New Canaan Branch Discussion

Stamford station no longer(last 10 years) has a pocket track.

Senior moment. I should've remembered that, been there a number of times since they opened the new station.

How or where does the NC shuttle load? I don't remember that.

Tommy Meehan wrote:
How or where does the NC shuttle load? I don't remember that.

Most of the time they use track 5 for the shuttle, sometimes they will use another track.

Darien Red Sox wrote:Most of the time they use track 5 for the shuttle, sometimes they will use another track.

Thanks, that I don't remember.

I notice in the current timetable, like on a Sunday afternoon, the westbound New Canaan trains arrive Stamford about forty-three minutes past the hour then depart to New Canaan fourteen minutes later. Do they just hold them on the platform in between?

On the weekends, it is usually track 5 and they arrive in-between the local trains. The locals also use track 5 on the weekends, and usually do not have permission to leave the yard until the dink has departed. During the week, the AM peak for example, the dink has at times utilizes track 2.

a 3 car passing siding would make no sense consindering the only time a triplet is run on the nc is on the weekend when they are the only train in town...1748 is also a triplet during the week but they go in the middle and get added to 1752 to deadhead back to new york....so if the only train running with 3 cars is on the weekend when no other trains are running it wouldnt make sense to have a passing siding for 3 cars....during the week the nc trains are between 4-7 cars

When the new doesn't work go back to the old. The State of CT does studies and spends millions on them to just tell you what was previously there. The money they spent on studies to electrify the Danbury and to increase the volume on the New Canaan they could have already had both projects half way funded.

Hmm well I was at Stamford station on a daily basis for almost 3 years (2003-05), and I always saw at least two sets of MU's (4-6 cars) on the midday trains. The last time I rode a weekend train to New Canaan (February 2006), there were also 5 cars on it. I remember because I documented that ride with photos and video.

Just looking at train time now, some of the GCT-New Canaan trains leave from track 113, which can only hold 5 cars without fouling the ladders.

There WAS one occasion where the 7:00AM express train from GCT-New Haven was just a single M6 (3 cars - that run usually had 5 or 6 cars, and I believe turned from one of the morning through trains from NC)....boy was that a fun morning.

Did they recently change back to only using one set during the week, or are they still using the 5-6 cars middays? Nobody seems to be in agreement here......

bart - 1748 is that one PM-rush train that runs as a shuttle. Does Stamford yard just happen to have a single M4/6 set sitting around at the peak of rush hour, or does it get pulled off of another longer set? And I take it they stop at the main track platform and then move to the middle track (cuz last time I was up there, only the main track had a platform), and then get added to the GCT-facing end of 1752 on main, to run as a 7-8 car set back to GCT as 1091?

railmason357 wrote:The money they spent on studies to electrify the Danbury and to increase the volume on the New Canaan they could have already had both projects half way funded.

Just to digress for a moment, I know there are abuses by consultants. That money gets wasted, that consultant fees are sometimes used as a way to pay back political favors or as rewards for loyalty.

But not always. Some of these studies, the political people involved say, are hatched when a project is unbuildable because a) the money needed is not available or b) there are not sufficient votes in the legislature to approve a project. So just to keep a project alive the sponsors will get money appropriated for a study. Or the political powers will tell them, no you can't have money to electrify the Danbury branch, not now, but as a sop you can have some money to do a study. Keep the idea on a front burner while you build a better case for it and try to convince more legislators to vote for it when it comes up again in Hartford.

If it was only the railroads that got these type consultancies!

It's the way the system works.

1748 usually is taken off of another consist during the day one of the 9 or 11 car trainsets but sometimes the shop may ok a triplet in the afternoon and could come from there....also after unloading in nc they do pull into the middle, then 1752 comes up unloads on the main, goes into the middle and ties on to the triplet...sometimes 1748 will be 4cars (2pair) depending on whats available...then once 1758 comes up into the station the 1748/52 combo deadheads to gct from the middle then 1758 deadheads back to stamford right behind them, then 1770 comes up from gct and goes back to stam as 1787, then 1774 comes up from gct and goes back to stam as 1789, then 1778 comes up from gct ....after their station work they go into the middle until 1782 comes up from stamford then 1778 deadheads back to stamford. after that its dink time all night thats the pm nc in a nutshell (also 1770 is usually 7cars)

Thanks for the informative post. That just goes to show even more how crowded things can get up there. I know the early AM trains that deadhead up there are just minutes apart from each other so that they can share the open slot.

The question is....how much demand is there for reverse-peak service on that line? I've often compared the New Canaan branch to NJT's Gladstone branch, where almost all of the reverse-peak riders are "the help", going to nanny and housekeeping jobs.

It sounds to me like weekday dinks ARE still real train sets, with the exception of 1748, and thus a 3 car siding is not going to cut it. The weekend, which may be running the 2-3 car sets again, are not when trains will need to pass each other. Does 1787 (which you said was 7 cars) get used for the evening dink runs?

1774 becomes the nigh time dink they come up from gct as 1774 go to stam as 1789 become 1782 and so on....1770 goes back to stamford and turns for another assignment later on back to gct

Related to the study, and what's currently funded or obligated:

http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=1383&Q=454340&PM=1

I assume that the "New Canaan Bulk Track" mentioned at the bottom of page 4 as an existing obligation is the third track at NC station that was mentioned earlier and is to be raised / regraded and extended, since there are no other sidings (connected, anyway) on the branch per Rich Green's track map.

Can anyone explain the terms "team track" and "bulk track"? I've seen that referenced on here several times.

Sarge wrote:Related to the study, and what's currently funded or obligated:

http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=1383&Q=454340&PM=1


Can anyone explain the terms "team track" and "bulk track"? I've seen that referenced on here several times.

Not much difference, on the New Haven they were called the "bulk track" while the New York Central usually called such a
track the "town track". Other railroads used different terms. The term "team track" refers to the days when teams of
horses with a wagon or something would show up to unload a car or a portion of a car.
Essentially what is referred to here is a public delivery track. I have to wonder if some freight customer were to decide to
unload a box car on the bulk track in New Canaan. The line is still in service for freight operations even though there are
no freight customers on that branch.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:I have to wonder if some freight customer were to decide to
unload a box car on the bulk track in New Canaan. The line is still in service for freight operations even though there are
no freight customers on that branch.
Noel Weaver

Noel I would pay good money to see the reaction from various New Canaanites if one morning they were to show up at the station and find, say, a bulkhead flat of lumber (or perhaps a hopper of coal?) being unloaded in the parking lot behind the Wachovia bank!