Pan Am PLED and EDPL

Pan Am seems to be much busier than they use to be here in Central CT. I found out that ED PL is now running M/W/F and PLED is running T/Th/Sa. Anybody know the approximate times the trains depart Springfield south and Plainville north???? Love to catch one some day. I have seen container in the Plainville yard now, so I know they are getting new traffic from the Port of Portland deal I heard about.

Thanks everyone.

Nice video by "Chessiecat97" of EDPL crossing the bridge in Windsor, CT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRV8N4szW5c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, there are no specific times that the trains run. The best place for information is the PanAm Railways Yahoo! Group, where You have Bill Sample in Berlin who always reports what he sees, and me in Holyoke. EDPL is also just as likely to run on Sunday as any other day, like it did yesterday, and PLED is probably going to come north tomorrow or this afternoon. The turnaround time for EDPL/PLED has substantially decreased over the last two years or so since PanAm reinstituted PL-1. Now PL-1 (this week it's MEC 379) does the switching work in Connecticut, with the exception of the CNE interchange in Hartford, and EDPL/PLED simply shuttles cars back and forth.
As for me, if you look on Bing! Maps my condo complex is the one just south of the US Route 202 Bridge, and I have a direct view of the tracks from my condo. The estimated travel time of an EDPL for example, is roughly two hours from where I'm at in Holyoke, to Berlin station where Bill's at. There are a number of factors involved that can increase/decrease that time: track rehab from Springfield to East Northfield will be done this year, which should cut at least 1/2 hour off of the travel time, if the train switches the CNE interchange in Hartford, and/or has to wait for an Amtrak train that increases the time. Haven't seen any containers for months, so I couldn't say for sure what the deal with that is. Also, what town do you live in, and how close to the tracks or railroad yard in Plainville? My advice is try to catch PL-1 doing some switching work, which could be interesting, because they usually swap power weekly. This weeks PL-1 is MEC 379, last weeks was MEC 306, and the week before MEC 380. They've also had B&M 335, MEC 354, and a number of others.
Hope I helped!
Peace,
Jonathan

EDPL was reinstated, PL-1 was always there, but did local work and went to Deerfield on Saturdays and returned Mondays. Back in the day there was also a PL-2 which was supposed to do Tilcon work, but the crew was stolen so frequently the company stopped loading at that location.

Once the Conn River is done, quite a bit more will be shaved off than 30 minutes. It's 35 miles from Deerfield Junction to the diamond in Springfield. At 10 mph currently, assuming no stops and protects, we can call that 3.5 hrs. At 40 mph you're down around an hour.

Video by Chessiecat97:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvWVBVOC2Y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Video by Chessiecat97:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qehje8S6j_s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Photo by Mike Young:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=562594" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rumor that Amtrak banned the last cab signal engine they have because it keeps sh*tting the bed. If true it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Good be just BS too.

How difficult would it be to transfer the equipment to one of the GATX-owned/rebuilt units?

MEC407 wrote:How difficult would it be to transfer the equipment to one of the GATX-owned/rebuilt units?

What's the point, they're not in any better shape than Pan Am's engines they own outright.

That's contrary to what I've heard about them, or at least what I've heard about two or three of them. One particular GP was described to me as "good as new" after it came back from being overhauled. I don't have first-hand knowledge of this but I also don't have any reason to doubt the person who said it to me.

MEC407 wrote:How difficult would it be to transfer the equipment to one of the GATX-owned/rebuilt units?

What good is that if the equipment also sucks?

Any leasers with ACES on the market? That'll be the route they'll take if available, I bet.

Is the problem with the locomotive itself or with the cab signal equipment? Or is it both?

MEC407 wrote:That's contrary to what I've heard about them, or at least what I've heard about two or three of them. One particular GP was described to me as "good as new" after it came back from being overhauled. I don't have first-hand knowledge of this but I also don't have any reason to doubt the person who said it to me.

Sure, when it first came back, but there's been a fair bit of time since then.

The 3400s or the ex-MEC ones that Paducah rebuilt they are all substantially in better shape than Pan Am units.

The issue is reliability of the engine not the cab signalling equipment.