PAR Business Train (ST 100, 101, 102 & 103; PAR 1 & 2)

Office train, heading west, just passed Mountain Branch Junction at 4:25pm, Friday, 12.19.14
S

Only PAR1 is on the OCS train for the move to the Conn River for Monday's "ceremonies"
Amtrak will have an OCS train there also. I have not seen details if the PAR OCS will
be combined with the Amtrak OCS or some other scenario.

PAR#2 must be "on holiday".

Nice shots! Call me crazy but I think it looks better / more proportionate with just one locomotive. If they ever get the dome finished it won't look as awkward with two locos.

MEC407 wrote:Nice shots! Call me crazy but I think it looks better / more proportionate with just one locomotive. If they ever get the dome finished it won't look as awkward with two locos.

I agree. Nice "pocket streamliner" look to it.

Another PAR loco, #382, is OOS with fire damage. Maybe PAR2 will show up in freight service....

Paired with #007, preferably!

KSmitty wrote:The sun really sucked, and what shots it didn't ruin traffic saw fit to me missing.

Missed them crossing the Androscoggin due to traffic/hitting every single red light in the area. Nice shots though!

The OCS with just the PAR1 and the two coaches is still at East Deerfield on 12/27.
Unconfirmed report on the Guilford Sightings Yahoo Group, that the OCS will be
running on the Conn River on Sunday 12/28 testing crossing protection. IMO,
this might be incorrect, unless they plan to put another locomotive on the rear,
as there is no way to turn the train and I don't see them running around with
the PAR1 and running long hood forward to get back to the starting point or
backing all the way to return to ED with the ST100 leading.

I should note, that if they test between ED and Springfield, the train could be
turned at the Springfield station.

Can be turned right at Spring.

Report from Guilford Rail Sightings Group that the PAR OCS
with the PAR1 and two coaches is testing between Greenfield
and East Northfield 12/28 Sunday AM. MEC loco #510 was
added to the rear of the train, as there is no way to turn
the train at East Northfield. I don't recall that the OCS
has even been used for testing crossing protection previously.

Those are the only locos they have geared for passenger speeds which are required to test the PMS protection. This type of protection senses train speed and activates accordingly. The old island protection was based on roughly old 50 mph passenger speeds so when freights came along at 10 mph the gates would be down 5 minutes before the train even showed up.

I presume (always dangerous to assume), that even though the MEC 510 is not geared for high
speed propulsion, it can be pulled and pushed at the higher speed needed for that Conn River
testing.

I'm actually not sure about that myself. I would think that the train would be limited to 65 or 70 MPH (or whatever 510 is geared for; pretty sure it's 65 or 70) if it's in the consist, even if it's not online or MU'd. That said, maybe 65 or 70 are just fine for the type of testing they were doing.

(The standard gear ratio on most regular GP40s and GP40-2s is 62:15 which allows for a top speed of 65.)

Photo by Ken Houghton:

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=221504" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Guilford Rail Sightings" March loco report shows
that the PAR2 has been out of service since January 2015.
Anyone have details? Thanks...