NHV-BOS Speeds pre-wiring

Good afternoon - what kind of speeds did diesel Metroliners/New England Express see before the corridor was wired north of NHV?

Weren't the highest speeds attained by the Turbo?

Into the 1960s the New Haven RR had a stretch of 90 mph (passenger) territory between the outskirts of Providence and the outskirts of Boston. That was for standard equipment; the Turbo had its own set of liberalized speed limits.

Tadman wrote:Good afternoon - what kind of speeds did diesel Metroliners/New England Express see before the corridor was wired north of NHV?

Tadman:

Immediately before wiring, the NHV-BOS had large swaths of 90mph railroad which culminated in 110mph in what is now the 150mph zones for the Acela. Now, that was the MAS. It was rarely attainable since most of the F40s were restricted to 100mph. The ones that were allowed 110mph rarely achieved that speed unless you had two of them or you have 4 cars.

I don't have any old timetables close by but it seems to me there was a short stretch of 100 MPH at one time in the early 70's for the Turbo Train on track 2 someplace west of Providence. Maybe it was close to Davisville. Its has been a long time for me in that territory. Sometimes higher speeds were the result of politics even though no train no matter what could attain such speeds. I think we did on this stretch occasionally but the UAC Turbo Train was not the best riding equipment, indeed standard coaches rode better at least in my experiences and an E-8 was definitely better riding than the "tin can" in all respects.
Noel Weaver

Noel, wasn't the 100 mph permitted over the long tangent through Kingston and the Great Swamp, in the early '70s?

Back then, when we had a volunteer crew "quietly" refurbishing Kingston station (with consent of the owner, PC), I was "bootlegging" some volunteers from Boston who worked late, with special stops that week by #152 (IIRC) to pick us all up for the return "home".

Our arrangement worked fine, with "no questions asked" until one night late that week, when Bob Herman (Superintendent) with Bob Hopkins (Asst VP-O) happened to be aboard 152, unannounced! I'll never forget Bob Hopkins' look as he gazed out at all the scaffolding, patched canopy posts, etc...

Those guys were both gentlemen of the "old school" who accepted my explanation, overlooked the bootlegging, and generally supported worthy initiatives that showed how Amtrak people cared.

Interesting answers, thanks for your input. The question arose in my mind after my recent 110mph ride Portage-Kalamazoo.

The F40 were also pretty tired by the time the wire went up

I first flowed over to Amtrak in October 1985, and worked the Shore Line until 1998 when I gave up that territory and stuck with New Haven - Penn for the rest of my career. F-40's ruled the roost in those days.

Top speed on the Shore Line in those days was 100mph on some stretches in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Areas like Kingston to Davisville, and Between Attleboro and Sharon come to mind.

90mph a little here and there in Connecticut, but generally somewhat slower because that's where much of the curvature was as the railroad stayed close to the actual "shore line".