Protect Engines

Everyday while riding into and out of Penn Station along the Hempstead branch I always try and see which Protect engines are currently out there. My question is why is the Jamaica Protect always one MP-15 while the Harold Protect is usually an SW1001 (usually 102 but recently 102 and 104 with an occasional MP15).

bump

You know, I always wondered why that engine was parked there in Jamaica. It never occurred to me that it was a protect engine, I always just figured it was there because there was no other room for it.

i would venture a guess that the harold protect set gets 2 engines due to the grades in and out of the tunnels.

I wonder - will the new tunnels that are part of ESA have enough clearance for the protect engines?

I read somewhere that part of the MTA's fiscal plan over the next few years include 2 new protect engines capable of operating in the ESA tunnels

They need to re-invent the BB-1/BB-3's.

so now, if an M7 craps out in the dead center of the east river tunnel, and they send in the "harold protect" to rescue it and protect its schedule, wont the diesal spending all that time confined in the tunnel create a hazardas condition? with all the fumes and such?
for situations like that, and for the future east side access tunnel (which is longer than the current east river tunnels) i would think it might be a good idea to have an electric switcher on hand. in addition to the reg protects.

Got a better one than that. How about G-5s ten wheelers used as protect engines ? Yup, there they were, fully steamed up and ready to go to protect the schedule. Believe it or not, I never saw one being used. But there they were, protecting the steamer that was hauling us. Now that was reliability.

As a sidelight, I now use Metrolink to commute to Los Angeles. One fine day, things were really late. Finally, the train I wanted, # 317 pulled into the station, and we boarded. On the PA we were told that the train in front of us had a dead locomotive and we were going to pick up its passengers. Sure enough, we were routed to the opposing track, double tracking all the way, and we stopped alongside the dead engine's train. It was EMD F-59PHI # 886, a sorry sight. The passengers quickly got on board and we shoved off, returing to the correct track before we got to the next station. Talk about a crowded train. We had to pick up twice the normal passengers at that station and all of the remaining stations into LAUS. It was SRO, standing room only. The air conditioning was able to handle the load.

Pennsy,
Are you saying they used the G5s to protect the tunnels if an electric broke down? They would sent a G5 into the east river Tunnels?
Hell that's got to be much worse then the SW1001s

G-5s engines, and other PRR steamers, were used east of Jamaica.

A DM does make sense as a protect engine.

Crabman1130 wrote:A DM does make sense as a protect engine.

Except if you used the current DM's, you'd have to get a couple of backups. Protects protecting protects, and such on.

So fars' I know DM/DE's don't fit through ESA.

You also cannot run a DM from the back end - it only has hostler's controls, not the full control stand you would need in a bail out situation. You would need two back-to-back as a protect, but again, there is the issue of what protects the protects.

Sounds like somebody has a major reliability problem. Are you saying these engines are not as reliable as the G-5s ten wheelers were ?