Railroad Forums
Moderators: metraRI, JamesT4
JLJ061 wrote:I imagine they will just pick up at CP 32.2 east to South Bend and leave the Michigan City section until the reroute is complete.I agree. Hopefully they can get the funding for 32.2 to "0" in 2012 (2011 to Michigan City is funded). That section of line is reasonably straight with the area through Hudson Lake being the only wiggle.
justalurker66 wrote:Has anyone been through Kensington and seen changes there? It has been a while since I've made it that far.I was there late last week, and there were a lot of CN & Metra crews at work on the CN side, particularly at the north end of the interlocking on CN tracks 3 & 4. I'm assuming it's in preparation for the new connection to track 4 for Chicago-bound NICTD trains. Was also lucky enough to catch a CSS&SB freight with two bright orange GP38's (think the lead unit was 2004, forgot to write it down) leading a manifest off the old K&E northbound onto the CNIC Chicago Sub. I'm guessing he was headed for Clearing, though I'm not sure how he'd get there; the CNIC crosses under the NS/BRC at 95th, but there's no north-to west connection there (unless a reverse move is involved)...
On another matter, Hanas said work is progressing on construction of a dedicated South Shore rail line at Kensington where NICTD trains join Metra tracks and cross Canadian National freight lines in Illinois. South Shore trains at times are slowed to a crawl or held at the junction for other rail traffic to pass resulting in delays for NICTD passengers.I was unsure how to read that - "new crossover rails are to be installed in August" but a signal system redesign is needed. If the signal design problem slowed construction I'd expect a "were to be installed in August". I wasn't sure from the writing if anything was still going to happen.
Hanas said new crossover rails are to be installed in August during the tedious $15 million construction process but it was determined that the South Shore had to redesign Metra’s signal system with NICTD’s share $480,000 for additional engineering and design.
doepack wrote:I made a trip to Kensington on Friday and saw the crews at work. So far all of the work has been on the CN lines. There are more than a dozen new concrete bases installed for catenary supports or signal bridges. Based on their locations it appears that the new connection will run through the CN crossovers from the NICTD line to CN Track 1 just north of the Kensington station platform with a new connection between CN Track 1 and Metra Track 4 north of 113th St. (I'd say the "existing" crossovers but it appears that the trackwork is renewing the crossovers on the CN line.)justalurker66 wrote:Has anyone been through Kensington and seen changes there? It has been a while since I've made it that far.I was there late last week, and there were a lot of CN & Metra crews at work on the CN side, particularly at the north end of the interlocking on CN tracks 3 & 4. I'm assuming it's in preparation for the new connection to track 4 for Chicago-bound NICTD trains.
justalurker66 wrote:That was my impression as well. I did note the concrete supports, including a few toward the north end of the depot, but if IIRC, this is where CN track 1 already jogs to the inside of the existing catenary support bridges, putting it right up against Metra track 2 through the station. Stringing up wire in this area should be pretty easy, perhaps the concrete bases in this area represent an eventual upgrade over the current bridges?doepack wrote:I made a trip to Kensington on Friday and saw the crews at work. So far all of the work has been on the CN lines. There are more than a dozen new concrete bases installed for catenary supports or signal bridges. Based on their locations it appears that the new connection will run through the CN crossovers from the NICTD line to CN Track 1 just north of the Kensington station platform with a new connection between CN Track 1 and Metra Track 4 north of 113th St. (I'd say the "existing" crossovers but it appears that the trackwork is renewing the crossovers on the CN line.)justalurker66 wrote:Has anyone been through Kensington and seen changes there? It has been a while since I've made it that far.I was there late last week, and there were a lot of CN & Metra crews at work on the CN side, particularly at the north end of the interlocking on CN tracks 3 & 4. I'm assuming it's in preparation for the new connection to track 4 for Chicago-bound NICTD trains.
justalurker66 wrote:I had expected a diamond track parallel to the current crossover ending on CN Track 1 but the locations of the concrete bases don't back that up.Might be a "double-slip" switch going in here, to allow access to both the Kensington depot and the new track 4 connection...
