blue switch over for overhead wires

Where does the blue line switch for overhead wire use maverick station or airport station. i did research and said they extended the 3rd rail to the airport station and trains switch over there. i think i might be wrong if you know please respond. thanks.

Third rail ends immediately northeast of Airport.

i thought all of the blue line was overhead wires!!! but i never really looked to see if there was a third rail

The current (heh, heh) switchover is at Airport.... moved from Maverick in Late Aug/ early Sept. for the demo of old Airport station. It will remain there as all the detection equipment has been moved to Airport.

how come there is overhead wire at maverick? how do the trains switch over by some button in the car or a sensor

to facilitate the construction at Airport Station, that's why the wires are at Maverick.

ctaman34 wrote:how come there is overhead wire at maverick? how do the trains switch over by some button in the car or a sensor

The operator flips a switch on a pannel located above to the left from the motorman's seat. Usually the trains did raise and drop the pans at maverick but I guess like someone else said it's been moved to airport. There are signs at Maverick that say "Drop Pantograph/Raise Pantograph"

That's right, AEM7, I see those instruction signs too, now at Maverick.

Robert Paniagua wrote:to facilitate the construction at Airport Station, that's why the wires are at Maverick.

Not true Robert, sorry. The wires have been there as far as I can remember, I beleive some time in the late 80's I was on the Blue Line and the switch was done at Maverick.

Anyways, between Maverick and the old Airport stations was dual mode as long as I can recall.

Sometime in the 1990's, the overhead was removed between Airport portal and Maverick. It was reinstalled with new brackets and wire for construction purposes as they were afraid the contractors would need access to the ROW in the new Airport construction. After a couple of problems with the new overhead and the realization that the contractors were't going to need the access to the tracks, they kept the 3rd rail alive to airport, but continued to switch over at Maverick.

As I mentioned before, they changed to Airport at the end of the summer. If you look, you will see a good section of overhead missing right at the old Airport Station. It will be replaced, even though that's 3rd rail territory.

What's the long range, permanent plan? To have the switch from/to the overhead line happen at Maverick or Airport? I always though it was cooler for it to happen at Maverick, with the lights flickering in the train underground.

Airport is the changeover place from now on, most likely with overhead all the way to Maverick. It gives some flexibility when they do diversions. They can run Wonderland to Maverick and bus to town from there using just the overhead. Or, Bowdoin to Maverick busing to Wonderland using just 3rd rail.

These options will come in handy as they do State over or structual steel at Airport's entrance roadways in the near (and not so near) future.

Know that I think of it I wonder if someone ever forgot to drop the pantograpgs.... I wouldn't be suprized if there was some goof along the line at some time.

Boy CSX Conductour, you know more about the BL than I do

But as old Spector said, the wiring at Maverick DID get removed once, only to be reinstalled.

Airport used to be a good spot to do the switch because of the large number of passengers getting on and off....but Maverick seems to be getting to be busier than Airport. LOL

Robert, I'm just going by memory