Interesting Consist Discussion for the North Side

Why is the Lowell Line getting two extra inbound trips from Lowell to NS late on July 24th? (at 11:35p on July 24 and 12:25am on July 25)? I got a Lowell Line text alert, and I checked http://www.mbta.com/events/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (but all I found was Foo Fighters July 18/19) but can't find much cause. Is the Lowell Folk Festival that big a deal?

(Mods: sorry that this is more an irregular op question than consist per se, but it seemed like the best place to engage North Side watchers)

Lowell Folk Festival...we have been doing this for probably over 7 years now...

D

The LFF brings in hundreds of thousands of people every year. It runs from Friday evening through Sunday evening. I can understand why they'd be adding more. It's an amazing event, and it's free. If you haven't been, I recommend it.

I assume they'll run extras on Saturday and Sunday as well(?)

Friday the 10:40p returns in service instead of deadheading and the last train Saturday returns in service. Ridership is extremely low. I have been the Conductor of this service a few times over the years.

In the past train have operated west of Lowell to Western Ave to unload for the folk festival. This hasn't happened in about three years.

Back on topic. The 330 loco is with a 5 car set that has 3 Rotems. And there is a 4 and 7 car set floating around. The 1528 will be cut soon as it due for its 92 day this week.

Yesterday I saw an SLC unit with just 4 cars. It was SLC unit (couldn't see number), flat, Rotem, flat, Rotem. The cars themselves were also interesting because of the dozen or more trains I saw yesterday, they all only had one Rotem and all had it in the second position from the locomotive.

F-R-F-F-F seems to be the increasingly "default" set up north, although there's still one or two five flat sets running around, and some sixes. And there's at least one five car HSP set with the R as the quiet car - it was on 200 this morning.

Oh, and 010 was still on a six-flat set as of last night. Other than the motive power, that almost feels "vintage" now!

BostonUrbEx wrote:Yesterday I saw an SLC unit with just 4 cars. It was SLC unit (couldn't see number), flat, Rotem, flat, Rotem. The cars themselves were also interesting because of the dozen or more trains I saw yesterday, they all only had one Rotem and all had it in the second position from the locomotive.

As of a few days ago, it was 330-1620-840-369-1809.

sery2831 wrote:Friday the 10:40p returns in service instead of deadheading and the last train Saturday returns in service. Ridership is extremely low. I have been the Conductor of this service a few times over the years.

In the past train have operated west of Lowell to Western Ave to unload for the folk festival. This hasn't happened in about three years.

How did that work? I don't see a platform here: https://goo.gl/maps/qntdA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Did they load the shuttle buses there? It doesn't really save time for walking versus the regular station -- just 2 or 3 minutes if there's access to the Dutton Street side.

They used to build a wooden low platform for one set of doors. And it was so people could walk. Maybe it was a safer walking route? I am not sure. And it was only one train to drop off. They didn't pick anyone up there later in the day.

As of the week of Aug 10th, there's at least two four-car sets North:

1060-F-816-F-1809
1069-517-F-F-1826

Anyone spot others out there?

Just saw SLC 293 heading inbound to Porter Sq. on the Fitchburg line in West Cambridge, powering one of the morning commute trains. Was struck by the engine color at first...thought it might be an Amtrak paint scheme, but I gather there are some leased locomotives running around the system these days. This page indicates it's a former Amtrak F40.

dth9269 wrote:Just saw SLC 293 heading inbound to Porter Sq. on the Fitchburg line in West Cambridge, powering one of the morning commute trains. Was struck by the engine color at first...thought it might be an Amtrak paint scheme, but I gather there are some leased locomotives running around the system these days. This page indicates it's a former Amtrak F40.

See the Rail World Leased Units thread for more information on these F-40s.

1522 seems to be out and about on the North Side per Stefan's tracker. Currently running out to Fitchburg on 1401.

2008/1031 are doubleheading a set; control car is 1638.

Just saw 3247 go past Waltham with a small train of flatbeds