doepack wrote:There is a catenary and signal support bridge just north of the station platform (14-37). The first new base is about 50ft south of that with an anchor point 25ft south of that. (The base has bolts to hold a beam in place - the anchor point has a beam sticking out of it with two holes in it where a guy wire from the nearby pole could be anchored.) Nothing has been done on the west side of the station (yet). I didn't even see survey markers. If they are replacing signal/catenary bridges they will need bases on both sides of the track. I'm expecting a simple L shaped one there since it is at the north end of the points where the crossover between CN Track 1 and Track 2 ends.justalurker66 wrote:Based on their locations it appears that the new connection will run through the CN crossovers from the NICTD line to CN Track 1 just north of the Kensington station platform with a new connection between CN Track 1 and Metra Track 4 north of 113th St.That was my impression as well. I did note the concrete supports, including a few toward the north end of the depot, but if IIRC, this is where CN track 1 already jogs to the inside of the existing catenary support bridges, putting it right up against Metra track 2 through the station. Stringing up wire in this area should be pretty easy, perhaps the concrete bases in this area represent an eventual upgrade over the current bridges?
doepack wrote:The only place I could see a slip switch helping would be on the current diamond track ... allowing a train to slip from it to CN Track 1. Not a bad idea but the bases seem to be lined up for the other path. The CN crossovers are too close to the end of the platform for a train using them to serve Kensington. A crossover could be built into the current interlocking north of Kensington to allow CN Track 1 to connect to Metra Track 3 but that wouln't clear up the bottleneck as much as a crossover north of 113th St right to Track 4.justalurker66 wrote:I had expected a diamond track parallel to the current crossover ending on CN Track 1 but the locations of the concrete bases don't back that up.Might be a "double-slip" switch going in here, to allow access to both the Kensington depot and the new track 4 connection...
justalurker66 wrote:It lines up nicely for electrfying the path for a train going through all the east to west crossovers from the current CSS connection over to CN Track 1. The next step would be to put the switches in to cross over to the Metra lines.Ah, ok then; I didn't fully see how the bases were arranged on the south side of the plant when I last visited, which is why I originally thought the current connection was going to be used, plus the double slip on CN 1. Thanks for spelling it out. So this means that some eastbound PM rush hour NICTD trains not stopping at Kensington could get a MT1 to MT4 routing by Metra dispatchers at 67th St. Interesting...
doepack wrote:Ah, ok then; I didn't fully see how the bases were arranged on the south side of the plant when I last visited, which is why I originally thought the current connection was going to be used, plus the double slip on CN 1. Thanks for spelling it out. So this means that some eastbound PM rush hour NICTD trains not stopping at Kensington could get a MT1 to MT4 routing by Metra dispatchers at 67th St. Interesting...It is complicated ... here's a YouTube video of an animation pass through the station with the new route in place that might help.
BTW, I'm currently updating a dispatching simulation I wrote for MED long ago. It'll be a full rewrite, and having the current operating profile will help me clear up several inaccuracies on the original 2001 version. The new NICTD connection at Kensington will be included, and I want to make sure I get it right...I believe we are close. Is this for Train Dispatcher 3.5? The current profile would also help answer the question of how functional reverse running on Track 4 would be.
justalurker66 wrote:I believe inbound rush is the more important one ... and this route will certainly help. All four tracks are CTC from 67th south so it is possible to run an outbound there but I'm not sue how many intermediate signals are available. Track 1 has several and a special crossover just south of the South Chicago branch tunnel to make running both directions on Track 1 easier. Without intermediates the second train following southbound of Track 4 would have to run restricted speed or wait for the train to clear the line at Kensington.According to the profile, there are no intermediates for SB traffic on track 4 between 67th and Kensington. With that in mind, you wouldn't be able to divert all four PM rush trains that highball Kensington to the new connection via track 4 at 67th, but it could still work for trains like 11 and/or 113, since there's enough cushion in the schedule that no other southbound trains would be delayed; but OTOH, it's probably not a good idea to run 215 behind 115 on track 4, so the former would have to remain on track 1. Of course, the trick in all of this is to keep traffic in BOTH directions moving through 67th, so that you aren't spiking northbounds with these southbound crossover moves. I'll have to get the sim up and running before I find out just how feasible this would be, if at all...
justalurker66 wrote:I believe we are close. Is this for Train Dispatcher 3.5?Yes it is. Hope to have it done, with testing completed, by late Nov./early Dec.
doepack wrote:According to the profile, there are no intermediates for SB traffic on track 4 between 67th and Kensington. With that in mind, you wouldn't be able to divert all four PM rush trains that highball Kensington to the new connection via track 4 at 67th, but it could still work for trains like 11 and/or 113, since there's enough cushion in the schedule that no other southbound trains would be delayed; but OTOH, it's probably not a good idea to run 215 behind 115 on track 4, so the former would have to remain on track 1. Of course, the trick in all of this is to keep traffic in BOTH directions moving through 67th, so that you aren't spiking northbounds with these southbound crossover moves. I'll have to get the sim up and running before I find out just how feasible this would be, if at all...Without intermediates I'd consider it a non-starter. The following train would have to be at least seven minutes behind to get a green at 67th St. And it does clobber the interlocking at 67th St. The current northbound Track 1 to Track 4 connection south of the MED-SC tunnel helps avoid morning conflicts. A similar connection would be needed to help avoid afternoon conflicts (plus at least a couple intermediate signals). Probably not worth the cost for the "Gary" trains.
