Getting re-acquainted with the Rock...

Yesterday (10/14), I took a ride on the RI district, making a round trip between LSS and Blue Island. Although the trip wasn't originally planned as such, I wound up leaving downtown on train 409 and returned on 418, which was risky because the schedule only allowed a 2 minute window between the trains at Blue Island, but forturnately, 409 arrived there on time, while 418 was 5 minutes down, thus giving me just a little more of a cushion. Other observations:

>>Both trains went via the mainline, and although I've traveled the suburban branch in recent years, this was my first ride on the main line segment in at least 15 years.

>>There was once a station stop at Givens, on 111th/Vincennes, which was closed over 20 years ago. However, the structure itself is still standing, and it didn't appear to be in use, although the train was flying through there and I couldn't really tell for sure. Still, I found it sadly ironic that even though there are tangible remains of a small, minimally used station such as this, there are no trackside remains of the famous Englewood station at 63rd St, a station that was once a transfer point for famous passenger trains such as NYC's 20th Century limited and Pennsy's Broadway limited. Today's Rock Island route crosses what is known today as Norfolk Southern's Chicago division (formerly Conrail, Penn Central before that) at 63rd St., and the Englewood station was just south of the diamonds. It is true that change is inevitable, but it's still a shame that now, it looks as though the station was never even there. And as such, a legendary piece of railroading has been forever lost to history.

>>Ridership on this route is indeed growing steadily. Yesterday's 409 to Joliet was an eight-car SRO to at least Blue Island, and even when I got off on my return trip downtown, the platform was filled almost to capacity with people waiting to board. On my trip to Blue Island a few weeks earlier, I noted many of the nine-car morning rush hour trains from Joliet were pretty much filled to capacity by the time it reached Blue Island. No doubt, Metra definitely has a challenge on its hands in terms of dealing with the ever-increasing ridership, and as for more trains being added to the route at some point, I'd say it's not a question of if, but when.

>>The third main installation along the east side of the ROW appears to be coming along, albeit slowly. I understand that Metra intends to shift traffic onto this track once completed, and the third track will be used for shop moves to/from 47th St. Crews are working northward from 63rd St., and I'm assuming this will be the southern end of the new third main, but anyone that knows for sure (Kyle?) let me know. So far, they've gotten up to about 43rd St...

>>With the exception of the suburban branch, much of the line is bi-directional CTC, yet at times Metra operates this line left-handed style, on all segments except again on the suburban branch, which continues to operate right handed. It's funny, because while railfanning at Blue Island a few weeks ago during the morning rush, trains were operating "right handed". AFAIK, there wasn't any trackwork that dictated any sort of deviation from normal operations, but then again, I'm not sure what "normal operations" consists of on this route in terms of traffic flow. Anybody that can fill in the blanks, feel free to do so. But for what it's worth, I don't recall the Rock Island ever being a "left handed" road, and when RTA (actually CNW initially) took over Rock Island operations in 1980, the line was still operated right-handed in all locations, so this has to be a recent phenomenon. Makes me wonder how traffic patterns are going to be aligned once the SWS trains are moved to LaSalle St, and I also wonder if just one additional track will be enough.

>>And finally, as I stated earlier, I returned to LSS on 418, arriving at 1730, three minutes late, which turned to outbound train 417. Train was routed into track 7 in the terminial, which just happened to be the same track that had weekend spare F40PHM-2 unit 212 sitting at the far end about 50 feet from the bumper post. No other trains were in the station at the time, and it seemed odd to me that this train wasn't routed onto any other available track. Pretty weird...

doepack wrote:>>Ridership on this route is indeed growing steadily. Yesterday's 409 to Joliet was an eight-car SRO to at least Blue Island, and even when I got off on my return trip downtown, the platform was filled almost to capacity with people waiting to board.

