Planned Service Suspensions (Was: Orange Line To Close...)

Pat Fahey wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 7:04 am Hi All
This is what happens when the (T) does not perform the maintenance on the line as it should be doing. Now the Orange & the Green line have been ran into the ground for the Lack of Maintenance. Maybe the (T) should take a lesson from the Japanese shut down all subway systems at Midnight until Five or six in the morning so Maintenance can be done, on a regular basis. Maybe that makes to much common sense, Pat.

The T already shuts down between roughly 1 and 5am.

I watched a segment on NHK tokyo program 20+ years ago about how they easily built temporary platforms overnight using essentially blocks of styrofoam and some covering. Can you imagine the T building a temporary platform in one night?

I assume this project is all emergency no-bid contracts. I heard someone, I think from A Yankee Line, say they hired every available ADA compliant bus available east of the Mississippi River.

It is really amazing, here we are in a labor shortage and the T can magically find ?hundreds? of contract workers to do all this work. This will overlap the school year, with school systems unable to hire bus drivers, probably because they are driving MBTA shuttles!

It is also interesting that most of the problem areas on the Orange Line are stuff built within the last 40 years, not the parts built 100 years ago. The GLX was just built a year ago so it is unclear why work wasn't done then.

When the MTA does projects they release lots of videos. When they rebuilt the Hartford line there were like a thousand photos documenting their progress. This Orange Line and GLX rebuild will be cloaked in secrecy I expect.

They were cutting up and replacing track on the outer E line a week or two ago for unexplained reason. The ties they were removing looked pristine.

Have the Green Line summertime shutdowns to replace track, etc., resulted in notably faster trip times/easier operations? I think they're trying to replace basically all surface-level Green Line track over the course of 3 or 4 summers.

""... temporary platform in one night? ... ""

Didn't the Boston Elevated Railway build temporary high platforms in the Tremont St. Subway, 120 odd years ago? Then, in a weekend, filled in the platform gaps the Green Line stopped using on Friday and reconnected the tracks so the then Orange Line would run through there starting Monday?

And in 1908, the Orange line stopped running through the Tremont St. subway on a Friday, then overnight enough of the high platforms cut down so everyone would take the Green Line through downtown. They would connect with the Orange Line at North Station and at Pleasant St. (near Wang Theater) for one weekend. On Monday morning the present day Orange Line from North Station to a little past Chinatown opened. (That weekend through Orange Line passengers could also take the North South Rail Link over Atlantic Ave which connected to Dover St. to complete the ride to Nubian Sq.)

School bus drivers require additional and unique qualifications. If the Boston school department supplied bus captains or chaperones to meet still more school bus requirements, it would be easier to find drivers who have the needed driving skills.

Does the T have a list and schedule of what is being done for construction? We all know track and station work, but what exactly is being done? It would be nice to know what is being accomplished for the month.

Anybody got pictures of the work being done on the Orange Line? I'm sure they are working at a fever pitch.

Engineer: Tell him I'm doing my best. If I cut through the wrong circuits
Supervisor: We have fourteen minutes left.
Engineer: Even if we were under a full-scale attack I couldn't move any faster, not and maintain a safety factor.
Supervisor: At the rate you're proceeding, calculations show that you'll take a minute and a half more than we have left. You can't afford a safety factor.

A fictional but true dialog...

jake1966 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:10 am Does the T have a list and schedule of what is being done for construction? We all know track and station work, but what exactly is being done? It would be nice to know what is being accomplished for the month.

One project they mentioned today was roof replacement at Sullivan and Wellington
https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/1561839 ... o1p1ZPyaXw

MBTA derailments are two for two since the shutdown began.

From the Boston Herald: MBTA reports two construction derailments days into Orange Line project

Today they said they got the following done over the weekend.
"Over the weekend, we began the 30-day Orange Line diversion for #BuildingABetterT. In 3 days, we completed 3 of our planned projects, replaced 2,400ft of rail, & eliminated a slow zone between State St & Downtown Crossing with more improvements to come."

https://twitter.com/MBTA/status/1562070 ... Px4xTwY-rQ

do the two derailments represent sloppy work by the contractors, or just how bad the rail was and when they touch it it spreads or fails.

Hmmmm. Do the pieces of equipment with whatever loads of material they were carrying that derailed weigh much more than special event crowd loaded Orange Line cars?

The problem with hi-rail, truck with add-on railroad wheels, type of equipment is that the steel wheels are smaller that the steel wheel of a subway/railroad car. On a subway car all the weight rests upon 8 steel wheels whereas on a hi-rail it rests upon 4 rubber tires and the 4 steel wheels only guide the vehicle along the tracks. So that is one of the major reasons for them derailing. It is a major issue when a derailment happens in the confines of a tunnel and it would the same case for a subway car. This is a case of the media outlets kicking someone when their down.

How does a hi-rail align itself with the tracks? Can it not just re-rail itself pretty trivially?

BandA wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:53 am How does a hi-rail align itself with the tracks? Can it not just re-rail itself pretty trivially?

Usually they get on the tracks at either road crossing or special pads. You drive on to the pad and align the middle of the rubber wheels on the rail head and lower the steel wheels.