations). Regening into the catenary is common overseas - most new equipment doesn't have braking resistors.

Substations with batteries or capacitors can store regenerated electricity. Philadelphia's Market St. Elevated brags that it can now do so, but I don't know if any U.S. railroads are trying the experiment.

ThirdRail7 wrote: Agreed. Perhaps a moderator can split the posts related to cost of stopping trains and set up a separate thread. More than likely, they'll all end up deleted or land in the NJ Nonsense thread though....or maybe that's just my posts.

you're right, it's just your posts
Hey at least I resisted temptation for a week.

JimBoylan wrote:Substations with batteries or capacitors can store regenerated electricity. Philadelphia's Market St. Elevated brags that it can now do so, but I don't know if any U.S. railroads are trying the experiment.

Here's a bit more info on that installation: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/sing ... septa.html

Nasadowsk wrote:

ThirdRail7 wrote:[
This assumes that there is another train in the section that is drawing power at the same time the other train is regenerative braking. If not and the particular substation can't store the return, there is nothing to backfeed.

Substations don't store electricity.

It's thoertically possible to feed all the way back into the transmission system, but the locomotives / substations may not be set up to do this. My guess - and it's only a guess - is that the new stuff will be set up to feed HEP first (along with the motor's auxiliary loads), then try to feed back into the catenary. The latter is assuming the protective gear won't trip from it (they may need to modify substations). Regening into the catenary is common overseas - most new equipment doesn't have braking resistors.

If you recall, Amtrak has spent the last couple of years upgrading and replacing components of the catenary and substations. As explained to me, one of the benefits is the future ability to store the electricity that is returned unused. This will help since the forthcoming electrics allegedly have full time regenerative braking.

Patrick Boylan wrote:

ThirdRail7 wrote: Agreed. Perhaps a moderator can split the posts related to cost of stopping trains and set up a separate thread. More than likely, they'll all end up deleted or land in the NJ Nonsense thread though....or maybe that's just my posts.

you're right, it's just your posts
Hey at least I resisted temptation for a week.

That was very big of you! Then again, who anticipated it staying for a week? I should post a picture although that will probably kill the whole thread!

The Feburary 2013 Amtrak Route Performance Report is out (they're getting *fast* at getting these out!)
http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/268/435/Amt ... y-2013.pdf

Norfolk is running a small loss (loosing $100k on $1.7m YTD) and NPN is running slightly positive (contributing $500k on $13m YTD)

I'm currently sitting aboard train #194 traveling from Williamsburg to Metropark. We left about 2 min late but somehow ended up 20 min down by Richmond, and have lost a little more time since (we're approaching DC now - maybe the 1 hour layover will be cut short to get us back on schedule).

Anyway, what I noted is that we hit 77 mph briefly right out of Williamsburg according to my gps app, but since then I don't think we've broken 70. Richmond to DC seems to have a lot of 65 mph track. While there has been a lot of talk about implementing high speed rail on the Richmond corridor, it seems that just getting some of it up to 79 mph would be a notable improvement. It must be class iv track already to allow 65 - I wonder why CSX arrived at that speed limit.

Matt Johnson wrote:I'm currently sitting aboard train #194 traveling from Williamsburg to Metropark. We left about 2 min late but somehow ended up 20 min down by Richmond, and have lost a little more time since (we're approaching DC now - maybe the 1 hour layover will be cut short to get us back on schedule).

Just to clarify, do you mean 20 mins. down at Main St. or at Staples Mill? I think trains often are slow in between the two.

Staples Mill, and yeah, it's a crawl between the two. Currently departing Alexandria at 12:15 (scheduled 11:49). Sounds like they're announcing that we should still depart DC on time (lots of padding there with the 1 hour layover scheduled).

...And we did depart WAS on time, with HHP-8 #663 doing the honors. Man, they do accelerate fast - had our 9 car train up to 125 mph in no time! I'm sitting in business class right behind the locomotive, and I can see the HHP bouncing all over the place though - must be a rough ride in the cab of those things!

Anyway, what a difference between north of DC and south. It seems there is zero 79 mph trackage between Richmond and DC - I think 70 is the max, with much of it 65 mph. Seems the low hanging fruit might be getting some of that up to 79 before worrying about any fancy "high speed rail" upgrades.

Pardon the multiple posts, but today as I sit here aboard train #95 heading back toward Virginia, I'm thinking again about potential upgrades in Virginia. We're rolling into Quantico now, and I noted that there is not a single grade crossing between DC and here. Speed has been a steady 70 mph between Alexandria and Quantico. Just curious, are there any plans by Virginia to increase speeds here? (I thought I vaguely remembered something about 90 mph as part of stimulus funded upgrades.) Anyway, just noticing the lack of grade crossings, coupled with the fact that I believe the former RF&P is already cab signal equipped, made me wonder if this could be an easy place to speed up the ride.

Matt Johnson wrote:We're rolling into Quantico now, and I noted that there is not a single grade crossing between DC and here. Speed has been a steady 70 mph between Alexandria and Quantico. Just curious, are there any plans by Virginia to increase speeds here? (I thought I vaguely remembered something about 90 mph as part of stimulus funded upgrades.) Anyway, just noticing the lack of grade crossings, coupled with the fact that I believe the former RF&P is already cab signal equipped, made me wonder if this could be an easy place to speed up the ride.

You must have looked away from the window a couple of times. There are grade crossings at Featherstone Rd. south of Woodbridge (that one's pretty busy) and at Cherry Hill Rd. (right next to the river). That are two or three crossing at the base at Quantico and a handful of small road crossings in Stafford Co. north of Fredericksburg. I think the Stafford crossing and maybe one of the Quantico ones could probably be closed. Putting a bridge in at Featherstone Rd. would be major $$ and the topography at Cherry Hill makes it tough to do much there. There are a number of crossings between Fredericksburg and Staples Mill. My impression is that congestion (many freights, VREs and Amtraks) is the biggest restricting factor on bumping the speeds. Work continues on triple tracking, but it will be some years before they get three all the way to the Rappahannock.