hovercat wrote:ApproachMedium wrote:its because they still havent fixed all of the power station problems from sandy, so they might run electric from broad street west to drover/MSU but they will run diesel broad street east to hoboken so they do not overload the substation thats not running at full capacity.
That's actually not correct. The mode change is always supposed to be conducted at Newark Broad St. coming east because of clearance issues in the depot. The catenary wire hangs too close to the train shed so when the pantograph drops it creates an arch which could potentially burn down the wire. On the occasions where the mode change could not successfully be completed at Broad St., the train had to be spotted in the depot so that the engine was not under the train shed ensuring the pantograph could be safely dropped after the mechanical issues were rectified.
I know this is a little old but I was in Hoboken just yesterday and was surprised to see my train running the diesel there, then saw the mode change at Newark-Broad, then I found this thread. While I understand the reasoning behind don't drop pantograph restrictions account low wire (I've seen that other places - I think NYP as well), I don't understand why a dual-mode couldn't just leave the pan up the whole time it's at Hoboken like straight electrics do. Is there procedural issue that forces them to lower the pantograph as part of getting ready for a trip?
The "my train" above was part of a fun trip I took to pick up some new NJT mileage for me by riding 1079 and 882 from HOB to Hackettstown (via M-B) and back (via M&E) to Newark-Broad (new mileage for me was Roseville Ave. to the junction with the old Greenwood Lake line just west of Bay St. and Dover to Hackettstown). I'm assuming from the recent comments that the mode change is made while stopped so I assume that means we ran in electric mode Newark-Broad to MSU going west and Dover to Newark-Broad going east (no opportunity to go back to electric Denville to Dover on the way out). I tried listening for the diesel but even sitting in the car right behind it, I could not hear it.