Fastest Metro-North train

What's the fastest average speed, start to stop, of any Metro-North regularly-scheduled train on any portion of its trip where it doesn't stop?

I'd assume the New Haven Line between 125th Street and Stamford? Or a Hudson Line train between Riverdale and Tarrytown or the like?

Thanks.

Two fastest parts are from just north of Manitou on Hudson to Poughkeepsie at 90 mph
and just east of CP217 to just short of Harrison also 90 mph but on New Haven line.

I'd say #59 ("The Clipper") non-stop from SEC to Harriman (West-of-Hudson).

any dead head, going home on Friday

It doesn't even have to be a dead head. One night many years ago I caught the last train out of Grand Central. When we transferred to the diesel train at Croton Harmon I overheard one of the trainmen say "We've got the railroad to ourselves tonight and we are going to fly." We left every station early. The engineer cut out the HEP as we left each station. By New Hamburg we were 20 minutes early and we were 25 minutes early into Poughkeepsie.

I'd go with the 2 Shore line east trains express from Bridgeport to Stamford or the 3:15 out of danbury. I have seen that Danbury train get into stamford at 4:08-4:10 or so... I just wish it would have the local across the platform before it left 1 min earlier it would save me 30 min. these are my choices for the fastest IMHO

If a train were to leave a station early, the crew would enjoy a unpaid vacation. railroad has train tracking and time out of stations and passing of interlockings is logged.
it would be a blatant violation of MNCR time Table rules, and would not take more than a few minutes to get caught.

DutchRailnut wrote:If a train were to leave a station early, the crew would enjoy a unpaid vacation. railroad has train tracking and time out of stations and passing of interlockings is logged.
it would be a blatant violation of MNCR time Table rules, and would not take more than a few minutes to get caught.

I wondered about that at the time. But it did happen.

merrick1 wrote:It doesn't even have to be a dead head. One night many years ago I caught the last train out of Grand Central. When we transferred to the diesel train at Croton Harmon I overheard one of the trainmen say "We've got the railroad to ourselves tonight and we are going to fly." We left every station early. The engineer cut out the HEP as we left each station. By New Hamburg we were 20 minutes early and we were 25 minutes early into Poughkeepsie.

As Dutch already stated, the crew would find them selves in a little bit of how water if they left early.

There are only two occasions where a revenue train is allowed to leave the station early.

1) If there is an "H" stop on the time table. This indicates that the train may leave up to 5 minutes earlier than indicated as it's primarily to discharge passengers. The last two GCT to Poughkeepsie direct trains of the night have all H stops. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to leave early as the lower Hudson times are timed for electric equipment as opposed to bom equipment. The only time I've had it happen is where we left GCT with electrics and then changed to bom equipment at Harmon. After transferring passengers we left Harmon 5 minutes early.

2) If there are "D" stops. These are discharge only stops where the train does not take on passengers. The only discharge only trains that I am aware of are special trains not on the regular pubic timetable such as the Yankee Clippers. Allow the employee's timetable has times for them they are adjusted based on the time the ball game ends.

As a side note, don't find yourself overly impressed that the train arrived at Poughkeepsie 25 minutes early. As it currently stands the last train of the night has 19 minutes to get from New Hamburg to Poughkeepsie. That's 9 minutes more than is really needed. Part of the reason is for keeping on time performance as the final terminal time of all trains are cushioned. The other reason is many times the train may only get a restricted cab signal from CP72 to the platform as trains are stored overnight on the main line tracks. If there is no equipment on the track the train arrives on the RTC can give a clear signal at CP75 to keep the train moving. If the conductor is on the doors quick, the locomotive is a good loader and the RTC can give you the clear at CP75, arriving at Poughkeepsie 15 minutes early is not out of the question.

truck6018 wrote:There are only two occasions where a revenue train is allowed to leave the station early.

2) If there are "D" stops. These are discharge only stops where the train does not take on passengers. The only discharge only trains that I am aware of are special trains not on the regular pubic timetable such as the Yankee Clippers. Allow the employee's timetable has times for them they are adjusted based on the time the ball game ends.

The most notable example of "Discharge only" stops are inbound New Haven Line trains at 125th and Fordham (some Harlem and Hudson trains are also "D" only at 125th).

One of the best trains to take and in my circumstances, work, is train 1580 (8:04pm to NHV.) No Stamford, SoNo first stop and all discharge stops. Usually get a straight shot and you don't follow anyone.

SouthernRailway wrote:What's the fastest average speed, start to stop, of any Metro-North regularly-scheduled train on any portion of its trip where it doesn't stop?

I'd assume the New Haven Line between 125th Street and Stamford? Or a Hudson Line train between Riverdale and Tarrytown or the like?

Thanks.

Time wise??

The shoppers special has a 59 minute "scheduled" time from Bridgeport to 125th, but sometimes can do it in as little as 55. I haven't taken it in a while (3+ years), but the 5:44 to New Haven, first stop Fairfield can get to Fairfield in about 65 or 70 minutes. 8:04 first stop SoNo makes SoNo in about 40 minutes or so. Those are probably the 3 fastest on the New Haven.

Steamboat Willie wrote:One of the best trains to take and in my circumstances, work, is train 1580 (8:04pm to NHV.) No Stamford, SoNo first stop and all discharge stops. Usually get a straight shot and you don't follow anyone.

I agree. I was just on this last week forgot how good it was. Another good one to take/work is 1560 (5:50 to New Haven). No Stamford, or SoNo, Fairfield first stop, and the train is pretty empty after Bridgeport.

DutchRailnut wrote:Two fastest parts are from just north of Manitou on Hudson to Poughkeepsie at 90 mph
and just east of CP217 to just short of Harrison also 90 mph but on New Haven line.

For a while the track speed in the Breakneck Ridge are was 95 MPH for passenger trains. But at that time all MN trains (hauling Bombardier cars) were limited to 79 MPH.

Don't remember restriction on Bombardier cars, timetable speed for Bombardiers is 100 mph, only restriction was for BG curve on Harlem at 50 mph till springs were replaced.
F10's max speed was 83 and FL-9's were restricted at 89 mph their speed was reduced to 79 mph on upper Hudson due to super elevation issues.