2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

There has been a "demon" in the track circuits between Mansfield and Canton Junction, causing signals to dance from Clear to Approach, to Stop and Proceed, and in no particular order. Trains operating on Track 2 had to Stop and Proceed at each Automatic between MANSFIELD and JUNCTION interlockings, and like a poster wrote, #806 caught the brunt of it...going 20 mph vs 80 mph for 9 miles, those minutes add up quickly. As of Friday nights commute, the problem looked to be solved. But this is the same issue that has occured in the same area for the last 2 weeks or so, just Friday mornings commute was by far the worst of it

What the heck was going on on the Fitchburg line this morning? I normally take the 724 out of Littleton, but when I got there, the station was full. I ended up on the express, which was running about 50 minutes late?

The Fitchburg Line has had a few ugly days... Yesterday, 10/6, Train 417, The "Superexpress" out of North Station hit a 1980s-vintage TV on the tracks in Ayer. That caused an air brake malfunction, which disabled the consist for :25 minutes at North Leominster. The crew shut down the locomotive twice (GP40MC 1118) and when it came back up the second time, did not have HEP for the remainder of the ride to Fitchburg.

Then this morning, 10/7, the same consist of the 1118 and Control Car 1801 was used for the return Superexpress (Train 404) into Boston, as per usual practice. Usually 417's consist is used for 404's the next day.... The consist made it into the Fitchburg Station Track and then died to the same air brake issue as last night. Instead of leaving at 6:30, it left at 7:03 and arrived at North Station at approximately 8:35. 404's delay caused ripple delays to 406 and trains 451 and 453

Not sure if the problem was with the 1118 or the Rotem Control Car, as we encountered a similiar delay last year when the air brakes on the Rotem control car did not "play nice" with the rest of the consist....

-mike

Leaving a TV on the tracks like that sure seems like something Beavis and Butt-head would do...

Considering one has to pay to dispose of televisions and computer monitors nowadays, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more, frankly.

106 bit the dust this morning in Manchester. 108's right behind it, possibly to rescue it but they haven't moved in a while according to Stefan's tracker.

People have driven over to the Newburyport line in droves, making 156 SRO after Salem. 156, conveniently, got a set with no bilevels this am.

315 and 316 were both delayed by about 10 minutes coming into Anderson/Woburn. There was tie replacement going on the inbound (west) track between A/W and Winchester Center, and inbound trains were routed on the outbound (east) track. Outbound trains were also routed to the inbound track from just outside BET to Wedgemere. At A/W this afternoon I could see more MOW equipment to the north of the platform on the inbound track. The MBTA website didn't list any delays or alerts when I checked it.

There were another slew of "due to earlier mechanical failure" delays Tuesday evening. This morning, 202 came out of Haverhill with a 5-flat, 1 Rotem set - normally it's a 5-flat set. And, the expendable train (352 from Anderson) was cancelled.

Rockport trains this morning featured everything from "slippery rails" to "police action" to "mechanical problems". At least there's a nice variety.

Just as a note for anyone here who doesn't know, Best Buy will take old TVs and monitors for free. Not sure if any other stores do, but we just dropped off my father's old TV a few weeks ago, and my uncle has done it a few times. A bit better then leaving it on the tracks!

This morning out of the blue 508 just got transformed into an all stops local, no reason or T alerts behind the change. Since its also a car short today, should be a fun time for everyone getting on after Framingham .

Edit: 25 minutes later 508 is back to its normal schedule......

Edit 2: 15 minutes later 508 is now stopping at the two Newton stops. Something went wrong with 506 this morning and caused all of this.

Komarovsky wrote:This morning out of the blue 508 just got transformed into an all stops local, no reason or T alerts behind the change. Since its also a car short today, should be a fun time for everyone getting on after Framingham .

Edit: 25 minutes later 508 is back to its normal schedule......

Edit 2: 15 minutes later 508 is now stopping at the two Newton stops. Something went wrong with 506 this morning and caused all of this.

Whatever showed up in Wellesley (6 flats) on 506's timetable was packed to the gills--SRO by Wellesley Sq, and had to leave people on the platform at Newtonville.

Six flats on 506, that's crazy! Is Keolis short on equipment or was this just a one time thing? 508 did the two Newton stops in an interesting way to say the least this morning.

Komarovsky wrote:Six flats on 506, that's crazy! Is Keolis short on equipment or was this just a one time thing? 508 did the two Newton stops in an interesting way to say the least this morning.

506 is usual 4 bilevels + 2 flats (and was again this morning), so something just got messed up yesterday.

Tree down last night on the NEC near Canton, and again this morning in Gloucester, trapping all Rockport trains until around 7 am.