Danbury service suspended due to high water.

MNCRR9000 wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:There won't be service for several days, but maybe the Bethel police dept is in charge.
currently we are operating 7 buses and have 8 MTA buses on standby.

http://www.mta.info/status/serviceStatus.html
Some stations like Reading and Branchvile are still unreachable cause roads like route 7 and 53 are still partially closed due to flooding.

Yeah I was a little skeptical when I heard them put out the notice that the branch was back in service considering that you mentioned that there was a 125 foot x 30 foot deep washout and that wouldn't take a short time to fix.

The Redding Pilot is reporting that the water is over the tracks at the station in Branchville; also, they're saying the Simpaug Turnpike is flooded and closed from the West Redding station to Topstone. And the Ridgefield Press has a photo on their website of an abandonded car floating on Route 7 in front of the Dunkin Donuts. Downtown Georgetown also seems to be flooded. If I had to bet, I'd say there could be damage to the roadbed at Branchville and between Cannondale and Wilton Center, if not elsewhere (depending on plugged culverts, etc.)

Is the Berkshire Line washed out north of Danbury as well?

http://thereddingpilot.com/

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/th ... ute-7.html

Dutch, what dose this mean for the crews up there? Will you get a few days off or do you need to drive to another terminal?

Conductors are working buses, Some engineers had to take bus so they can do their other scheduled trains.
Some engineers will be on Standby .

That's some washout; nice picture.

Some of this post is relevant to MNRR, and some to NE Railfan, so forgive the overlap, but this washout has a cascade effect.

I was just going to post that the only way out for the trapped bomb sets is the Beacon line over to Brewster, but as Dutch notes above, there are washouts along that. The Maybrook was already OOS (thanks, Housy), and who knows if that line is suffering washouts as well.

So the only way out would be North to Pittsfield, and either east or west to Hudson Line or Springfield Line.

Wonder how the Housy is faring up north and the Naugy/Waterbury to the East? All that snow had to melt and go somewhere. I wonder if this is reminiscent of the floods back in what, the 50's, over on the Naugy?

This also puts a crimp in P&W operations; both routes to Tilcon? in Danbury are OOS now. With the hostilities between the HRRC and P&W, I doubt they could reroute up north; too far, too expensive.

There are no plans yet to ship trains out via pittsfield.
And P&W does not operate the stone train yet, cause blacktopping has not started yet and tilcon has a stockpile.
It would hinder P&W in deliveries of possible cars to Rings end in Bethel, but Im not sure if any are scheduled.

Here is what the MNR posted on their Facebook Page.

Bus service will replace train service on the Danbury Branch March 7th & 8th due to weather-related damage to the right-of-way in the vicinity of Bethel.

On Monday, March 7th buses will operate according to train schedules with the following exceptions:

The 5:10 PM train departing Grand Central is canceled. (Customers should take the 5:26 PM train to South Norwalk for bus service.)
The 5:16 PM shuttle from Stamford is canceled. Customers travleing from Grand Central should stay on the 4:15 PM train to South Norwalk, and customers boarding at Stamford should take the 5:10 train from Stamford to South Norwalk. Bus service will operate from South Norwalk to Danbury.
The 5:50 PM departing Grand Central is canceled. (Customers should take the 5:57 PM train from Grand Central to South Norwalk for bus service.)
The 6:28 PM train from Grand Central will operate to Branchville, where customers for Redding, Bethel and Danbury may transfer to bus service.
The 7:43 PM shuttle from Stamford will not connect with 6:55 PM train from Grand Central. Customers should take the 7:05 PM train from Grand Central instead and connect to bus service at South Norwalk.

On Tuesday, March 8th buses will operate according to train schedules with the following exceptions:

For the 6:49 AM train from Danbury, bus service will be provided from Danbury, Bethel and Redding, and will connect with a train departing Branchville at 7:10 AM.

Customers should anticipate delays of up to 15 minutes on all substitute bus service.

Customers please note: Housatonic Area Regional Transit (HART) will honor Danbury and Bethel monthly & weekly commutation tickets on their existing Danbury - Brewster and New Fairfield - Southeast bus routes.

So what type of bridge was this? A concrete culvert? Steel culvert?

there was no bridge or culvert, the washout took out a solid right of way including part of side of hill..

Thank God that MN patroled the track before 1811 left Danbury!! This could have been nothing short of a disaster. Kudos to the track foreman who spotted this and literally saved lives!!

I wonder what the track foreman thought when he came upon the washout...

I think he thought " sh*t a washout, let me call this in"

Have the figured out what they are going to do with the 2 maxi-bombs and 2 the mini-bombs or are they just going to keep them in the Danbury Yard?

That would be 3 maxi bombs and 2 mini bombs but what would you like them to do with them.
going via Pittsfield , Selkirk to Harmon would take two days, the branch may be open by then ..

With rain in the forecast for later this week hopefully things will dry out before then.

DutchRailnut wrote:That would be 3 maxi bombs and 2 mini bombs but what would you like them to do with them.
going via Pittsfield , Selkirk to Harmon would take two days, the branch may be open by then ..

I only thought there were 2 maxi-bombs stuck in the Danbury since for some reason I thought 1811 which leaves Danbury at 5:31am was able to make it through but then again the washout could have occurred at 2am for all I know.

That would be comical if they decided to move the maxi-bombs via Pittsfield, Selkirk to Harmon that would have been a huge waste of time and of fuel. Were the washouts on the Beacon really that bad that they couldn't move them west out that way?

Like Patrick said at least the forecast is good for the next couple of days to allow them to perform work but I have a feeling that it will take a while for things to really dry out.