Needham Line Questions / Discussion

Rbts Stn wrote:No alerts today so this must have gone smoothly. I did hear a couple train horns/whistles during the 2nd quarter of yesterday's Pats game so it must have been done by then.

It's not being done until Veteran's Day Weekend. What you heard yesterday were probably leaf washing trains.

So you're saying I can't even read my own post just a couple lines up?

Makes sense, unfortunately.


We truly haven't had much leaf fall in that area yet, but that could be what it was.

I hear trains and no delay reports so this must have gone smoothly.

On Sunday early afternoon (11/13) they were doing what looked like final cleanup, so there was plenty of time to run test trains and make final adjustments if not already. Lagrange St. below had not yet reopened.

Sunday is ordinarily a day of rest for the Needham line but this morning at around 11:30, Amtrak's Corridor Clipper paid a visit to the very end of the signaled portion of the line. Here a few photos taken from the Hunnewell St bridge area and the Needham Heights station. I'm guessing this is a scheduled geo evaluation and all MBTA lines will get to see the Clipper?

The commuter contract requires four visits of the Geometry Train. Usually came only once a year,
but changed under the Keolis contract.

Ditto the Sperry Car, which is currently up west of Ayer this weekend.

D

I'm curious if the Geo train required special permission like a track authority to proceed 100+ feet past the end of ABS signal to get the Corridor Clipper right up to the signal where the commuter trains typically stop?

I would presume it is Other Than Main Track beyond the end of the Rule 261 territory, in which no authority is needed. If it were DCS for some reason (highly doubt it), they could either receive verbal permission to go no more than one train length into DCS or they could just get their Form D Line 2 for formal authority.

BostonUrbEx wrote:I would presume it is Other Than Main Track beyond the end of the Rule 261 territory, in which no authority is needed. If it were DCS for some reason (highly doubt it), they could either receive verbal permission to go no more than one train length into DCS or they could just get their Form D Line 2 for formal authority.

And they'd still need to inspect out there because division post for active vs. landbanked ROW isn't until the foot of the Webster St. grade crossing 1200 ft. past the 261-terminating signal, for purposes of stuffing a work train out of range of the Heights platform. They also have to inspect the 1000 ft. of remaining runaround track on the Millis side of the westerly Needham Jct. switch, for same reason.

Looks like they almost made it to Channel 5!

This "Fiberglass Switch Cover System" was recently installed over the hand-throw turnout connecting the Needham Heights layover yard lead to the station track. I'm guessing it's a low tech / low cost means of keeping snow out of the switch?

Yep.

http://www.rwy.com/product_type/track-s ... r-systems/

From my understanding, they are used in conjunction with switch heaters to contain and direct heat on the switch points and rail instead of just losing the heat produced to the air. Do the layover hand throw switches have heaters?

BostonUrbEx wrote:From my understanding, they are used in conjunction with switch heaters to contain and direct heat on the switch points and rail instead of just losing the heat produced to the air. Do the layover hand throw switches have heaters?

I don't see a conventional propane fired switch heater/tank installed at that particular hand-throw switch but I'll have to investigate more closely to see if there's an electric heater in place.

Those are indeed switch heaters, and they are a forced hot air type running on either natural gas or propane. A lot of locations around the railroad have them already installed except for the gas.