MNR Observations

Metro-North continues to mismanage the Upper Hudson, with cascading effects for the rest of the line. Their decision to not continue to run twice-hourly service has proved disastrous, with excessive crowds creating heavy delays and unsafe onboard decisions.

Both last night and today, train 8852 (as well as 8848) was running at 100% capacity out of Cold Spring, and upwards of 140% by the time it got to Croton-Harmon. The heavy crowding and long stops at Manitou/Breakneck meant that 8852 was running upwards of 20 minutes late, and #8752 also was held for 10-15 minutes at Croton to accommodate passengers from the Upper Hudson, who transferred at Croton en masse. They were experiencing these levels of crowds and delays last weekend with doubled service, and they still figured that everything would be fine this weekend. Total facepalm.

Wow, wild ridership! The NHL gets twice-hourly weekend service, actually better than some weekday late nights, why can't the Hudson get that too?

It appears that MNR isn't running the holiday "Shopper Special" trains that they used to in the weekends leading up to Christmas. Gonna be some crazy crowds on the evening semi-expresses to New Haven - it was crowded last year and that was with extra trains that ran express to Fairfield.

A couple observations from this past Saturday's trip from West Haven down to South Norwalk and back on the NHL, M-8s:

1. I heard a series of computerized electronic tones right as our train was beginning to change tracks within an interlocking. Is this common on the NHL/MN/M-8s for interlockings to be "announced" this way?

2. At one point, the lights in our car went out (side lights). The train crew then came on the PA and announced that at Stratford, only the middle cars were open, and if you were seated in a car with the lights out, that car would not platform and you'd have to walk either back or forward. After we got past the bridge plates, the lights in our car came back on. I don't recall being on a NHL train in the past and having the train crew use the lighting in the cars as a reference to whether or not your car will platform.

Thoughts?

shadyjay wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 6:39 pm A couple observations from this past Saturday's trip from West Haven down to South Norwalk and back on the NHL, M-8s:

1. I heard a series of computerized electronic tones right as our train was beginning to change tracks within an interlocking. Is this common on the NHL/MN/M-8s for interlockings to be "announced" this way?

2. At one point, the lights in our car went out (side lights). The train crew then came on the PA and announced that at Stratford, only the middle cars were open, and if you were seated in a car with the lights out, that car would not platform and you'd have to walk either back or forward. After we got past the bridge plates, the lights in our car came back on. I don't recall being on a NHL train in the past and having the train crew use the lighting in the cars as a reference to whether or not your car will platform.

Thoughts?

Doing that with lighting is actually a pretty great idea. Lots of people can be disoriented as to where in the train they are or what cars will be platforming, so it's good to have a clear indicator of that.
Of course...2010s railcars should have actual in-train information systems, but I digress...

I've heard those tones before. Never figured out what they're for and they seem to be pretty random, but maybe I just never made the connection. I tend to hear it coming out of terminals mostly.

Yes that's a great idea about the lighting. Of course agreed on the information systems, especially since we just got the last delivery a couple months ago...

Some engineers use the tone to alert conductors before traversing an interlocking, as some are pretty rough. It's just courtesy to give them a couple seconds to put their feet a little farther apart and balance.