Niagara Falls Station

johnpbarlow wrote:Here's a Google Maps aerial shot of either the eb Maple Leaf #64 or train #284 arriving or departing the old NF station (can't tell with certainty from the summer sun angle if it's early AM (284) or midday (64) but I'm guessing it's the latter). The distance between the new station on Main St by the bridge to the turning wye appears to be about 7+ miles making the turn move about 15 miles!

The new station is only about 1.5 miles away from the old one, so not really different than what they're doing today?

161pw165 wrote:

johnpbarlow wrote:Here's a Google Maps aerial shot of either the eb Maple Leaf #64 or train #284 arriving or departing the old NF station (can't tell with certainty from the summer sun angle if it's early AM (284) or midday (64) but I'm guessing it's the latter). The distance between the new station on Main St by the bridge to the turning wye appears to be about 7+ miles making the turn move about 15 miles!

The new station is only about 1.5 miles away from the old one, so not really different than what they're doing today?

I looked at map by USA and Canada border before. I never understood how the old station was beneficial for customs and immigration and security since employees would not have the resources they needed with a large local office. The old station looks like it was from the time when USA and Canada had more open borders. Hopefully this will speed up the process of going between USA and Canada. Many years passed before this was accomplished. Lots of people used Bus or car or just walked over the border because it was quicker and this must have been costing Amtrak revenue as well.

Still other stations on the route which slow down the trains till they are redone but the new Niagra Falls station was most important due to the time spent for customs which was exceedingly long. Rochester almost finished, Schenectady will get demolished next year. And they are working on site selection for Buffalo. Years of neglect of passenger rail which is only at an early stage of progress,

Railjunkie wrote:That train is on the "house track" so its likely 281 backing in.

Every time I have visited NFL with MOUNT VERNON we have arrived on train 281 and they backed into the stub end track between the house track and the thru mainline track. A few hours later I would see 283 backing into the house track, and that same trainset departing from the house track as train 280 at 3:55 AM. I realize that may be a departure from the normal operating procedure due to the need to park an occupied PV for a few nights.

Railjunkie wrote:The old station will be the sign up/off location for the T&E crews along with storage for the train sets. Trains will now pull straight into the new station drop their passengers and back up to the old station, reverse the process for the outgoing trains. There will be a yard crew to turn the train sets and stage AMT280 at the new station in the AM. 280 will be the only train set staged all others will be handled by the outgoing crews.

Are you sure that is how trainsets will be turned at NFL under the new operating plan? I see two options, given that arriving trains will pull directly into the new station to offload ---

(A) Offload at new station, back all the way to wye, turn on wye, then back into old station storage tracks. When departing old station in the morning, pull ahead out of storage tracks, then back down mainline to new station for passenger loading and departure.

(B) Offload at new station, back to old station, then pull ahead into old station storage tracks. When departing in the morning, back out of storage tracks all the way to the wye, turn train on the wye, then back all the way down mainline to new station for offloading and departure.

If an arriving train 281/283 is bringing a PV for parking at NFL, they will eventually need to back the trainset into the old station, spot the car at the bumper, cut the car and then connect the car to ground power at the bumper.

http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/page ... 012_2.html

adamj023 wrote: I looked at map by USA and Canada border before. I never understood how the old station was beneficial for customs and immigration and security since employees would not have the resources they needed with a large local office. The old station looks like it was from the time when USA and Canada had more open borders. Hopefully this will speed up the process of going between USA and Canada. Many years passed before this was accomplished. ,

US CBP Didn't use the station at all...they boarded the train and processed passengers seat-to-seat, which required the use of a mobile inspection team that came from the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge Port of Entry station. If a passenger needed secondary inspection, they would actually have the passenger have their bags searched in the Cafe car on a table.