Yes it is. Hope to have it done, with testing completed, by late Nov./early Dec.Cool. The redo at Kensington adds complication. We won't know the signaling until it is installed (unless an insider offers up details). I'm hoping that a ~700ft section of CN Track 1 north of 14-37 (the current north end of the CN interlocking) will be available to allow an inbound NICTD train to complete the crossover of CN and wait for the final connection to MED Track 4. This would keep the North and South Kensington Interlockings separate instead of requiring a route all the way from NICTD to MED Track 4 to be clear before a train starts across.
justalurker66 wrote:Cool. The redo at Kensington adds complication.Amen to that. But it's a challenge, so it's all good. Can't wait to see how it all works out...
justalurker66 wrote:I'm hoping that a ~700ft section of CN Track 1 north of 14-37 (the current north end of the CN interlocking) will be available to allow an inbound NICTD train to complete the crossover of CN and wait for the final connection to MED Track 4. This would keep the North and South Kensington Interlockings separate instead of requiring a route all the way from NICTD to MED Track 4 to be clear before a train starts across.Hm. Then this would require an additional signal mast in both directions on CN 1 at 14-21, which is the next bridge north of 14-37. My (2007) profile copy doesn't show any signals on the CN side at 14-21, (approach signal for Kensington is located about a 1/2 mile north at 13-73), only the two absolutes for MT 1 & 2 controlled by CCF on the Metra side that control southbound traffic through the depot are shown here. Funny you should mention a separate interlocking just north of the current plant; I was thinking the same thing, because this is where it will likely be.
justalurker66 wrote:We won't know the signaling until it is installed (unless an insider offers up details).Unlike other boards, we don't get a lot of that here, unfortunately. So educated guesses will have to do in the meantime...
doepack wrote:Hm. Then this would require an additional signal mast in both directions on CN 1 at 14-21, which is the next bridge north of 14-37. My (2007) profile copy doesn't show any signals on the CN side at 14-21, (approach signal for Kensington is located about a 1/2 mile north at 13-73), only the two absolutes for MT 1 & 2 controlled by CCF on the Metra side that control southbound traffic through the depot are shown here. Funny you should mention a separate interlocking just north of the current plant; I was thinking the same thing, because this is where it will likely be.A southbound signal on CN Track 1 at 14-21 will be required to protect the new connection. A northbound signal controlled by CN will be required to protect their track. You are correct that there are no CN track signals on 14-21 now. That is the expected location of one of the new signal bridges (extending 14-21 across the CN tracks - although I could swear that in my photographs the signals are numbered 1420).
There are 32 route miles to go in order to complete this project. All equipment has been installed from Karwick Road in Michigan City to the Hudson Lake area. Eight grade crossings have been improved and fully signalized with gates and flashers. Range Road and Springville Road were converted from passive to active warning devices enabling train speeds to increase from 65 to 79 mph resulting in 14 miles of continuous 79 mph territory, mp 31.6 to mp 17.6 (longest straight stretch on the railroad). NICTD anticipates cutting over the signal system between Karwick Road and Birchim this fall (12.7 miles – 39%). Mr. Babin estimates complete cutover to happen in the spring of 2011.At the moment the crew is working near Olive. All crossings are complete west of (but not including) Walnut Rd east of New Carlisle. New signals are in place but not in use at the west end of Olive (Smilax Rd). The new signals are in partial use at Birchim (with the 2nd track signals and diverging signals covered) and at 165/166. The other new intermediates are not in use.
NICTD’s project is to install a bi-pass track through the Kensington interlocking allowing NICTD trains to have parallel movement with the Metra trains into tracks 3 and 4 on the northern end. The goal is to eliminate delays entering Metra’s tracks. This project should be complete in the spring of 2011.I thought the new connection was just to track 4? Am I reading this right that the new connection will have access to both or are they saying parallel as in a Metra train on track 3 and a NICTD train on track 4 at the same time?
