2014 Discussion for Commuter Rail Delays

as a poster wrote...1066 HEP dead in the yard, so the best plan was to team up with the 512 and pull both to Boston seeing as 508 would not have made it far on batteries in the CC. Also of note, the 1066 is now coupled with the 1122 (main engine troubles) as of evening rush hour tonight 11/19

Altoona and P&W need to hit the gas with those HSP fixes. This delays thread is more active than the Amtrak one as of late, and it seems to be littered with failure after failure of equipment.

819 to Warwick Junction hasn't been doing so well...

UPDATE: Providence/Stoughton Line Train 819 (5:40 pm from South Station) is operating 25 minutes late due to a mechanical issue.

Tonight, we hadn't even made it to Cove when we experienced a HEP failure. After sitting for about 5 minutes, we reversed back into South Station, where we apparently picked someone up to tinker with the mechanicals. After getting back HEP, we re-departed South Station just after 6 (821 was already boarding). We had barely made it through the Tower One interlocking when the lights started to go on and off like a 70s disco, although this only lasted for a couple of minutes--finally, the HEP stayed on through at least Mansfield (where I get off). 821 was immediately behind.

819 is typically run with one of the eight car bi-level sets, and the locomotive associated with this set seems to have a particularly temperamental HEP system--this is the third or fourth time that we've lost HEP in the past couple of weeks (although one of these trips was on 821, on Tuesday when 819 was run with a really short set and 821 got the eight car set). Unfortunately I haven't been able to catch the locomotive number. Combined with the recent signalling issues between Junction and Mansfield, this has not been a good month...

North Station was a bit of a mini-mess after 6:00 last night. Did not appear to be any cancellations, but they were clearly short of equipment after 6:00 PM. 337 and 185 both left ~20 minutes late, waiting on arriving equipment and having to make fast turns with the arriving sets.

Sure as heck hope Altoona can make the new things work soon.

Train 417, the outbound Fitchburg "Superexpress" experienced HEP issues last night (Wednesday 11/19). We lost lights and HVAC systems four times on the run out to the 'burg. The cultprit was the 1126.

Since 417's equipment is usually used on the next day's inbound "Superexpress", Train 404, it wasn't surprising that we lost HEP again departing Fitchburg this morning. Pulled up cold and dark into North Leominster. A non-regular rider seemed startled when she got on the train in the pitch black darkness and asked the conductor why there weren't lights. The conductor reponded "Because the locomotive is a piece of ***..." That got a chuckle out of the regular commuters. The HEP restarted leaving North Leominster and we were good for the rest of the ride.

Also, heard from a buddy who takes Train 400, the 5:15 AM departure of out Fitch. His train yesterday (11/19) was powered by a new HSP, whom according to the crew was acting tempramental out of the Fitchburg Yard. They got to Waltham and died. Restarted and got to Waverly. Restarted again and crawled into Boston. Approximately a :20 minute delay on arrival into North Station.

-Mike

Komarovsky wrote:The Worcester line is a mess already this morning. Signal problems delayed 582 and 508 is now cacncelled for all stops west of Framingham. Next train from Worcester is 512, which is going to get slammed(its usually a 6 car flat consist) with ridership and probably end up screwing up the following trains as well.

I was on 582 yesterday. The conductor said there was a mechanical failure at Worcester that mechanical was able to repair and we ran about fifteen minutes late. I didn't notice any noticeable delays due to signals between Westborough and Back Bay.

That said, we did get a Clear to Next Interlocking at CP33 (I saw it from the Westborough platform, don't know if we got others) and I strongly suspect we got a Stop and Proceed at the distant signal to COVE — we made a full stop, began moving again immediately, and operated at what seemed to be Restricted Speed into Back Bay Station.

TrainManTy wrote: That said, we did get a Clear to Next Interlocking at CP33 (I saw it from the Westborough platform, don't know if we got others) and I strongly suspect we got a Stop and Proceed at the distant signal to COVE — we made a full stop, began moving again immediately, and operated at what seemed to be Restricted Speed into Back Bay Station.

