Amazing Self Rescue

3224 conked out at Matawan this morning. The Dispatcher said "PUT IT IN DIESEL and take it to South Amboy," which the engineer did. At South Amboy they got it back in electric mode and made it to NYP.

philipmartin wrote:3224 conked out at Matawan this morning. The Dispatcher said "PUT IT IN DIESEL and take it to South Amboy," which the engineer did. At South Amboy they got it back in electric mode and made it to NYP.

And THIS is a reason why the DPs are so versatile.

Don't forget when changing ends the computer reboots and works around any faults in system.

Fan Railer wrote:

philipmartin wrote:3224 conked out at Matawan this morning. The Dispatcher said "PUT IT IN DIESEL and take it to South Amboy," which the engineer did. At South Amboy they got it back in electric mode and made it to NYP.

And THIS is a reason why the DPs are so versatile.

But not the reason they were purchased. Let's see some direct Bay Head - NYP service!

I hope the people on that train appreciated the dual mode capability that saved their trip from being super-extended.

25Hz wrote:I hope the people on that train appreciated the dual mode capability that saved their trip from being super-extended.

The average commuter doesn't know or care for the difference between electric, diesel, or dual mode power lol.

Fan Railer wrote:

philipmartin wrote:3224 conked out at Matawan this morning. The Dispatcher said "PUT IT IN DIESEL and take it to South Amboy," which the engineer did. At South Amboy they got it back in electric mode and made it to NYP.

And THIS is a reason why the DPs are so versatile.

...and even if it refused to go back into E-mode, the train could have been terminated in Newark or sent to HOB, without tying up the line.

Amazing? Well, I wouldn't call it quite that... nifty maybe. (Just teasing, no worries.)

They did what they had to do. Find a way to make a train move safely as quickly as possible. They did that here.

Here's what a friend who was actually on the train emailed me later. "Not a big deal, had nothing urgent this am." I didn't tell her they had asked the conductor for a passenger count.
When I heard the saga unfolding at Matawan, on my scanner, I told a few people at the ticket window that there might be a delay. The next eastbound is 25 minutes behind 3224, and in the event, there were no other delays.

What was it that "conked out?" If it was the locomotive, one could say that a plain electric locomotive with less complicated systems would never have had the problem in the first place. It was nice it was able to save itself and not cause any substantial delays, but would we give a medal to a guy who extinguished a fire when he himself started it?

I didn't catch the whole story on my scanner. I heard the dispatcher tell the engineer to go back to the Alp on the hind end to try to get it going; he said something about the pantograph. There is a phase break west of Matawan, (12,000v east of it and 25,000v west of it,) that has caused electrics to fail in the past, and that might have caused this problem. That's why the MUs don't run west of Matawan. When the engineer couldn't get the electric mode working, DS asked him to try to get it into diesel mode. When they got to South Amboy, the dispatcher asked them to try to get it into electric mode again, which apparently worked.