Morris & Essex Lines – Q&A session

Tri-State Tom wrote:RS -

The coach yards were/are at South Orange ( gone - now athletic fields ), Summit ( intack but rarely used for coach storage ), Morristown ( intack but remodeled/refurbished by NJT for URHS equipment storage ) and Dover ( intact but recently expanded by NJT ).

Tom,

Summit yard, which is very small, while not used for overnight layover, is used, particularly during the am, as there are a number of trains which get staged in the yard over the course of the morning waiting for a shot onto the platform. This includes some of the 63xx series Summit-PSNY trains that have been added over the past two or so years.

It would be interesting to compare the number of peak period trains, and coaches assigned, to Midtown Direct on day 1 (June 10, 1996, IIRC) and today. Remember there was one train every half hour, with maybe 6 cars?

With the April 25 timetable, there are now four trains (6410, 6616, 6316, 6614) that collectively provide for the 800 to 815 psny arrival, with probably 33 to 35 cars between the 4 trains.

^Also, Summit to Hoboken trains wait here as well. Sometimes on weekdays you'll also see Comet cars parked here or work diesels or disabled trains. Not sure why they would have 1-2 Comet cars there during the day sometimes but I guess it is because these cars are waiting to be moved to someplace else.

Also, I wouldn't mind them storing trains in Summit overnight. Those Summit to NY/Hoboken trains just deadhead back to Hoboken, the MMC etc. only to come back the next morning. So then, might not be a bad idea to keep some of the trains at Summit overnight at least on weeknights (except Friday) for the next weekday morning rush.

Yeah, I was only kidding...to a certain extent. I don't know the performace specs of either the Arrows or the DL&W MUs.

The MUs though were however robust pieces of equipment. Think of the years of servcie they put behind them compared to the Arrows. The Arrow IIIs have alredy been completly rebuilt once and all of the IIs have been retired. It wansn't untill Conrail neglected the old MUs in the late 70's / early 80's in anticipation of the Arrows that they started to become unreliable.

In terms of seating capacity how many DL&W MUs (@2-2) = NJDOT Arrow III (@3-2).

Not including the conductor's seats at either end of the car, the apporximate seating capacity for the DL&W MUs was:

Tall trailers: 18 rows @ 2-2 = 72 Seats
Low trailers / motor cars: 19 rows @ 2-2 = 76 seats

Common train lengths were 6 or 8 cars during the peak commuting hours. There was even the occasional 12 car train that was run during, the 5:25 Dover local for instance.

ajt wrote:Annual M&E (Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch) passenger volumes at various points in time:

• 1974 — 9.5 million passenger trips (Erie-Lackawanna)
  1980 — 8.2 million (NJT formed)
  1984 — 5.5 million (re-electrification finally completed)
  1997 — 9.0 million (MidTOWN Direct)
  2002 — 12.8 million
  2003 — 12.5 million (recession)

Highest ever? Unknown. But fair to say the M&E is just slightly off its highest level in recorded history/past 30 years.

Why such a hefty drop between 1974 and 1984, especially between 1980 and 1984?

Boy Block, nothing like dusting the cobwebs off an old thread!!!!!!!!!

"Ive been meaning to ask this question for a while.........."

HAHAAHA

BlockLine_4111 wrote:

1. Why only two tracks between Millburn and Summit? Isn't this a bottleneck?
2. Were there ever three tracks between Millburn and Summit? What about three tracks between Summit and Morristown?
3. What is the maximum speed on the M&E? 79 mph? More?
4. Is ridership at an all-time high (versus DL&W/EL era) due to MidTownDirect? I assume weekend ridership is at all time high.
5. Do the ALP/Comet trains outperform the Arrows?

1. When DL&W built the RR, Millburn was tiny, and Summit was sleepy.
2. ?
3. 75 for electrics, 70 for diesels. The speeds on the M&E change so often that the Employee TT dosen't list a Maximum speed with permanent restrictions as the exception like all the other lines, instead it just lists all the speeds in order.
4. ?
5. Two ALP-44s pulling four Comets feels like a three-car MU set, according to the seat of my personal pants. There is a train out there with that eqiupment. Or was?

MUs could easily keep up with tighter schedules, but nine- and ten-car locomotive pulled locals usually need every minute, except maybe a few minutes between Secaucus Junction and NYP going east. I know a lot of peole are against the MUs on this forum, but having run ten-car MUs on the corridor and ten-car push-pulls on the M&E, I sure wish the MUs could go everywhere. Faster schedules and better acceleration/deceleration would be OK with me!

The '74 to '84 ridership decline can be traced to several events - early '80s recession, annual double-digit fare increases during early '80s, service disruptions from the re-electrification project, I-280 completion, Newark spiraling downward as a commuter destination. Those come to mind; there's probably more.