Track Mish Mash

with the two recent derailments there have been cancellations and a lot of track mish mash
including LIRR as low as 10 from what i read
i tried a search but did not really find anything

the lowest LIRR track in daily use is 13 i believe but how low can they go in "emergency" cases
and given the distribution of the corridors how do passengers get directed to lower tracks

amtrak and NJT use up to 16 i believe regularly
can they go higher in emergency?
how are those passengers directed? though IIRC there are stairs as high as 19 in the amtrak concourses

They just announce the track like normal. I know you can walk straight through to the NJ Transit concourse in at least of one of the LIRR corridors. I'm pretty sure that I've boarded a LIRR train at least once that way.

Figure on another round or more as Amtrak replaces switch ties after the last rash of picked switches/wide gauge derailments.

flexliner wrote:with the two recent derailments there have been cancellations and a lot of track mish mash
including LIRR as low as 10 from what i read
i tried a search but did not really find anything

the lowest LIRR track in daily use is 13 i believe but how low can they go in "emergency" cases
and given the distribution of the corridors how do passengers get directed to lower tracks

amtrak and NJT use up to 16 i believe regularly
can they go higher in emergency?
how are those passengers directed? though IIRC there are stairs as high as 19 in the amtrak concourses

The Exit Concourse has connectivity to all the tracks. On 13-21 its setup like LIRR. ON 12 and lower it looks like Amtrak/NJT, but you can get to all the tracks. This also has the stairs/escalators to the main Amtrak area.

There are stairs for 1-16 off the main Amtrak concourse, and 1 stair to 17 off to the side by the LIRR corridor and the pretzel place.

THere is 3rd rail on all 21 tracks, though it may not be live on all the tracks all the time.
There was also catenary on all 21 tracks, but I think its decommissioned on 18-21 now.

Thought stubs 1-4 lacked third rail.
Must be quite the stampede when a regular track 15 or 16 train leaves 11 or 10 or lower.

Regular ops has LIRR only using 13-21 at rush hour.
If below 13 is used it is for arrivals generally.

Last weeks NJT derailment was the one of the few time I remember leaving from 10, 11, 12.

LIRR trains can get as far as 5 track from lines 1&2 although I've never seen them any lower than 10 track

Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

When LIRR was using tracks below 13, they had attendants calling out the tracks to customers in the EXIT concourse by the appropriate staircases. As NJT's track indicators do not work, there was no messaging on them. However, when NJT uses LIRR tracks, all train information is displayed on LIRR's destination boards next to track entrances.

Arriving on 11/12 in the morning rush is not that uncommon. But boarding eastbound it is very rare, I can't recall it happening before this month's incident. A lot of the signage and online interfaces didn't support tracks < 13 until it was fixed in time for the last impacted PM rush.

The map I have (and it could be outdated) shows tracks 1-4 are stub-ended and do not connect to the East River tunnels. So LIRR usage would be virtually impossible (OK, they could do a reverse move west, then east). Or is my map incorrect?

JamesRR wrote:Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

Actually, those tracks had third rail back when Penn Station was opened. Until overhead was added Pennsy used DD1 electrics to pull trains between Penn Station and Manhattan Transfer.

Stuart

JamesRR wrote:Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

When LIRR was using tracks below 13, they had attendants calling out the tracks to customers in the EXIT concourse by the appropriate staircases. As NJT's track indicators do not work, there was no messaging on them. However, when NJT uses LIRR tracks, all train information is displayed on LIRR's destination boards next to track entrances.

I've always wondered why since it the same system used for PSCC, that the LIRR boards can show NJT and Amtrak on 13-16, but NJT/Amtrak cant show it on their side.

Also it was blantly obvious that that the new digital displays for LIRR couldnt show lower than 13 which the main boards could during the derailment.

geico wrote:

JamesRR wrote:Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

When LIRR was using tracks below 13, they had attendants calling out the tracks to customers in the EXIT concourse by the appropriate staircases. As NJT's track indicators do not work, there was no messaging on them. However, when NJT uses LIRR tracks, all train information is displayed on LIRR's destination boards next to track entrances.

I've always wondered why since it the same system used for PSCC, that the LIRR boards can show NJT and Amtrak on 13-16, but NJT/Amtrak cant show it on their side.

Also it was blantly obvious that that the new digital displays for LIRR couldnt show lower than 13 which the main boards could during the derailment.

On the exit concourse, all of the NJT/Amtrak boards are virtually out of order. Not sure what would show up on the main level.

mp15ac wrote:

JamesRR wrote:Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

Actually, those tracks had third rail back when Penn Station was opened. Until overhead was added Pennsy used DD1 electrics to pull trains between Penn Station and Manhattan Transfer.

Stuart

Yes - it seems when the tracks were re-laid provisions were made to install 3rd rail again, but it was not done - since NJT exclusively uses those tracks now.

JamesRR wrote:

geico wrote:

JamesRR wrote:Tracks 1-4 do not have third rail - but they do have the alternating wider ties that could accommodate installation of third rail in the future.

When LIRR was using tracks below 13, they had attendants calling out the tracks to customers in the EXIT concourse by the appropriate staircases. As NJT's track indicators do not work, there was no messaging on them. However, when NJT uses LIRR tracks, all train information is displayed on LIRR's destination boards next to track entrances.

I've always wondered why since it the same system used for PSCC, that the LIRR boards can show NJT and Amtrak on 13-16, but NJT/Amtrak cant show it on their side.

Also it was blantly obvious that that the new digital displays for LIRR couldnt show lower than 13 which the main boards could during the derailment.

On the exit concourse, all of the NJT/Amtrak boards are virtually out of order. Not sure what would show up on the main level.

I was referring to the platform level signs.