Train #409 is actually a 9 car train, as are #407, 411, 413, and 415. Reverse inbound service can be busy at times, ridership goes up and down with off peak service on a daily basis.

doepack wrote:>>The third main installation along the east side of the ROW appears to be coming along, albeit slowly. I understand that Metra intends to shift traffic onto this track once completed, and the third track will be used for shop moves to/from 47th St. Crews are working northward from 63rd St., and I'm assuming this will be the southern end of the new third main, but anyone that knows for sure (Kyle?) let me know. So far, they've gotten up to about 43rd St...

They are actually adding 2 tracks between 18th and 63rd Streets. I am not sure what will happen to the current 2 mainline tracks, but as far as I know, they will not be kept in service. The project still has 2 more years before its scheduled completion.

doepack wrote:>>I'm not sure what "normal operations" consists of on this route in terms of traffic flow. Anybody that can fill in the blanks, feel free to do so.

As you noticed all Branch Line traffic runs right handed, however mainline trains go from right to left handed on a daily basis. All weekday morning operations are right handed until 1pm, the rest of the day is left handed. I don't know the exact reasoning behind this, but RI platforms on the station side have the longer platform, so all 9 cars can fit on the platform. While if they ran right handed only 3-4 cars can open at 80th Ave. and New Lenox. Weekend operations usually operate so trains stop on the station side (track 1).

doepack wrote:>>Train was routed into track 7 in the terminial, which just happened to be the same track that had weekend spare F40PHM-2 unit 212 sitting at the far end about 50 feet from the bumper post.

I have never noticed a weekend spare on RI until this summer, they must have added the spare when the double header stopped running on Sundays.

While talking about RI, it looks like Alstom will be designing the new signal system for the new trackage. I wonder if all RI will get new signals...

Purchase Order No.: K56021
IFB/RFP No.: R87313
Description: Design and Furnish Signal System
Vendor Name: Alstom Signaling, Inc.
Project No.: CJ3325
Purchase Order Value: $7,897,027.00
Amt. Of Federal Funds: $6,317,622.00
% of Total Value: 80%

metraRI wrote:They are actually adding 2 tracks between 18th and 63rd Streets. I am not sure what will happen to the current 2 mainline tracks, but as far as I know, they will not be kept in service. The project still has 2 more years before its scheduled completion

When did the project begin? Still, I think it would be a mistake to remove both of the old mains from service once the ROW project is complete, given the additional service this corridor will see in the coming years. Expanded service on RI, SWS relocation, plus the proposed line to Dolton should necessitate the retention of at least one of the tracks to ensure the line will have the proper capacity. There are many tales of railroads hastily ripping up track after abandonment, only to regret the move later on when additional traffic was acquired, and I hope Metra doesn't make the same mistake here.

metraRI wrote:As you noticed all Branch Line traffic runs right handed, however mainline trains go from right to left handed on a daily basis. All weekday morning operations are right handed until 1pm, the rest of the day is left handed. I don't know the exact reasoning behind this, but RI platforms on the station side have the longer platform, so all 9 cars can fit on the platform. While if they ran right handed only 3-4 cars can open at 80th Ave. and New Lenox. Weekend operations usually operate so trains stop on the station side (track 1)

If the changeover from right to left-handed operation occurs at 1pm, then I suspect the shift probably begins with outbound train 513 and inbound train 514, where each crosses over to the "left main" at Blue Island and Gresham Jct. respectively, then proceeds to the terminal. And after giving it more thought, it did occur to me that the longer platforms on MT1 below Blue Island will berth all the nine car rush hour trains more easily, so thanks for the clarification...

metraRI wrote:While talking about RI, it looks like Alstom will be designing the new signal system for the new trackage. I wonder if all RI will get new signals...

