F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:OK...somebody who does know Southampton ops or is a railroader who can layman's terms about terminal ops:
-- How many switches and signals do they have to cross on this batty routing?
-- How long would they have to stop-and-protect at a signal with all the crossing traffic here? Not just Fairmount and Old Colony revenue moves, but typical level yard moves?
-- Can this be done fail-safe? Yard limits are where the highest number of accidents happen because there's not much a signal system is going to do to help you at 5 MPH human override. How much extra do those stops have to be padded cutting across the gut of yard limits to ensure the all-clear on track that was never designed to be revenue track?
-- Is the pause at the wye before crossing 3-5 NEC tracks going to be an even longer wait than crossing the yard?
-- What hours of the day beyond simple rush hour is this going to be constrained. I doubt midday shift changes are a real picnic either because that's a spike in yard activity coming or going.
-- How fast can a train be reversed at BBY? I realize depending on DMU model the engineer may be able to switch ends without exiting the vehicle and possibly do it faster than in a push-pull set. But how many minutes is a safe turn for the regulations?
-- Related...how much would this reduce the throughput at BBY turning on-platform. I don't know the avg. # of trains per minute, but I don't see how some line isn't going to pay the price on headways. And it would be really amusing if it were Worcester given all the hype from Beacon Hill about the expanded schedule.
. . .and,
-- Fairly safe assumption that Amtrak is nonplussed about this. Possibly even livid. But is there a way to quantify how much more difficult this makes their dispatcher's lives? And what parts of Southampton-BBY ops are most "sacred" to their control that they will put their feet down about. Is it the NEC crossovers at the wye? Is it the cutting across their Southampton tracks and possible safety concerns therein? Is it exacerbating an already bad storage crunch? What factor is most likely to get them saying "AW, HEEEEL NAW!"
Ok, deep breath aaannnddd here we go! Just like Highgreen wrote, the whole point of this project is to make it easy to go from the booming seaport district to downtown Copley plaza in a matter of 20 minutes vs. sitting in God awful traffic in Boston. Most of us know what traffic is like at 3pm on a Friday afternoon, think about sitting back on a quick shuttle service to Boston.
From the initial drawings in the Globe today, it looks like they are going to put 2 diamonds on the Middleboro Mainline on Trks 1&2. There is already and electric lock switch located at MP 1.2 providing North access from Trk 2 to Trk 61. A whole new Interlocking is going to have to be constructed within SHSY, unless, the train somehow gets to operate YL for this short distance to access the Loop. This can be a tricky area in SHSY, but tracks would have to be adjusted just a wee bit. Once on the Loop, it's a quick trip over Widett Circle and past the Amtk wash facility on the Dry Loop, then sneak over the WYE and across NEC trks 2,1,3,5/7. I can't see these moves happening at rush hour, but more of a late afternoon/evening, late morning moves, due to high frequency of trains on both mainlines and the DOT branch. If an engineer really hustles, we can have the train changed ends in a matter of minutes, remember, the Commonwealth is talking of DMU's, so I'm assuming 2 cars, 3 at most long, doesn't take long. Also, both tracks at BBY on 5&7 are rarely used at the same time, even when both tracks were in service before the Yawkey expansion project began. BBY trks 5 or 7 are the only platforms this can happen on, Trks 2, 1, 3 handle way too much traffic. Dspr's will get used to it, because that is what they do best, dispatch trains (when they are trained and think properly of course). Like F-line mentioned, IDK how this is gonna fly with Amtrak because they have wanted the T out of SHSY for YEARS, and now they want to make things more complicated. It is going to be interesting indeed to see what happens. AMTK will not tolerate late moves of their equipment from the Big Yard to South Station, they will get priority as they always have. Slow and steady wins the race when you are dealing within Yard Limits...........I personally like the idea, quick easy service from the Convention Center to BBY, lovely. Good points Fred, I can see that happening when needed, seeing as the Kenmore/Fenway area is blowing up right now
