MARC Projects Update

So MARC's Rider's Advisory Council finally got around to posting the minutes of their recent meetings (after about 6 months) so here are a few updates on the larger projects in the works:

New Diesel Locomotives
• Al Scala of AMTRAK gave us an update on the deployment of the new diesel MP-36 locomotives, which produce 3600 horsepower, compared to the older GP-39 locomotives, which produce 3000 horsepower. [incorrect, should be GP40 instead of GP39]
• These older locomotives can only produce enough electricity for about 6-7 bi-level rail cars.
• These older locomotives will be turned in to be re-manufactured as the new ones come online.
• Currently two of the new diesel locomotives have been deployed, and are pictured on the front of the current MARC train schedule.
• The paperwork to allow these new locomotives to run at 100 MPH is in progress. These locomotives are limited to 90 MPH until the paperwork has been completed, and cannot be used on the Penn line due to this speed limitation.
• There are currently twenty-four more of these new diesel locomotives in Boise, Idaho, waiting to be delivered. For reference, the HHP-8 electric locomotives that are used on the Penn line produce 8000 horsepower. The AEM-7 electric locomotives are 7,000 horsepower.

Construction Projects
Halethorpe Station - Penn Line [project for station improvements including high-level platform]
• Access road constructed.
• Power lines will be moved in February.
• The bathroom, which has been out of service for about a year, will be investigated by Harry Anderson on Monday January 25th.

BWI Station - Penn Line
• Current construction work should be completed by late spring 2010.
• Amtrak has awarded a contract to rebuild the elevators at the BWI station. Part of this work will include putting in a second elevator on both the northbound and southbound side of the station. This work should be completed by the end of 2011.

Penn Station – Baltimore
• It was announced that the new schedule board will be replaced during the weekend of January 23-24, 2010.

New Wedge Yard
• Located at Ivy City, and is adjacent to the Northeast Corridor and the Camden Line Union Station Track. This is next to the Acela maintenance facility, near the 1200 block of New York Avenue, NE.
• Near 100% completion on the design phase
• Project will be put out for bid in the late winter to spring timeframe
• Work will start in 2010
• Wedge Yard will be used for train storage

Martins Facility
• Maintenance facility that is currently being used to reupholster the seats on rail passenger cars.
• Will be expanded to allow for overnight storage of trains.


A list of all the available minutes can be found here:
http://mta.maryland.gov/services/marc/s ... etings.cfm

Hey, I'm glad that someone reads those! The minutes from this month should be up shortly, getting them up in a timely manner was something that was discussed (which is why that big batch appeared).

Not much notable from this month's meeting. Some new members (including me), some discussion on the impact of the snow (no major complaints), and a quick rundown on the projects that you highlighted above - no major news or progress that I recall. MP-36 rollout is going smoothly, they're getting into a cycle of introducing a new one every 2 weeks, so (knock on wood) these guys should be fairly common soon, and there should be a good number of them in service before the summertime.

HokieNav wrote:Hey, I'm glad that someone reads those! The minutes from this month should be up shortly, getting them up in a timely manner was something that was discussed (which is why that big batch appeared).

Not much notable from this month's meeting. Some new members (including me), some discussion on the impact of the snow (no major complaints), and a quick rundown on the projects that you highlighted above - no major news or progress that I recall. MP-36 rollout is going smoothly, they're getting into a cycle of introducing a new one every 2 weeks, so (knock on wood) these guys should be fairly common soon, and there should be a good number of them in service before the summertime.

Nice. It's great to see we have somwone from RR.net on the inside now.

Penn Station – Baltimore
• It was announced that the new schedule board will be replaced during the weekend of January 23-24, 2010.

darnit! That means the Solari is gone! Did they put it on ebay?

realtype wrote: New Wedge Yard
• Located at Ivy City, and is adjacent to the Northeast Corridor and the Camden Line Union Station Track. This is next to the Acela maintenance facility, near the 1200 block of New York Avenue, NE.

One correction here - my understanding that this was going to be on the south/west side of Brentwood Parkway, along side the car wash. If you look at this google map of the area, you can see there is no room up where the minutes describe, but a perfect wedge shaped open spot next to the car wash.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?oe=utf-8 ... 4c076f7ba3

HokieNav wrote:

realtype wrote: New Wedge Yard
• Located at Ivy City, and is adjacent to the Northeast Corridor and the Camden Line Union Station Track. This is next to the Acela maintenance facility, near the 1200 block of New York Avenue, NE.

One correction here - my understanding that this was going to be on the south/west side of Brentwood Parkway, along side the car wash. If you look at this google map of the area, you can see there is no room up where the minutes describe, but a perfect wedge shaped open spot next to the car wash.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?oe=utf-8 ... 4c076f7ba3

Yeah, that's where I thought they were gonna put it. I'm not sure if that building is a car wash facility (but I could be wrong). I think it may be another Acela Express maintenance building.

So because of a 90mph restriction they can't be used on the penn Line?????? thats bullshit the gp-39s are restricted to 90mph and they are used midday on the penn line.

MARC has started using them on the Penn Line.

I know they are on the Penn Line. i haven't checked them out or qualified on them, because if i do they might want me to work Marc in a emergency and we know i don't work Marc. However when i talk to a couple of the guys i will post their feeling on them.

I can hardly wait.

The new board at Penn Station is still being tested. They had the time displayed on there the last time I saw it, but I haven't seen the rest of the board functioning. I heard it was multicolored. I just can't wait to see it fully functioning. I think they still have to work out some bugs and integrate the system into the other displays and the platform displays.

gp40marc69 wrote:The new board at Penn Station is still being tested. They had the time displayed on there the last time I saw it, but I haven't seen the rest of the board functioning. I heard it was multicolored. I just can't wait to see it fully functioning. I think they still have to work out some bugs and integrate the system into the other displays and the platform displays.

It sounds like the new boards they installed in Union Station. I like them much better than the old ones. The main LED one gives more information about each train (number, delay, line), while the old ones only gave the track number. The color LCD ones inside gates B and C even give a list of all the stops.

Oh, I thought of another from last month's meeting:

Get ready for a loooooooooong spring and early summer on the Penn Line. Amtrak is going to be replacing ties on track 1 (pretty sure it's 1) from below New Carrollton to way the heck up north somewhere, so there are going to be long stretches of 2 available tracks instead of 3 making the NEC a "no passing" zone. Amtrak and MARC are working on schedule adjustments to mitigate the delays that we should see fairly soon.

Apparently this was done somewhat recently up in NJT territory and things went relatively smoothly, so I've got high hopes.

HokieNav wrote:Oh, I thought of another from last month's meeting:

Get ready for a loooooooooong spring and early summer on the Penn Line. Amtrak is going to be replacing ties on track 1 (pretty sure it's 1) from below New Carrollton to way the heck up north somewhere, so there are going to be long stretches of 2 available tracks instead of 3 making the NEC a "no passing" zone. Amtrak and MARC are working on schedule adjustments to mitigate the delays that we should see fairly soon.

Apparently this was done somewhat recently up in NJT territory and things went relatively smoothly, so I've got high hopes.

oh great. Yeah, I remember when NJT was doing it. I actually rode an NJT NEC middday train at the time (that was delayed 15min because of the track work). The thing the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey has 4 tracks, while the majority of it in MD is 3 (2 in DC).

They'll probably have to use those temporary platform extension things they used in New Jersey (far right corner, and you can see the brand new ties):

Yep, that's exactly the plan - noticed paint markings on the NB platform at Odenton where the doors line up.