Commuter Rail Delay Discussion

StefanW wrote:Apparently similar issues on three Chelsea crossings right now... Arlington / 6th St., Spruce St. and Everett Ave. The A.C. said it was lingerings issues from power outages. Seems to have set back (at least) #62, #162, #63 and #109 each by about 4-5 min.

From what I heard, all gates were stuck in the down position through Everett and Chelsea. Or maybe that was the day before.

I'm not quite sure what is going on, but what appears to be a rescue set just came flying through Shirley towards Fitchburg. The train was completely dark with no passengers onboard.

No train comes through in the morning before I get on the 408 inbound. The first is the 453 outbound. Anyone have insight as to what happened? Did something fail to start due to the cold?

A set(1003) had an issue this AM waking up, the set that passed you was going to fill in as train #412.

The 1003 set in being rescued right now in Fitchburg with a switcher.

Train 429 had a little hiccup, causing a 5-10 minute delay in boarding and getting out of North Station. The set everyone thought would be 429 came in on time at 4:10 from train 466, and was supposed to immediately be sent back out as 4:20 outbound 429. When I got on 466 at Porter, there was one car that made a really awful sound and rumbled a bit as the train released its brakes and began to accelerate. Not sure if that was related to it. The conductors dashed to a different set just a minute before scheduled departure.

Worcester Line had a lovely evening, with what appears to be a disabled car plus a "medical emergency". The timing looks wrong for the train to have hit the car, though.

Framnghm/Worc P530 06:28 PM IB experiencing 25-30 min delays due to a disabled car on the tracks at Bishop Street in Framingham2/4/2013 6:55 PM

Framnghm/Worc P527 05:35 PM experiencing 30-45 min delays due to a disabled car on the tracks at Bishop Street in Framingham 2/4/2013 6:49 PM

Framnghm/Worc P529 05:55 PM OB experiencing 25-30 min delays due to medical emergency 2/4/2013 6:44 PM

I got the alert this morning that the spare set (351/352) was cancelled, probably to go on rescue duty somewhere. Sure enough, a check just before 0700 Tuesday morning showed 152 cancelled, and 154 30-45 minutes late. About the time 154 was due at North Station, mbtainfo.com's tracker showed it was still at Hamilton/Wenham.

When do those HSP-46's get here? :-/

octr202 wrote: When do those HSP-46's get here? :-/

March.

From what I've herd 154 itself died or had trouble after it tied on to 152. The failures seem to be increasing at an alarming rate lately and I can still rattle off at least 3 more engines with turbo problems still floating around that need to see the shop.

RT 1A in Hamilton was blocked this morning at about 6:30. By commuter rail train. Looked like they may have put two trains together in Newburyport. One engine 1005? Was in the middle Of the coaches. I could not really see what was going on. I sat there for 5 mins and went around the block. Looked like engineer or railroad personal standing next to the train on the phone. I made it to the other side and the cops were sending cars the same rt I had went.

1005 was on Mass Bay 307 this morning,

More fun this morning. Lowell alert:

Lowell 304 06:18 AM IB cancelled Lowell to North Billerica will operate on time North Billerica to Boston due to mechanical failure 2/6/2013 6:16 AM

One of our other roving correspondents saw 304 come through Anderson a tad late, with 1001 and 1034 doing the shoving.

Earlier, this correspondent arrived at Andover a few minutes early for 204, only to find 1015 and a 5f heading eastbound towards Lawrence and Haverhill. I recall hearing 202 go through...so sounds likely that something woke up dead at Bradford.

Note sure whether the HEP or the whole engine shut down on #239 last night as we were about to pass BET. It only lasted a moment, I could hear the engineer saying over the radio that he was restarting something.

Last night train #243 died up near Haverhill before it could be put away in Bradford. #245 towed it back to Boston. The extra set spotted at Anderson was a set headed to Haverhill to make #212.

Another rescue/substitute set came through Shirley enroute to Fitchburg at 6:27. Based on the timing I'm guessing it will be the 412.

P523 is running about 30 minutes behind schedule due to issues with P524. It sounded like P524 had issues with the main engine, it was cutting out repeatedly in back bay.

P523 also only has 2 conductors.....on an 8 car train ;[