Interesting consists

You do realize it doesn't matter which way the train is turned, the horns gets blown the same amount of times from both ends, when it gets to the end of the line they change ends and then have to sound for the same crossings going back the other way.

Haha.

And the wheels rotate northbound, an equal number of times as the southbound trip?

Not in leafy season

Speaking of which it looks like the wash and gel trains are being made ready at Wayne electric, look out for the test runs soon and shortly after the season will be on full swing with the 3 trains out and about each night

Wire train just went through 30th St upper toward Suburban on Track 2. By what I have seen so far standing here, there are 4 trains in front of it.

And as I stand here typing this, a 4 car SL5 set went by on Track 1 without stopping. Train 5368 is 13 late. What is going on???

And then it came back on Track 3 towards Powelton...

At the time of day you were there they run a few non revenue runs between yards to get ready for the evening rush hour, the non stop trains in the day are quite common, the wire train usually goes to Elwyn during the day, couldn't tell you why it was on track 2 maybe a shift due to congestion or they needed to work on that track that day, the West Trenton train that comes from Thorndale gets stung by Amtrak running in front of them quite regularly, remember on the Harrisburg line they are at the mercy of Amtrak, would be nice to adjust the running time to give it a better chance of being on time, but then that causes more problems having to find a new slot through Philly, and the spacing on the West Trenton line wouldn't justify running 2 trains so close together

On at least 5 of the 6 weekdays between Monday, October 27 and Monday, November 3, inclusive, the first 4 of the 6 cars on train 6321 were 132-131-330-331. Because of my perspective, boarding a late-running 328 in the station at virtually the sane time, I didn't catch the numbers of the last two, but they appeared to be singles with their own pantagraphs.

This is a run that was formerly run with push-pulls. I wonder if this set is stored in such a place where a push-pull was once stored and is taken out twice a day for one rush hour revenue run plus a deadhead as a push-pull would have been.

I also wonder if this has been going on with 6321 for a while now, but I only noticed it this past week because of 328's slippery-rail induced lateness plus the presence of two x31 cars in this consist.

Limited-Clear wrote:You do realize it doesn't matter which way the train is turned, the horns gets blown the same amount of times from both ends, when it gets to the end of the line they change ends and then have to sound for the same crossings going back the other way.

You're right, of course. I was thinking more about that particular train's situation, in which there were 3 or more cars on the train, so the second outbound car would not become the lead inbound car.

6321 has now had 415-278-442-441-?-400 for more than a week.

rslitman wrote:On at least 5 of the 6 weekdays between Monday, October 27 and Monday, November 3, inclusive, the first 4 of the 6 cars on train 6321 were 132-131-330-331. Because of my perspective, boarding a late-running 328 in the station at virtually the sane time, I didn't catch the numbers of the last two, but they appeared to be singles with their own pantagraphs.

This is a run that was formerly run with push-pulls. I wonder if this set is stored in such a place where a push-pull was once stored and is taken out twice a day for one rush hour revenue run plus a deadhead as a push-pull would have been.

I also wonder if this has been going on with 6321 for a while now, but I only noticed it this past week because of 328's slippery-rail induced lateness plus the presence of two x31 cars in this consist.

Silverliner IV 280 is currently leading a 6 car train to Trenton. The kicker? The LED sign above the Engineer's cab window is flashing "TRENTON." We are currently in Suburban Station. Express to Torresdale.

Don't know how unusual this is, but yesterday while waiting for an inbound local at Downington... I saw a westbound freight train. It passed by at around 2:15 pm on Tuesday the 2nd. It was led by two NS locos. The first cars were loaded gondolas... with what I couldn't tell. The rest of the train was hoppers and tank cars. A red flag sporting caboose brought up the rear. I estimate it's speed to be about 40-45.

My questions are... Is this a regular train? Does NS frequently use AMTRAK west of Frazer? Is it possible that this train used the tracks east of Paoli?

Trackseventeen wrote:Don't know how unusual this is, but yesterday while waiting for an inbound local at Downington... I saw a westbound freight train. It passed by at around 2:15 pm on Tuesday the 2nd. It was led by two NS locos. The first cars were loaded gondolas... with what I couldn't tell. The rest of the train was hoppers and tank cars. A red flag sporting caboose brought up the rear. I estimate it's speed to be about 40-45.

My questions are... Is this a regular train? Does NS frequently use AMTRAK west of Frazer? Is it possible that this train used the tracks east of Paoli?

I don't know the current schedule, but NS trains bound for the Trenton Cutoff will use the Keystone Corridor (ex-PRR) main east to GLEN just west of the SEPTA Frazer shops, then go onto the cutoff. They can't use the former Philadelphia & Thorndale low grade freight line in parallel to the active line as that's been abandoned for years. I haven't seen a freight go through Paoli since I was a little kid when Conrail was still running electric freights through there (and on the Trenton Cutoff). Most traffic on the cutoff is east of Norristown, where it intersects the NS Harrisburg line.

Late yesterday morning, I spotted a SEPTA Push Pull consist running south out of 30th lower level.

Regarding car shortages:

If a train is supposed to be 5 or 6 cars, and runs short due to mechanical problems in the yard, can they couple up Silverliner 4's with 5's and run them together? They used to mix the Budds with Silverliner 4's if a train needed extra cars.

They appear to have the same couplers, and the buffer plates seem to be the same height between cars.

I figured there must be a technical reason.