Delays 8/15/13

Could there possibly have been a worse location for a train to break down?? I guess in this case it was good that the protect was at Jamaica...

Wonder why it took a while for the protect engine to come out? (They sent alerts about bringing it out, and I saw the m7 set was shoved onto the track that ducks under the main line and leads to Morris park) Good thing there was one though. At one pont the delays were about an hour,

It was a tough spot for sure. Plus the HAROLD interlocking work did not make anything easier since certain tracks and switches were OOS and things were stretched very tight already. If I'm not mistaken, the layout of HAROLD makes it pretty tough to get a train from Mainline 2 into the westbound ERT's, so they might've been reduced to only one track JAY-HAROLD!

Just an unlucky incident happening at a very unlucky spot during an unlucky time with the ESA work going on.

But since when is the LIRR known for having good luck?

Where exactly did the train break down/which station tracks were rendered unusable? (the alerts just said west of Jamaica, obviously)

Was it in the actual Jamaica complex that the train keeled over or was it someplace on Mainline 3 closer to Kew Gardens? "west of Jamaica" ambiguous.

the protect sat in jamaica (in the station, not east of the station where it parks) for 40 mins before going out there.

http://www.mta.info/supplemental/lirr/s ... -15-13.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently 1001 broke down, limped to Jamaica, where it was taken out of service, and in proceeding into the yard broke down for good.

If this apology is accurate, only one of the 4 tracks were blocked. The LIRR ran without one of their 4 tracks when the M7 derailed on the main line a few months ago; there was a mess, but I don't think delays in the 60min+ range developed. It's obvious that the HAROLD work played a part here.

I'm surprised that in this whole mess, only two trains were canceled as a direct result, and one of those was on the Port Wash. (two others had equipment problems of their own)

Amtrak7 wrote:If this apology is accurate, only one of the 4 tracks were blocked. The LIRR ran without one of their 4 tracks when the M7 derailed on the main line a few months ago; there was a mess, but I don't think delays in the 60min+ range developed. It's obvious that the HAROLD work played a part here.

The only thing is that last time track 1was OOS, this time it appears track 3 bit the dust, so that might've played a roll. Plus last time they were able to strategically anull/cancel/divert trains that might have made things flow a lot easier.

It was an unlucky chain of events, but stuff happens I guess!

lirr42 wrote:

Amtrak7 wrote:If this apology is accurate, only one of the 4 tracks were blocked. The LIRR ran without one of their 4 tracks when the M7 derailed on the main line a few months ago; there was a mess, but I don't think delays in the 60min+ range developed. It's obvious that the HAROLD work played a part here.

The only thing is that last time track 1was OOS, this time it appears track 3 bit the dust, so that might've played a roll. Plus last time they were able to strategically anull/cancel/divert trains that might have made things flow a lot easier.

It was an unlucky chain of events, but stuff happens I guess!

I'm surprised they didn't divert anything. As soon as they saw this incident would take a long time to clear they should've started to cancel/combo and divert. For some reason the railroad rarely does cancel/combos for most of the AM rush hour (not counting things for which they have time to plan, like the derailment cleanups)

I bet it was also one of those "Hey, I bet still having the Lower Montauk might help things right now!" moments.

Honestly, the LIRR should be able to have some sort of workaround for instantly diverting trains away from the Mainline or Penn Station when things like this occur. Sitting on one's thumbs and say "ah, just leave 'em, they'll get to work eventually" doesn't usually end well.

If only it were that simple. Disabled trains in the wrong spot at the wrong time can cause **** to hit the fan spectacularly. There's only so many Penn Station bound trains you can divert to Atlantic and Hunterspoint before all you can do is simply wait it out until the mess is cleaned up.

The lower Montauk wouldn't have been any help at all. Most of the congestion was east of Jamaica. It was so bad today trains were backing up as far as Hicksville and Wantagh. (Disclaimer: I bailed from 613 at Jamaica and went to Brooklyn instead. No congestion on the Atlantic branch west of there)

RestrictOnTheHanger wrote:The lower Montauk wouldn't have been any help at all. Most of the congestion was east of Jamaica. It was so bad today trains were backing up as far as Hicksville and Wantagh. (Disclaimer: I bailed from 613 at Jamaica and went to Brooklyn instead. No congestion on the Atlantic branch west of there)

Should have stayed on 613... after we left Jamaica it was smooth sailing, 20 minutes to HPA from there.

Once again, where exactly did the train break down? I've been saying for years there should be another set of crossovers between all main-line tracks somewhere west of Forest Hills. They never should have eliminated the WIN crossovers. Penny-wise and pound foolish! Jay to Harold is a long stretch without being able to cross anything over when things like this happen along there.