Problem in Hazlet Saturday night/Sunday morning?

I just drove past the Hazlet train station at about 1:40 am and saw a New York bound train sitting idle. The ALP-44 had both pans down. Did the train break down? Hope there was nothing serious, like someone getting hit...

Things were screwed up last night in the Harrison area - power problems, then a brush fire, delaying trains last night leaving and getting into NYP for almost an hour. That train was 7273, the 808 departure out of NYP. It was delayed in that mess for nearly an hour and a half. That train finally arrived in Long Branch at about quarter to 11. The problem is is that they were to leave Long Branch to go back to NY at 1011p, as 7272. If they were to run as a passenger train, they wouldn't have been in NY in time to run their next train, the 7201, the 1237 departure out of NY. So what was decided, adn rightly so, was that they would "X" up to NY, and not make any scheduled stops, and 7272 was cancelled, so they could get there in time for 7201. They made it as far as Hazlet - the air compressor blew on the ALP. So either way, if they made passenger stops or X'ed like they did, they would have probably broke down anyway. The next train, 7276, the 1134 departure out of LB picked up the extra people who would have taken 7272.

Now, because there was no train and no crew for 7201, because they are sitting in Hazlet - 7201 had to be cancelled as well, and all those passengers had to take 7205, the last departure out of NYP for the Coast Line. All because of a brush fire in Harrison at 830ish.......

This shows how things snowball on the railroad, and something that happened HOURS ago still can affect and cancel trains that you would think have had no effect from whatever happened.

Wow, what a mess...thanks for the info!

Now, because there was no train and no crew for 7201, because they are sitting in Hazlet

Gary must have popped out of his vest and pointy shoes as his corn-cob pipe exploded with excitement!

Yea, im sure he was real upset that he got out of running TWO passenger trains, and one of them being a concert train too!!!!

I think he did it on purpose!!!

Jtgshu wrote:Now, because there was no train and no crew for 7201, because they are sitting in Hazlet - 7201 had to be cancelled as well, and all those passengers had to take 7205, the last departure out of NYP for the Coast Line. All because of a brush fire in Harrison at 830ish.......

Had really nothing to do with the brush fire, though, right? Or do you mean that maybe there woulda been time to find a crew/train for 7201 if there had been less chaos otherwise?

Nah, it had everything to do with the brushfire......becuase they were held on that westbound at 830pm, thye were late getting to Long Branch, too late to run their eastbound back as a passegner train (they would have gotten to NY much later than 1237) so they were told to just deadhead the equipment back to NY, so they could get there faster and before the leaving time of that train 7201. But because they broke down, they never made it up there, and there are no crews and equipment available that late at night. they were short a few sets anyway, but even if the equipment was available in NYP, there would be no one to run them.

NJT keeps a skeleten crew on the weekends, in both crews, and mechanical forces, so when things go a little heywire, there isn't the staffing options that there is on a weekday. Most crews don't have a large break on the weekends, where they can run a train and fiddle with who will run this train and that train. Most crews follow roughly the same type of schedule and run similar trains, but obivously an hour apart. So everyone is sort of doing the same thing but at different times, so you never have a lot of people at the same location.

Its odd being on the platform working the last train home and seeing almost clear across Penn Station. There are usually 4 trians in the station, the Dover train, the trenton train, the Long Branch train, and a LIRR train - thats it!!! The place is a ghost town at 130am

Jtgshu wrote:Nah, it had everything to do with the brushfire......becuase they were held on that westbound at 830pm, thye were late getting to Long Branch, too late to run their eastbound back as a passegner train (they would have gotten to NY much later than 1237) so they were told to just deadhead the equipment back to NY, so they could get there faster and before the leaving time of that train 7201. But because they broke down, they never made it up there, and there are no crews and equipment available that late at night. they were short a few sets anyway, but even if the equipment was available in NYP, there would be no one to run them.

But my thought is, train probably would have broken down anyway, whether it had been held or not. Then you'd still end up short a crew, right? Or would it just be since it'd be broken down earlier at night (though it's really impossible to tell), there would have been time to make other arrangements?

Oh, I see what you are saying - yea, probably, the '44 would have broken down anyway more than likely anyway, with or without passengers, so cancelling that eastbound train and making the passegners catch the next one just happened to be the right decision, because those people would have had to catch that train anyway, because the eariler one broke down.

As for making arraignments for other crews, I supposed they could have, but the only places were they would be able to get crews from would either be if tehre was a crew adn train sitting in Sunnyside yard, just hanging out (i have no idea if there is or not, but I doubt there is) or a yard crew, from the MMC. They could have brought themselves and equipment to NYP and ran the westbound, however, they have their own things to do, and who knows, they might not have even been anywhere near the Club - they might have been on an equipment move to AC, or fueling out in Raritan, or heading down to Morrisville, etc.

Especially late at nights on the weekends, the crews are really on their own - there is noone around - you do what you have to do to get that train going becuase its your train for the night, and its your ride home (often times on the weekend, the crews will keep the same equipment for at least two trains.) So if that train breaks down, "we're going into our time", as we like to say, and if we don't get that thing going, we are sitting somewhere for a LOOOOONG time. But the breakdown in Hazlet was nothing that could have been fixed by the engineer, as the air compressor in the motor spewed all its oil over the engine room.....