Metro-North finishes 3rd track - Commentary

Metro-North Railroad has just completed a $56 million project that allows for more Harlem Line trains and faster travel time for riders.

The third-track project took 3 1/2 years of construction and many more years of assuaging community concerns. It extended the railroad's third track 3.2 miles north from the Mount Vernon West station to the Crestwood station.

The extra track is considered a crucial addition because it allows the railroad to reroute trains around disabled equipment in an area where stations are only one mile apart. It also allows extra local and express trains with fewer stops and a shorter ride. From Crestwood north, the Harlem Line has two tracks.
"It's like a passing lane," Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. "It should improve on-time performance, and it should add more express service to these stations. It gives us the ability to go around problems instead of getting stuck behind them.''

http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/ ... laces.html

news is reported late but third track has been in service since July.
only work done in last few weeks was landscaping.

FWIW - seems like we've had more late trains since the third track went into service.

And since the new timetables went into effect on Monday, my train (East Bronx Local) has been late no less than 10 minutes and as much as 20 minutes.

MNCR has their work cut out in making these changes and improvements show a positive result.

Having all three tracks in service between just north of Fleetwood and Crestwood, you would think that more service would happen for points on "grade crossing" territory. Looking at the schedule, it looks pretty much the same old "coal." At least, people that come from the diesel territory as well as Brewster, have a savings in eight minutes from the previous commute on some trains. Also, some trains to Southeast are now filling in on the stops the expresses used to make. I could also see some more improvement on the portion of the third track like try to extend the Crestwood turns points north.

Dave Wallace wrote:FWIW - seems like we've had more late trains since the third track went into service.

And since the new timetables went into effect on Monday, my train (East Bronx Local) has been late no less than 10 minutes and as much as 20 minutes.

MNCR has their work cut out in making these changes and improvements show a positive result.

I have to agree. I also don't think the schedules where throught through. There's a schedule that indicates that a train can make it from Grand Central to North White Plains in 36 minutes while making stops in Scarsdale and Hartsdale. We had no delays, and we made it in over 5 minutes late.

I third track was also put in place to run more trains and that can cause dispatching issues as well. Just this morning my train was held up just north of Crestwood.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote: At least, people that come from the diesel territory as well as Brewster, have a savings in eight minutes from the previous commute on some trains

You'd think that, but all the trains I've been on have been late, coming and going. (I originate at Southeast.)

Also, some trains to Southeast are now filling in on the stops the expresses used to make.

The locals are now packed. They need to go to ten cars. I was on one in the morning where people were standing in the aisles after White Plains. I've since switched to a later express and it is practically empty, but it only arrives a few minutes later.

mkm4 wrote:

njt/mnrrbuff wrote: The locals are now packed. They need to go to ten cars. I was on one in the morning where people were standing in the aisles after White Plains. I've since switched to a later express and it is practically empty, but it only arrives a few minutes later.

My 701 local/express (Express from North White Plains to Crestwood, Locoal from Crestwood to Mt. Vernon West, Express to 125th St. and Grand Central) was changed to the 700 and it is packed. It's been packed ever since the new schedules took effect. In addition to that the train now runs local from NWP to Crestwood and then Express to 125th and Grand Central. It gets packed after Scarsdale.

This is odd why the trains are tardy. Being a student at Mercy College, I've been noticing that some of its trains have been tardy especially the ones to Poughkeepsie as well as some locals to Croton. I think I know the reason of why the locals have been late. Not only single tracking in some places but, whenever there is an M7, they have to keep getting the doors to work. They do need to run 10 to 12 cars on some of these trains. Even six cars doesn't always cut it. That is unnacceptable if it was transit, especially on the Northeast Corridor or any Midtown Direct service. Some of those diesels still run three cars at the height of rush hour on the Montclair Boonton.

Currently the M7's are restricted to 8 cars on Harlem due to power concerns, they are turned way down and still consume to much.
Lot of lateness is due to slippery rail all trains are getting slow into stations and may have to back up here or there, MNCR even has us slowing down before code change points to avoid maximum ATC hits on brakes.

<i>Currently the M7's are restricted to 8 cars on Harlem due to power concerns, they are turned way down and still consume to much. </i>

Gee 1080hp a car. Didn't anyone bother to work the math out beforehand?

Ohm's law sucks. It's also a physical constant that can't go away, and it sets a formidable barrier to how much current you can practically draw before the voltage drop is too big. Of course, the more current, the bigger the voltage drop, the less power available.

Seems to me they had the same problems with the M-3's when they first
came on the property. The heavier third rail and the new substations had
not been fully finished yet at that time. As they were delivered and
accepted, they mostly ran on the Brewster trains and on trains out of
Croton-Harmon that were mostly express or made a small number of
stops.
In 1984, I had a job out of New York that ran trains 745 and 780 at that
time. 745 made every stop from Ludlow to Harmon and had M-1's as a
rule but 780 made a connection at Harmon with a Budd car from
Poughkeepsie and only made express stops. We were just about the
first train to get a set of M-3's (4 cars) and on that train, they ran just
fine.
Although I have not even seen an M-7, they are probably heavier and
therefore, use more power.
Noel Weaver

Noel: The M-7s are claimed to be about 125,000lbs per car. Thus the need for high HP, to meet the performance requirements. Thus, power consumption goes up.

I'm curious as to what the per linear foot resistastance of third rail is. It's obviously enough to be significant (or else MN would need only one substation for their entire system), though it can't be very high.

Must be interesting watching the third rail voltage (at the shoe - at the substation it'd be quite boring) as the train runs, and gets closer/farther from substations...

with the M7's in low power or coast mode the voltage at substations is 770 and a mile later just before section switch its 560 volt.

You can quickly see the difference in power requirement for a ten car train of M-1s at 560 HP per car, and a ten car train of M-7s at 1060 HP per car. (M-3 is 600 HP per car)

The M-7 manufacturer is, of course, aware of this. The train's communication network is designed to instruct each car to modify it's power draw as required, so that the sum total of all power draw in the M-7 train does not exceed a certain amperage. I'm told that M-7s do trip substations at times, however, anyway.

Tom

MNCR even has us slowing down before code change points to avoid maximum ATC hits on brakes.

We just had ten M-7 cars come over to WSS to have some particularly vicious flat spots trued out. Apparently, the wheel spin/slide system needs some tweaking on at least some of the cars.

Gotta envy the wheel truer operators. They can make some O.T. during wheel slip season, which is just in time for holiday spending.

Tom