Thursday night the train set that was used for 827 (6:10PM outbound) zipped through Attleboro on track 2, passing train 832 which was in the station. 827 normally goes to Pawtucket for the night when reaching Providence, and is not used for a return trip to Boston. What would've caused this? My only guess would've been that the Patriots train used on the Providence side that night would go directly to Pawtucket, so one of the trains had to come out, as there wouldn't have been enough room to fit a 7th train (the 827 that night was 3 doubles and 2 singles, and the Providence Patriots train was 4 doubles and 2 singles).
Speaking of which, what is the process for Patriots trains when the Patriots play on a weekday? I would think that when they play on Sunday (or the occasional Saturday game), they can just take a train out of Pawtucket and use that (since I think only one or two trains come out of Pawtucket during the weekend) and put it back when done, but what about during the weekday, when there are no trains in the layover yard to use? Do they send a non-revenue train down to Providence in the middle of the day?