Commuter Rail Delay Discussion

Probably a Downeaster equipment move. They usually go south (west) on 686 from Portland, and an extra crew cuts off the outbound equipment and goes over to Southampton St. They come back with whatever equipment is heading back to Portland, and will some times add their equipment to 689, or go back on their own. I suspect they take the Reading line from time to time to maintain qualifications there in case of detours (as has happened in the past due to track work).

Yes it was a Downeaster equipment move back to Portland. Crew and equipment came down on 686.
And they did go via Reading behind 239 to qualify new people...

D

P508 is delayed about 10 minutes from Worcester this morning. 1060 was belching huge amounts of smoke as it came out of the yard and into Union Station.

Komarovsky wrote:P508 is delayed about 10 minutes from Worcester this morning. 1060 was belching huge amounts of smoke as it came out of the yard and into Union Station.

Wow. I bet that looked good to the huge crowds of "traveling public" as they saw their frequently-delayed Worcester train coming into the station belching smoke...I wonder if any of them went to their cars and drove!

The 1060 isn't really the sharpest tool in the shed.

Honestly, i was happy it was able to make it out of the yard. Once it got moving the wasn't a problem, but watching it smokebomb the platform and downtown Worcester made me seriously concerned.

Ck, i take it 1060 has something of a bad rep. Anything in particular wrong with it or is it just a bad apple overall?

In related news, p523 is delayed 20-25 minutes due to a mechanical failure. Train hasn't even made it to back bay yet. And on top of everything the 5:16 local to framingham is delayed because of that. Anyone want to take bets that 1060 is the cause of this mess.

They might as well run the Worcester Line out of North Station, it seems they get all the crappy equipment just like all the north-side lines.

As of this morning 1060 has been removed from the Worcester yard and 1054 with 8 K cars has replaced it. Hopefully this will alleviate some of the overcrowding on p508.

Just to balance things out, something died on the Northside midday:

Haverhill 222 01:20 PM IB cancelled Andover and Ballardvale Shuttle to pick up passengers and bring to Boston due to mechanical failure 5/8/2012 1:28 PM

Haverhill 220 12:00 PM IB experiencing 30-45 min delays due to mechanical failure 5/8/2012 1:26 PM

Haverhill 215 12:20 PM OB cancelled due to mechanical failure next Train 217 to depart Boston at 110 PM 5/8/2012 12:57 PM

^ The MBTA was blowing up my phone with that incident. I love that they're communicating and all, but the redundant and sometimes conflicting alerts don't help. I received alerts saying the 12:20 PM outbound was canceled, and then saying the 12:20PM outbound was merely delayed 25 minutes about an hour later.

1060 seems to come North quite often. Hence, it is one of the F40 rebuilds that breaks down more most than the others.

CK, what *would you say is the "sharpest tool in the shed"? 010 or 011 maybe?

I would think so!

It would have to be either 010 or 011. But they haven't seen the harsh winters every other loco in the fleet has seen either. These two haven't been around long enough to experience what all the other locos have, from turbos blowing up in smoke to electrical issues daily like some power.