Purchase Order No.: K56021
IFB/RFP No.: R87313
Description: Design and Furnish Signal System
Vendor Name: Alstom Signaling, Inc.
Project No.: CJ3325
Purchase Order Value: $7,897,027.00
Amt. Of Federal Funds: $6,317,622.00
% of Total Value: 80%

Alstom is currently in the process of delievering some brand new locomotives to east coast commuter hauler NJT, but I didn't know they made signals too... interesting.

doepack wrote:Still, I think it would be a mistake to remove both of the old mains from service once the ROW project is complete

Isn't the new alignment being built at least in part to move the tracks from older bridges to newer ones, providing greater clearance for vehicles on the streets below? If that is the case, the old bridges (and thus the old tracks) will have to be removed.

I would hope that before undertaking this project they determined that three tracks would not be needed to accommodate traffic increases in the forseeable future. (Building a three-track-wide bridge now probably would cost only slightly more than a two-track bridge--probably well under 50% more, and surely much less than adding a separate one-track bridge years later.) But the Rock Island schedule would have to be greatly increased to approach the level of traffic on, for example, the triple-track BNSF. Other double-track lines seem adequate for traffic levels similar to that on the Rock Island (e.g. 60 Metra, 16 Amtrak, and many freights on the Milwaukee North).

If Metra has indeed determined that three tracks wouldn't be necessary to accomodate the future traffic increases of this corridor, I think they are fooling themselves. I believe it would be more than a little shortsighted on Metra's part if they did not build a new triple track alignment for this corridor between LaSalle St. and Englewood crossing, even if current service levels doesn't justify the extra capacity.

Once relocated, SWS will be a full service operation totaling at least 30 trains daily. Rock Island service is currently at 68 trains daily, a number that's sure to increase as well, perhaps by as much as 10 percent. Even a 5 percent increase in Rock Island service will bring just over 100 daily trains in revenue service a day to this corridor within the next decade, and that's not including deadhead moves to/from 47th St. yard (which will no doubt have to be expanded as well), or trains of the proposed SES to Dolton, assuming that gets built, although initial service on that line would probably be in rush hours only. I would love to see just two tracks attempt to handle all of this additional traffic, I just don't see how it could be done, even if you had numerous crossovers strategically placed every few miles or so, as on BNSF. The only way I could see a two track alignment being sufficient is if Metra decides not to move SWS to LaSalle St.

It's unlikely, but I would hope there are budgetary provisions for the addition of a third track to this project, because if it exists, it would be extremely beneficial to build the extra capacity now. If nothing else, it would go a long way toward avoiding the possible operational headaches that would likely result from having to add it later on.

doepack wrote:If nothing else, it would go a long way toward avoiding the possible operational headaches that would likely result from having to add it later on.

That is what happened on the Milwaukee West line. When I first started riding, there was a forth main between Franklin Park and Western Ave. They tore it out in the 80s and rebuilt the bridge at Cicero for only 3 tracks. Now they are adding a short section to complete a 4th track for freight (since they converted the old freight main to passenger use) between the Belt Line junction and the switch just west of the Cicero bridge. It includes building a new bridge for the additional track. They are also puting in a new station at this location.

That extra loco has been a staple of track 7 at LaSalle St for at least a couple of months now. No idea what it's for. Recently I also noticed that they left three extra coaches on track 5 after the evening rush. They were always there when I would get the 6:40 out.

Also, is the temporary track still in place at 47th St, or have they actually rebuilt the real main yet? (I tend to wonder if they even -will- rebuild it, with the first new main slowly inching toward completion.)

I agree that it would be nice to keep at least one additional main around when the project is completed, but as someone pointed out, the major aim of the project is building new bridges and moving the mains over onto them. None of the bridges that they built are wide enough for 3 tracks. Oi.

Personally, I'm happy now that I've just moved to Milw-W territory. 3+ tracks is a luxury to me after having been on the Rock for a few years, and I was surprised at the bustling CP freight activity here. Even just in the past year the Rock has become increasingly unpleasant to ride. Really all it needs is a schedule overhaul, because the crew guys themselves are mostly great. I have to admit that these Milw guys aren't nearly as efficient in comparison.