Take the train to the Game! (Pat's Train)

Ron Newman wrote:Don't the trains from Boston and Providence enter this track from opposite directions?

yes

Puter-Geek wrote:Due to changing of the jobs around in Readville and Framingham, rumor from the management says that they may be working on getting the Northern part (Walpole to Framingham) back to 25. Of course, like all other things, I will believe it when I see it.

The changing of jobs will not change the amount of cars going over the northern section. Actually it will even be the same amount of trains....2 round-trips per day. Supposedly B732 (RE-10) will move to Framingham and carry all loads for Readville between Fram & Walpole and set them out at Walpole. This will allow them to abolish RE=2 (B731) which currently brings empties Readville to Framingham & loads back to readville during the overnight. Empties will be brought from Readville to Walpole by B735 en-route to Franklin, and taken to Framingham by B732 on it's return to Framingham. B735 would pick-up the Readville bound loads from Walpole and bring them to Readville on their return home from Franklin. Of course, this sounds like it will work, but not every plan is successful, especially if crews adhere to 100% rules compliance, lol.

Now, back to the topic of Pats trains.:

[quote="TrainHQ]Quick question; any reason why they couldn't run more than one train down there for Pats games from the north?
You would think they could run one in and just move it down the line and store it for the next one to go in...
Signaling? MBTA/FRA regs?[/quote]It's non-signaled and only one train may have the block between Walpole & Fox on an EC-1 at one time. However, if they really wanted to bring one from Boston and one from Framingham, they could create Yard Limits in the area of the station and then once the 1st train entered Yard Limits give up their EC-1 between Walpole & Fox which would allow the next train in. Again, this is if they really wanted to.

CSX Conductor wrote:The changing of jobs will not change the amount of cars going over the northern section. Actually it will even be the same amount of trains....2 round-trips per day. Supposedly B732 (RE-10) will move to Framingham and carry all loads for Readville between Fram & Walpole and set them out at Walpole. This will allow them to abolish RE=2 (B731) which currently brings empties Readville to Framingham & loads back to readville during the overnight. Empties will be brought from Readville to Walpole by B735 en-route to Franklin, and taken to Framingham by B732 on it's return to Framingham. B735 would pick-up the Readville bound loads from Walpole and bring them to Readville on their return home from Franklin. Of course, this sounds like it will work, but not every plan is successful, especially if crews adhere to 100% rules compliance, lol.

Thanks for the info csx. I live in the area so i try to railfan the line when i can.

I caught the rear of a southbound in medfield center today around 1:30pm and i am guessing its the "new" b732. (only saw the rear, so unsure of car count). They have been storing a ton of cars Walpole recently(seems like every inch of rail there has a car on it, i keep expecting to see cars stored on the lewis wye).

Hey do you know if B725 is still on the same schedule?

Thanks in advance, Tom

I doubt B725's schedule will change because of it's window of opportunity on Amtrak's property and if 725's schedule changed B726's schedule would have to be changed to coincide with it.

As for cars at Walpole, B732 should be setting-off Readville bound cars there and picking up Selkirk bound cars from Readville & Franklin on their way to Framingham. The whole thing is the new trainmaster just trying to kill jobs, but the work can't always get done the way they planned it.

Further discussion of the freight traffic and or activity should be in the CSXT forum as we're going off topic here.

How many passengers tend to use the train?

According to the MBTA, 800 fans are needed to make it profitable. Are the trains profitable, and if not, do the Pats pay for the balance?

I heard from this past weekends train, one AC collected $3000!!! at $15 bucks a pop, and for only 1 AC on a 7 or 8 car train, thats 200 riders for that one AC, let alone the 3 or 4 other ones, plus the Boston section of the train....I'd say the train is profitable

When it gets cold, the train is usually SRO when it pulls into Mansfield. I'd say that between the two trains they get well over 1,000 riders.

Thats good to know that it's profitable.

The reason I brought it up is because during a recent New England Revolution talk, they mentioned that the MBTA would run service for soccer games as long as 800 fans paid or if the Krafts paid the balance.

I was curious how the pats trains do, because if the pats cant get enough people then theres no way the revs, with 1/4 of the fans would be able to.

Will they run a train to tonight preseason game and all preseason games since football is back

Mbta fan wrote:Will they run a train to tonight preseason game and all preseason games since football is back

I went to the game last night, and there was a double draft sitting at the station for the whole game, so yeah, they're running.

mitch3910 wrote:

Mbta fan wrote:Will they run a train to tonight preseason game and all preseason games since football is back

I went to the game last night, and there was a double draft sitting at the station for the whole game, so yeah, they're running.

Was there a train on both sides of the station or just one

there were 2 trains, one from Providence, one from Boston....no double draft....the Boston had 4K's 2F GP40MC.....PVD had 6F-1057

Do the consists change every game

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:there were 2 trains, one from Providence, one from Boston....no double draft....the Boston had 4K's 2F GP40MC.....PVD had 6F-1057

My mistake. I saw it in the dark from the stadium, and from there it looked like a double draft. Isn't that what they usually send down?

mitch3910 wrote:

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:there were 2 trains, one from Providence, one from Boston....no double draft....the Boston had 4K's 2F GP40MC.....PVD had 6F-1057

My mistake. I saw it in the dark from the stadium, and from there it looked like a double draft. Isn't that what they usually send down?

from the Stadium, it does indeed look like a double draft, they get as close to the FOX block limit as they can...and yes the consists change for every game. When The Patriots get into their regular season games, the Boston train will operate as a double draft, most likely an all K car set, and for Providence, they will use all K cars as well, but just one train....the reason for the small consists during preseason is due to the low ridership...my PVD train brought little over 200 pple to the game