Railroad Forums 

  • CSX Boston and Albany Line

  • Discussion of the operations of CSX Transportation, from 1980 to the present. Official site can be found here: CSXT.COM.
Discussion of the operations of CSX Transportation, from 1980 to the present. Official site can be found here: CSXT.COM.

Moderator: MBTA F40PH-2C 1050

 #624597  by MBTA F40PH-2C 1050
 
I caught this report on CSX Sightings yahoo group:

"Two westbound Trailer trains were by Natick,MA T Station right after each
other around 2:30PM.Here is the power for the first ...CSXT5014 and CSXT600.
Second one...CSXT5311 CSXT5424 CSXT5319.
Dont Have any Symbol.I assume Q1?? for both." reported by Wayne Slayton.

what trains could these have been? Isn't it early for the van trains to be heading West out of Boston at this time?
 #624721  by NaDspr
 
There were no WESTbound van trains around Natick at 2:30 pm on Tue 1/13.
 #624975  by johnnynick
 
Car counts are so low right now it's pretty scary. 436 the last couple days has been under 60 cars and thats with all fram/rvl/cape/beacon traffic and thats a straight shot now no springfield setoff. 437 last week anyhow was 100+ every day and it took all week to finally empty out the selkirk's in nevins and there gonna start testing dpu's soon. Then there's the autos, since the new year 283 runs maybe twice a week with 293 running most of the other days and it looks like 274 is all done for now and 264 doesnt even run everyday and when it does it has brookfields, p&w subarus, framingham fords and sometimes worcester ups. 114 and 140 have been combined a few times recently too. Today 424 and 422 were combined with something like 35 cars total. Things are all messed up with crew balancing and deadheads with so few trains running im sure the runs will be changing soon enough.
Last edited by johnnynick on Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #625325  by CSX Conductor
 
JohnnyNick, what do you mean by DPU's? As far as less trains and what to do with the crews it sounds like now's the best opportunity for the company to make everything pools like they had proposed a few years ago. (I am not saying that I'd support that though.)

As for combining Q114 & Q140, years ago Q140 never even existed. Q114 used to be a monster train and was a pain to work home because it was blocked with Boston on rear, worcesters in middle then Springfield's on head-end. However, when it got to Syracuse put a "backwards block" (Bostons on head end with worcesters in middle and springfields on rear of block). This made it a pain because you'd have to hold onto the Worcesters/Bostons from Dewitt while setting out the springfields. Then repeat this at worcester holding onto the Bostons from Dewitt. With the rock-cut in Worcester radio communication was horrible....not to mention sometimes having to use the Worcester runaround to get you to the head-end which was usually at the Bake Shop. Springfield using the runaround costed alot of time because you'd have to be driven to Amtrak station many times.
 #625362  by NaDspr
 
DPU = Distributed Power Units, in other words, engines on the rear but controlled from the head end.
 #625486  by MBTA F40PH-2C 1050
 
reported on CSX yahoo group by Tim Bruno, 1/15:

"Q436 went through Chatham Center at 1132 hours with leader CSXT #941, CSXT #652, 65 cars and CSXT #942 trailing"

I merged the Boston Line intermodal train topic with the B&A mainline topic to help keep things together....please keep all Boston line activity in this topic. Thanks!
 #625718  by QB 52.32
 
Posts on the Guilford Rail Sightings yahoo site indicate that the traffic handled by Q426 this past week via Barbers has been run by Pan Am to Ayer and over into E Deerfield for switching, and, that rumor has it this traffic may be diverted to Rotterdam Jct. in the near future. Hope it IS just a rumor...
 #625801  by roberttosh
 
I'd heard that if the Patriot Corridor goes through, just the opposite would happen as anything terminating East of Ayer would now be routed via Barbers as CSXT would want to connect directly with the ST vs having to route over an additional carrier, the PAS, which will be half owned by their biggest competitor the NS.
 #625805  by atsf sp
 
I went by Beacon Park today around 12:30 and there was no engines on the pad or sitting around. I have never seen this before except on weekends at night once all the trains went out. I was dissapointed in seeing no engines and it is also disapointing that this line is going downhill fast.
 #625924  by ST214
 
Q437 ran with DPU earliar this week. Missed the head power, but on the rear was a 900....guess the ES44AH's are sticking here.
 #626387  by QB 52.32
 
From all reports I have seen, the DPU tests have been run with 3 units, 2 on the h/e and one in the rear, in the place of 2 units on the head end. Anyone know whether DPU operation would go to 2 units in regular service, or, is the goal here to increase the capacity of 436/437 over the mountain or to speed up or improve reliability of these trains by using an additional unit in DPU mode?
 #627016  by johnnynick
 
The plan is to run the dpu's with just 2 units 1 on the front 1 on the rear. The 600 which has gone along for the ride on the tests so far stays isolated and is only there in case something goes wrong, as far as i know it has not been fired up yet. Look for 436 to have another go of it tuesday and don't expect to see it on other trains yet because there aren't any engineers qualified on the dpu's yet on the b&a.
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 75