Slow and long approach into GCT: why?

Why is the approach down the Park Avenue tunnel into Grand Central Termination SO slow for SO long? Trains crawl along between 59th Street and GCT, which is almost a mile. I know that the turnouts are tight, given the cramped space, and so speeds have to be slow over them...but so much of the track towards 59th Street doesn't seem to have many turnouts on it, so I'd think that speeds could be normal from 59th Street until maybe 50th or 55th Street.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Cab signal brings you down in speed for 3 signal blocks, from about 79th street.
one block is 45 mph max second block is 30 mph max, 3rd block is 15 mph (restricted) from 59th street in its 10 mph max.

SouthernRailway wrote:...but so much of the track towards 59th Street doesn't seem to have many turnouts on it, so I'd think that speeds could be normal from 59th Street until maybe 50th or 55th Street.

Exactly! It seems that way but it is not. Unless you're coming in on a straight shot to the platform(track 28 usually) you're going to have to negotiate several turnouts. Keep in mind the an 8 car train is nearly 700 feet long, and a train would have to travel that entire length before picking up speed. Even if the train could pickup speed between switches it would have to get back down to speed pretty quick for the next switch. That being the case, you wouldn't gain much time trying to get up to "normal" speed just to get back to restricted 10 a couple of hundred feet later.

Just to add my 2 cents, depending on the time of day it's not uncommon to be following another train in or out of the tunnel, which will bring the speed down to medium or restricted. This is something a passenger just looking out the side windows won't realize.

Traveling south the first set of "terminal" signals we approach are just south of 59th St and each mainline track has one (1S1, 2S1, 3S1, 4S1). Just south of those signals is where the "maze" begins.

Also once out of the tunnel in in the terminal it self, regardless of what turnouts you have to negotiate, we can not go above restricted not exceeding 10 MPH. Negotiating the terminal can be tricky. When you see upwards of a half dozen signals in every direction you can't assume a favorable signal is yours. You have to check every switch to see which way you're lined toward what signal. If you read a switch wrong and blow a red, you just received an instant 30 days unpaid leave, no questions asked. None of us want an instant 30 day unpaid vacation.

Most station approaches are fairly slow in my experience. I can't recall ever going into GCT, but every significant station in Chicago has a rather pokey approach for the last mile or so. I might be wrong, but I bet the management cares less about train velocity through such a space than train volume. In other words, how many trains at one time can we fit through the ladder track or throat tracks to a terminal?

I might well be wrong with these comments but this is how it was when I worked in there. At that time everything was dwarf signals with only two possible indicaations restricting and stop with only one or two exceptions where grades were involved. I know the signals are different today but at least when I was working there the signals were very close together and a restricting signal does not gurantee a clear track but only allows the movement to pass the signal. Some dwarf signals were behind walls and could only be seen when the train was very close to them. The switches I suspect are still about what they were when I was working there and in that case the crossovers, switches and turnouts are very tight and require movements to move slow over them. Two other New Haven Stations (joint stations in this case) Springfield and Boston were also basically 10 MPH or at least not better than restricted speed and we went into the tracks especially in Boston at a slow, slow speed. Trains can run a tiny bit faster through much of Penn Station which has a better signal system than Grand Central Terminal has or at least had during my time. Maybe Dutch can shet some more on this one.
Noel Weaver

you guys are all overthinking this, his question was about approaching GCT, as he already knew why speed in GCT was low.
Yes the ladders start at 59th street and from there on a train will always have part of its consist on a switch, no matter where you go.