Electric Line Observations

I've observed some uncharacteristic operations on ME in the last few days.

1. While travelling north on LSD yesterday, I paced at train of old Highliners at 60mph - I thought these trains were limited to 45ish because of their control stand mods by ICG in the eighties - any ideas? To be sure, it was a length pace timed by my car's speedometer, not guesswork or a brief check.

2. Today, while waiting for the new cars to pass 31st at about 3:45, I noticed all ME trains honked at some non-official looking trucks parked under the 31st street bridge. I've never heard ME use the horn that much - it was a show. Also, the new highliner horns sound nothing like either the old highliners or CSS cars.

The Highliner speed issue is still a mystery to me -- I've been told the controllers were blocked at the series position, but I have no way to confirm that.

Regarding the horns on the new MU cars, they're Nathan K3LA's, same as the 8500 series push-pull cars have. The sound is similar, but not identical, to that of the horns currently on the NICTD fleet (which are Nathan P3's -- the K3's are more mellow in tone), and, as you stated, nothing like the horns on the Highliners or the original horns on the NICTD cars.

Tadman wrote:I've observed some uncharacteristic operations on ME in the last few days.

1. While travelling north on LSD yesterday, I paced at train of old Highliners at 60mph - I thought these trains were limited to 45ish because of their control stand mods by ICG in the eighties - any ideas? To be sure, it was a length pace timed by my car's speedometer, not guesswork or a brief check.

Well, for the past two years when I rode the ME in the morning, we always kept pace with LSD traffic from 47th to around 33rd. Sometimes, we were even faster than general flow of traffic.

And from driving LSD, I know that morning traffic is 60 with some people doing 70. There's no way those cars are limited to 45 on that stretch. But I'm pretty sure the curve before 27th is limited.