Bergen County Line - diesels on east end

Couple time this past week, local trains stopping at Rutherford station have had the diesel on the East end leading towards Hoboken. Any ideas as to purpose?

Twice today, locals on the BCL have had diesels on each end... Would this be to counter wet leaves?

Edit train 1882 arrived Rutherford 22:08 4211 east 5 coaches and a PL42 on west end

I believe some cab cars are out of service.

Most of NJT's Cab cars are getting ACSES installed and cab signal upgrades,as part of the PTC mandate.

It seems that all the Multilevel cab cars are still in service; I’m yet to see an ML set with ALP-46s on both ends since 2006/2007. There are some ML cabs that are positioned behind locomotives so would it be possible to have those lead some of the Comet sets? If they are electrically compatible in revenue service

Zuccaraillo wrote:It seems that all the Multilevel cab cars are still in service; I’m yet to see an ML set with ALP-46s on both ends since 2006/2007. There are some ML cabs that are positioned behind locomotives so would it be possible to have those lead some of the Comet sets? If they are electrically compatible in revenue service

The multilevels do not play nice with the single levels when it comes to door operations. There has not been any regular service with mixed consists and there will not be.

Backshophoss wrote:Most of NJT's Cab cars are getting ACSES installed and cab signal upgrades,as part of the PTC mandate.

Yes, and knowing how this is currently going this will take a long time to complete.

Could they run both locos in tandem for extra traction during leaf season? Otherwise, it's just more dead weight to get rolling...

When I saw them, both diesels were running...

time wrote:Could they run both locos in tandem for extra traction during leaf season? Otherwise, it's just more dead weight to get rolling...

Yes, it should help you get going.
But for stopping when things are slippery, I don't know it a passenger railroad car can brake better by itself, or a loco can. What I am getting at, is maybe having the extra braking power of that extra loco might be outweighed, so to speak, by all the extra weight you have to stop when you add a second loco.

Could it be that the weight of a leading locomotive would eliminate the leaves better than a passenger car? The PRR used to run a single GG1 to Media every so often in the fall just to obliterate the leaves and residue.

One would posture that having two diesels applying brake application with sand would be better than just one. Speaking of leaves, I've yet to see a leaf spraying train.

pumpers wrote:

time wrote:Could they run both locos in tandem for extra traction during leaf season? Otherwise, it's just more dead weight to get rolling...

Yes, it should help you get going.
But for stopping when things are slippery, I don't know it a passenger railroad car can brake better by itself, or a loco can. What I am getting at, is maybe having the extra braking power of that extra loco might be outweighed, so to speak, by all the extra weight you have to stop when you add a second loco.

Who cares about stopping?