Saw a few odd train combos last few weeks

GSC wrote:How's this for an odd combo?

GP40 4202 and four matching Comet V coaches! Saw it on the NJCL thru Bradley Beach Friday, back and forth a few times, doing Long Branch - Bay Head shuttles.

Probably a reassignment of equipment after Hoboken, just odd to see a matching set of coaches, normally Comet "black window" coaches and a "silver window" Comet V cab car.

That's a standard PVL train, and quite a few on other ex-Erie lines, so I would hazard that your guess about moving stuff around because of the crash is correct.

GP40 4209 and four car Comet V set has joined the Long Branch - Bay Head Shuttle family.

Whatever happened to the Comet III or IV "black window" cab cars? Haven't seen them in a long time.

I think the Comet IV cab cars are banned from running on the NEC because the cab signals haven't been upgraded. As a result, NJT doesn't use them at all. They usually appear directly behind an engine and are used as regular passenger cars.

Why not use them on the Erie lines?

Except for 3 Multilevel sets, the Erie side only seems to have Comet V's. Read elsewhere that the yardmaster for the Hoboken Division prefers to have solid sets.

Great, so the Hoboken yardmaster can have solid comet IV sets.

There are lots of alleged reasons, but at the end of the day NJT has simply decided that they do not wish to use Comet IVs as leaders. They are to be buried to provide additional lavatory capacity. There are more than enough Comet Vs to cover all single level consists.

What's going to happen to all the extra Comet V cabs when they start retiring the older Comets? They're only 12-14 years old at this point. The Metro North fleet has 15 cabs in a fleet of 65 and the NJT fleet has 84 cabs (82 in service) in a fleet of 200 (198 in service).

I know that they rebuilt the Comet II's to look like Comet IV's around the same time and all the cabs were converted to trailers, which is the reason they got so many Comet V cabs.

Train 0408 on the Gladstone was running with a 6-car Arrow consist this morning. Perhaps because Gladstone trains are making all local stops from Summit to Hoboken?

Also -- was a 2 car set running on the Gladstone recently? Thought I saw one...

jackintosh11 wrote:Great, so the Hoboken yardmaster can have solid comet IV sets.

No, they're usually solid Comet V sets. Don't understand why it's that; throughout the 2000s mixed Comet sets were numerous throughout the system.

Saw GP40 4300 eastbound thru Asbury Park early Saturday, about 2 am. All by itself, no train, LHF. Must have brought down equipment to Bay Head.

Zuccaraillo wrote:No, they're usually solid Comet V sets. Don't understand why it's that; throughout the 2000s mixed Comet sets were numerous throughout the system.

Reason I'm saying that is it would make more sense to use the comet IV cabs on the Hoboken division since they can't use them on the Newark division. If the Hoboken yardmaster wants solid sets then it would make more sense to have solid sets of comet IVs.

GSC wrote:Saw GP40 4300 eastbound thru Asbury Park early Saturday, about 2 am. All by itself, no train, LHF. Must have brought down equipment to Bay Head.

Might have been the Long Branch drill, YL-52. Sometimes they run the Long Branch protect engine to Bay Head for fuel, then run it back to Long Branch; usually they run the GP40 by itself for this move.

Does Bay Head even have a fueling capabilities. I thought only Raritan and Hoboken did.

Bay Head did previously, but no longer does. Hoboken, Raritan, and Atlantic City all have fuel pads.