2019 Commuter Rail Delay Thread

[RenegadeMonster]

Signal issues according to the news this morning at 6:30 when I was watching effecting most of the south side. Delays of 50+ minutes.

Sounds like a mess.

[sonicdoommario]

Fire alarm at South Station gummed up the evening rush hour.

Interesting thing happened at Attleboro as a result of it. Train 821 (4:30PM outbound) was delayed by half an hour, so train 823 (4:53PM outbound) was stuck behind it. This also delayed an Acela that normally passes 823 when stopped at track 3 at Attleboro, as well as the Amtrak Regional that leaves South Station just prior to 825 (5:40PM outbound).

821 dropped off passengers at Attleboro, slowly rolled out and then stopped at THACHER just ahead. 823 slowly crawled into the station to drop its passengers off. At this time, the Acela that was stuck behind the two got to pass, and the Regional was also behind got to pass as well, so both 821 and 823 were held at Track 3 in Attleboro just hundreds of feet from each other. During this time, there were four trains visible all going in one direction.

I'd imagine Track 3 from HOLDEN to THACHER is one signal block, right?

I was able to snag a picture of it, if you're interested.

https://i.imgur.com/g900NNG.jpg

[sonicdoommario]

Not a fun ride this morning, it appears. 806 broke down in Ruggles, had to be pushed in by 704 from Franklin. 808 also held up at Back Bay for a medical emergency on the train ahead of it. 904 from Stoughton also cancelled.

825 this afternoon also using a short set.

[RenegadeMonster]

Anyone know what happened to Rockport Train 115 last night? It broke down at Lynn station resulting in single track operation Lynn to Salem throughout the evening rush.

Surprised they didn't attempt to push it or send a work extra to pull it home and let it sit there.

[chapel]

I was on that train. The conductor told us the engine dumped all it's oil and could not proceed. I wonder if the rails needed cleaning. Oil on tracks in a station is bad news
I know those EMD 16 cylinder engines hold like 240 gallons of engine oil and 3600 gallons of fuel oil. Environmental hazard?
Also, it was surprisingly a GP40. I noticed 1129 and 1130 was in the station today. Seemed odd to see those old boys. Not sure which number broke though.

[BandA]

Man dies after being struck by outbound Commuter Rail train in Newtonville about 5:15PM

https://www.wcvb.com/article/person-str ... police-say

According to transit police, the man was trespassing on the right of way on Track 2 when he was struck.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/ ... ain-newton

https://www.masslive.com/police-fire/20 ... -rail.html

22 yo man killed by CR train. Trespassing on Track 2, which would be the platform track. Based on the schedule, the #521 Worcester "express" would have left Lansdowne at 5:11PM, and would have gone through the station at speed around 5:17~5:20? But the video shows the train stopped at the station with yellow tape across the tracks. Unless it's the #519 Framingham Local running 24 minutes late, but that would stop at the station and the crew would have seen him in time.

No foul play apparently.

[FatNoah]

Not a delay per se, but this is the first time I've seen this happen. On last night's (July 8) 5:50pm Lowell departure, it looked like the train was full and a couple dozen people were left on the platform. Consist appeared to be a standard 5 car (4 singles, one double) set and I didn't see any closed cars. Does this happen frequently and I've just never noticed or was something else going on?

[RenegadeMonster]

It is very likely the train before was delayed or canceled. That's what usually causes messes like that outside of large events.

[sonicdoommario]

Providence train 831 caught fire today at Canton Junction (HSP46 #2031). Delays in both directions while the fire department is on the scene.

[chrisf]

Providence train 831 caught fire today at Canton Junction (HSP46 #2031). Delays in both directions while the fire department is on the scene.

It looks like a turbo failure. Video (not mine) here: https://twitter.com/ZachTaylorHall/stat ... 4238551043 and here: https://twitter.com/lrose71/status/1154543721779728385

[RenegadeMonster]

Salem State University students told to shelter in place after incident involving gun

Newburyport / Rockport lines experiences delays last night due to police activity related to the above incident. The police ordered a complete stop to train traffic for about 45 minutes. The suspect was taken into custody on the tracks.

[sonicdoommario]

Interesting delay caused by a thunderstorm Sunday afternoon in Attleboro. 2812 held in Attleboro for about 10 minutes. You could hear the brakes from the outside, so I thought there was something wrong with the train. The engineer then switched to the locomotive and backed the train out of Attleboro, down track 4 towards Hebronville. The MBTA issued an alert saying that a lightning strike caused signal problems in Attleboro.

2811, which arrives in Attleboro shortly after 2812 leaves, was also delayed coming into Attleboro. An outbound Acela also flew by on track 2. I assumed that 2812 would have to merge back onto track 2 from Hebronville and continue inbound from there, but it looks like the issues were corrected as the engineer in 2812 changed ends back to the control car (you could see the headlights go back on all the way in the distance), and 2812 strolled through the station on track 4 and continued inbound, after the Amtrak behind passed it.

Can't say I ever saw that before

[RenegadeMonster]

We had the same type of delays last Wednesday on the Eastern.

Newburyport/Rockport Line trains may experience delays of up to 30 minutes between Chelsea and Swampscott due to signal and crossing gate issues caused by lightning strikes. Individual alerts will be sent as needed.

Update: Rockport Train 119 (5:30 pm from North Station) is operating 40-50 minutes behind schedule between Chelsea and Rockport due to signal issues caused by lightning strikes and train traffic.

All the evening rush trains were effected, but I was on 119. We were a bout 50 minutes late getting into Salem.

The signals were down between North Station and Salem so we had to crawl the whole way and stop at every bad signal.

[RenegadeMonster]

Switch Issue tonight near North Station that was effecting all traffic over Drawbridge #2 causing several delays.

[Diverging Route]

Flooding and PTC-related issues caused 300 to be 40 minutes late this morning. 302 was on its tail, with just a few passengers.

I understand the first few outbound trains to Lowell went via the Wildcat (requires changing ends twice).