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  • Conway Scenic Railroad (CSRX) discussion thread

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #1514002  by John Smythe
 
Please direct me to any part of these funding disclosures that include a limit on OOS years, etc.? Thanks.
 #1514014  by NHV 669
 
There is no limit, you have to have shippers and an operator to run a line, as has been pointed out to you multiple times. There are neither in this case, there is no reason for tax dollars to be spent. How many times do we need to beat the same horse?
 #1514125  by FatNoah
 
A bit off topic, a stellar 4th of July weekend for North Conway and Mt. Washington Valley businesses.
I'll help make it on topic. My family and I took the Firecracker Express from Conway to N. Conway to enjoy the festivities. It beat driving and parking by a long shot and appeared to be a popular option since it looked like nearly every coach owned by the RR was in use.
 #1514383  by John Smythe
 
OK... I'll stop beating a dead horse. Perhaps some day after NH widens RT #16 as far as they can & it still isn't enough to relieve miles upon miles of traffic congestion, then perhaps somebody will finally figure out that they should have done something with the railroad line. That goes for The Mtn. Div. as well.

By the way... it's been a long while since a wheel report has come out. There's something very odd about the silence regarding the MEC #501 & the evaluation work that we were informed that was to take place.
 #1514390  by b&m 1566
 
The Wheel Reports went by the wayside last year, they attempted to bring it back this year because of popular demand but it looks like it has fallen by the wayside again, so I'm inclined to think we have seen the last of them.
Regarding 501 - there's nothing suspicious going, as stated before, they never got the opportunity over the winter to evaluate the engine like they had hoped and going back to last year they have repeatedly stated, "501's return to service is not guaranteed", they will not make any decisions until an assessment is done. One thing that was done, that needed to be done, before anything could be done, was purchasing the engine, so you can check that off the list.
 #1514433  by p42thedowneaster
 
Since it has been shown that crossing gates are problematic along the North-South Bypass road, what would it take to disable the gates and return to flashers only? Are these signals mandated as they are? (by the FRA or NHDOT?) It seems strange to have gates on these little side streets and not on major crossings like Rte 16. Maybe the other crossings are grandfathered?
 #1514434  by John Smythe
 
Problems with crossing signal circuits usually come from voltage issues / poor electrical contacts / dirty-rusty rails that need lots of shine put back onto them. Rock salt dumped all over the grade crossings in winter also cause corrosion issues. Sounds like that part of the line needs a good tune up.
 #1514450  by b&m 1566
 
Problematic? I've been told there are crossing circuits but because trains operate so infrequent, all the crossings are set to manual. Another issue, is the lack of visibility for drivers coming off some of those side streets, they must pull out over the tracks to see down N/S road in either direction. If a train is coming and the circus are set, cars are in trouble if they can't quickly back up or pull out safely. If they were to ever set the crossings to activate on the circuits, I would think the state would need to address the sight line issues for vehicles coming off those side streets.
 #1514466  by NHV 669
 
I believe a good amount of their flashers on the Mountain Division are on manual, they had to flip the ones at the 302 crossing in Bretton Woods prior to bringing Rhonda Lee home. They flagged it on the initial trip to get the car.
Last edited by NHV 669 on Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #1514484  by b&m 1566
 
Maybe I'm miss understanding what manual means then, I thought manual meant that someone had to be at the box to turn them on, a train entering the circuit does not. All the regular used crossings are activated when the train enters the circuit.
 #1514528  by BandA
 
You could have the dispatcher control the gates, and have a signal block to tell the train if it was ok to proceed. Or you could have the train activate the signal with a remote control ("alexa, lower the gates at the crossing") earlier so they don't have to stop.
 #1514534  by NHV 669
 
b&m 1566 wrote: Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:54 pmAll the regular used crossings are activated when the train enters the circuit.
I misspoke, writing in haste yesterday, and edited the post to reflect your point. The valley crossings surely see plenty of use, but it is probably easier not to have the crossings west of Bartlett on all the time.
 #1514544  by b&m 1566
 
Ok I see what you mean, it's possible that the power was still off for those too, I've watched them shut the power of immediately after the last train of the season before. I once read that each crossing cost about $30 a month just to have the power on, so shutting them off in the off season is a little bit of a savings.
 #1514599  by p42thedowneaster
 
By problematic I was referring to the apparent design flaw in having the gates so close to the roadway intersections. The fear is that when the gates come down drivers will panic and hit oncoming traffic. To my knowledge that is the reason they are not being used. Just curious if they need to have the gates or if they could get away with just having "automatic" lights like most of the other protected crossings.
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