AYMO / MOAY / 22K / 23K (Ayer-Mohawk trains)

TOM CAP made AYMO's D-3 and D-4 Line 13s effective a bit after a quarter to two, and NSs 9200 and 8856 plus 13 racks and 115 tables and wells were west of the 40.2 talker at 32 mph right around a quarter past two.

NSs 8996 and 9562 were 1 and 2, but Helms 6226 and 6216-- and looking like they were working -- were 3 and 4 on AYMO with 16 racks and 110 mostly occupied tables and wells. Wasn't around to hear the Line 13s, but the train got its yard okay at 1347 and was through the 40.2 talker, going an announced 33 mph at 1404.
Wonder if the Helms are going to turn at ED or go further west...

Exiting 2 West to 190, saw a buncha racks heading east into Derby Curve at road speed and at a surprising time -- 1122.
Despite today's heat, it was a (heh, heh) non-fanning day for me, so I, too, couldn't head east.
Anybody know the story?

I saw 2 or 3 NS units and a very short intermodal/auto train (I assume 22K) heading east at the passing siding by Richmondville, NY along I-88 today around 2:20 pm. It couldn't have been more than 20 "cars" long ... a "car" being a car or an articulated segment as I was paying attention to the road.

jaymac wrote:Exiting 2 West to 190, saw a buncha racks heading east into Derby Curve at road speed and at a surprising time -- 1122.
Despite today's heat, it was a (heh, heh) non-fanning day for me, so I, too, couldn't head east.
Anybody know the story?

All I can say is that a rack only westbound powered by NS units left Ayer on the 5th, so it is possible it was an eastbound with racks only running separately from the intermodal, but also it could be empties from the P&W being hauled back to Ayer to go out on the next westbound.

Could be empties from the P&W heading to Ayer to get added to AYMO.

cpf354 and MCER401-
PW rack MTs to AY a definite possibility, but FI-1 was already at AY, so mebbe it was an FI-2 or some other mysterious creation. While I was listening, there was no radio chatter about the EB racks.

At 0930 or thereabouts, D-3 TOM was talking to or about MOAY, so I headed to the destination letters and got there too late to see the start of the east-wye shove to the yard. This was about 1015. Now things started to Go Real Slow instead of to Proceed At Speed. The TOM instructions were for MOAY (aka on the radio as AY-1) to clear Track 2 so SRS 146, which had crept up on 2 to just west of the platform, could move east. Complications in the form of track work at the east end of the yard -- preventing a clearing shove -- and who-knows-what-else extended the time MOAY occupied 2 for a lot longer. It was 1205 when MOAY with UPs 8587 and 9376 plus 41 (yes, forty-one) racks was finally called east and clear of CPF-AY.
Has MOAY been shoved back/moved ahead or are today and yesterday a two-day coincidence?

The delays of the past few days are due to heat kinks and slow orders due to the possibility of them.

mick wrote:The delays of the past few days are due to heat kinks and slow orders due to the possibility of them.

Seen any good ones this year? On a local one day we came around a curve and the tracks were shifted like an accordian. Probably wouldn't have been pretty with a big freight at 40, ha.

Things must have been better on late 07-08 and early 07-09. According to the radio, the 07-09 MOAY was all yarded before 0800.

UPs 3968, 4067, and a paint-challenged 2357 did a fine impression of circus elephants, hauling 15 racks and 96 tables and wells, clearing the 40.2 talker at 1440 going a stately 30 mph. The OB commuter had cleared the 40.1 talker a few minutes earlier and gotten its message, but the 40.1 got tripped while AYMO was still going by. There were a few flat wheels on AYMO, so mebbe that's what triggered 40.1. Mebbe it was a ghost.

Departing FI-1 of 10-25-2010 with the 351 made things a little easier for AYMO after checking by radio if AYMO preferred to have the switches left lined from Moore's to ease coming out of the yard. AYMO wanted the switches left thrown, which also helped out the FI-1 conductor. FI-1 may have helped AYMO in another way because 351 hauled 13 racks out on to 2 at 1122. No idea if they would stop at Fitchburg or go up Da Hill.

During the time I was observing (=/- 0930) on 03-08-2011, NSs 9850, 9526, and 2647 were shoving the first part of MOAY pigs from East Wye into the yard with the second pig part sitting on 2, west of the platform and extending back west to the West Main Street bridge. The power underframes and between the trailers were pretty well snow-packed. The roofs of the racks in back of the power seemed clear, but the underframes were also pretty well snow-packed.
AYMO hadn't been mentioned yet on the radio, at least that I heard, but given how jammed Gardner yard and 2 track west of the yard were, unless there was some sort of either divine or D-3 intervention, AYMO's trip would seem to be "interesting."

MOAY was seriously delayed on 3-07 by the overnight storm that was mostly rain in greater Boston. The area around Mechanicville, NY saw heavy snow, and between Mechanicville and North Adams was almost all ice causing several trees to fall across the tracks.

Don't forget that the line isn't cleared for double-stack domestic containers (20' 2") - only cleared for 19' 2". The difference in clearance is only 1ft, so at some point those racks pass less than 1 ft from what is over them - hence no snow on the roof.

MOAY's train runs as the next day's AYMO - so a late inbound makes a late outbound. They still have to unload and reload the train before it runs. So I'm sure it didn't get out of town until sometime in the evening.