There was a switch failure at COVE (at the 53A switch to be exact...Terminal couldn't get the switch to go normal) which in turn made Track 3 on the Corridor useless (seeing as no train to go thru COVE on trk 3 with it being lined Trk 5 to Trk 3 heading East) 600 and 704 occupied BBY platform on Trk 3, while my train loaded all their South Station bound psgr's on 2. which caused a ripple effect outside the Terminal, trains stacked up quickly

As to additions to the recent delays, 11/20, start of rush hour, South side was down 3 sets...1028 set (power troubles), 1061 set, and an unknown set. On the PVD mainline, 1074 (7 doubles) kept shutting down on #824 tonight...she has been trouble for 2 weeks now

Providence/Stoughton Line Train 810 (7:35 am from Providence) disabled due to a mechanical problem. Train 812 to assist. Expect 45-60 minute delay on Train 810 and 15-20 minute delay to Train 812.

810 appeared to be dead at or near South Attleboro station. Based on the announcements, I thought they'd be hooking up 812 to push in 810, but apparently they decided to leave 810 behind and just run 812 about 10 minutes late (which makes the same stops as 810, with the addition of Ruggles). I did see a set of empty equipment run southbound through Mansfield (without stopping) ~8:45am, so perhaps this was going to be used as the rescue train.

Only "positive" is that since it's Friday, we're not stuffed to the gills on the five-car set that makes up 812 (two flats and three bi-levels). As of Sharon, there are actually still some seats open.

Correction--apparently the equipment we're on is neither 810 nor 812, but a special run (perhaps the equipment that normally runs as 844?).

#810 died in South Attleboro with...guess who!? the 1074. Engineer couldn't get it restarted. #812 was the next inbound, and came up behind the #810 and hooked on and shoved her into Boston, making all station stops along the way. The doubledraft arrived in South Station about 10:23a. #843 was told to turn in Attleboro (per usual, but to depart ASAP!) on Track 4, make all stops to pick up the passengers waiting. EXTRA 806 w/ the 1051 and 8 doubles (was on the way to put the set away in Readville when the call came in to become a rescue) was sent to Attleboro, turned on Track 3 to cover #844's schedule to South Station. The 1074, after 2 weeks of b.s., was finally cut at the S&I Friday morning

Thanks for the update on Friday's run. However, the bewitching nature of South Attleboro strikes again:

Providence/Stoughton Line Train 808 due to a mechanical problem will detrain passengers at South Attleboro due to a mechanical problem. Passengers will board train 810

I'm at Mansfield, so I have no clue what the offending equipment is this morning.

Another great morning today (Monday 11/24). T Alerts reported that 406 was dead in Fitchburg and cancelled, 404 also late. 352 from Woburn got nixed, sent to Littleton as an extra. (Thanks to Div Rte for the heads up.)

And also things look ugly down south. Minor mechanical delays on Framinghan/Worcester and Franklin, and 808 cancelled out of RI.

And it's only 8:15...

And also things look ugly down south. Minor mechanical delays on Framinghan/Worcester and Franklin, and 808 cancelled out of RI.

And it's only 8:15...

From the T-Alerts, it looks like 808 died in South Attleboro, and its pax were dumped to 810. Now, 810 is showing 50 min late itself due to signal issues near Canton Junction. And so the original 808 pax are likely to be 80 minutes late into South Station - on what must be a jam-packed train -- both 808 (normally runs super-express from Mansfield to Back Bay) and 810 are among the busiest trains in the system.

To add insult to injury:

Providence/Stoughton Line Train 810 (7:35 am from Providence) delayed 40 to 50 minutes due to a signal problem at Canton Junction

We were already at crush load leaving Sharon, yet they're still running us local, even with 812 minutes behind.

Re this morning's commute from West Concord: A train of all single-level coaches -- I think only five of them -- ran nonstop westbound about 7:30. About 7:40 the "Super Express" (nonstop from South Acton to Porter) ran through eastbound, about 25 minutes late. Sometime before 8:00 the set that had hurtled west showed up. I'm surprised that we didn't have many people standing in the last coach after we left Waltham. An announcement made on the train before we reached Porter (about fifteen minutes later than #406's schedule calls for) indicated that it was the train set that was supposed to run as #408 that had problems at Fitchburg; the train set that was supposed to run as the #406 was held to cover the 408's schedule, and a new train set was sent from Boston to Littleton, making the 406's usual stops inbound from there. Actually I think the T Commuter Rail handled this one quite well.