Interesting Consist Discussion for the North Side

sery2831 wrote:Coach 917 has been added to a set this week.

which unit/cabcar is it with?

Spotted a LORAM rail grinder on the Lowell line at Washington St in Somerville this morning.

It's been there for a few weeks, I see it every day.

ck4049 wrote:It's been there for a few weeks, I see it every day.

I must be really unobservant then, because I didn't see it from a Lowell train Friday afternoon, and I didn't see it any of the several times I drove through there over the weekend.

Leaser 330 is in service, seen leaving North Station earlier tonight.

Saw my first four-flat consist last night on Reading local 273, sadly did not remember car numbers, except that it did not have an MBB, so no restroom car. Sure hope they kept it on short turns.

I remember when MBCR briefly experimented with four car sets (in the days before double deckers up north), but I don't think I ever saw them field a set without the restroom.

Now they don't have a choice about running 4 car trains because so many coaches are OOS right now waiting for A/C repairs and other bugs.

I thought they were legally required to have a restroom car?

deathtopumpkins wrote:I thought they were legally required to have a restroom car?

I've raised the question myself, and been told, legally no, ethically yes

No one has mentioned that leaser 310 is in service now

Depeding on the mileage of the run

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:

deathtopumpkins wrote:I thought they were legally required to have a restroom car?

I've raised the question myself, and been told, legally no, ethically yes

IIRC, if a single-direction run is over 45 miles you need a bathroom on the consist.

octr202 wrote:Saw my first four-flat consist last night on Reading local 273, sadly did not remember car numbers, except that it did not have an MBB, so no restroom car. Sure hope they kept it on short turns.

I remember when MBCR briefly experimented with four car sets (in the days before double deckers up north), but I don't think I ever saw them field a set without the restroom.

IIRC, the policy was each set with fewer than five cars must run at 30 or 40 MPH. Then MBCR changed it to four cars and immediately started testing four car sets in revenue service. However, I thought that the speed restriction still applied to four-car sets unless one or more cars was a bi-level?

Why do they have that restriction? Amtrak runs some Springfield Shuttles with as few as 1 car, and Metro North runs triplets all the time on the Waterbury Branch.

There are at least TWO four car sets out there. I saw one this afternoon, but it's not the same one as previously reported, because the one I saw had a Rotem second out from the power.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Why do they have that restriction? Amtrak runs some Springfield Shuttles with as few as 1 car, and Metro North runs triplets all the time on the Waterbury Branch.

The are worried about the signal system not shunting correctly on some lines (Reason why the Dorchester Branch has a 30 mph cap with 4 car sets) The restriction is now: Lite engines, multiple lite engines and trains consisting of 3 coaches or fewer (PSGR and FRT) restricted to 30MPH Only applies on MBTA property