by jaymac
A few hours of stopping, looking, and listening on 02-04-2011, showed how stressed PAS operations have become, in part because of weather aggravations.
-At 0850, D-3 was on the air with MOAY about when to and when not to yard. At 1039, D-3 was on the air with MOAY, but not the one holding on 2 west of the platform at Ayer, but the one at 464 waiting to come east, so the Ayer MOAY (starting to get confused?) was presumably really late while the-still-west-of-the-Hudson MOAY was merely late.
-The plan was for the Ayer MOAY to headpin and go to the yard for refueling before returning to yard its train, so 2 was occupied, and MBCR, which also had some late-making complications of its own, could run only on 1, which meant that getting foul time on 1 to clean out switches on West Main just wasn't gonna happen. Oh, and when 418 got east of CPF-AY, 419, which was east on 2, would hand-throw the crossover to get to 1, but the crossover was packed in so the MBCR maintainers hand-shoveled the crossover clean and 419 got even deeper in the hole, but nowhere near as much if the maintainers hadn't been there.
-EDNM had gotten west of River Street, Fitchburg, on 1 at 0928 with about 20+ cars hauled by 343, 614, and 617, not particularly noteworthy except that 343 was long-hood forward. EDNM was to stop at Wachusett. Already stopped at Wachusett on 2 was an unattended eastbound with elephant-style NewBlue 516 (how have the mighty fallen) and OldGray 502 plus about a half-mile of general freight. Having to be the crews changing at Wachusett seems not to be fun. Only the footpaths of your predecessors keeps you from getting hip-deep in the snow till you get to the plowed lot.
-Finally a new set of letters to add to my life-list: AYWA which got east of Depot Street, Westford, at 1045 with OldGrays 507 and 373 plus 41, after adding to D-3's stress by going into emergency at 0928 when trying to leave Ayer.
There's more but the site might time-off before I can finish.
-At 0850, D-3 was on the air with MOAY about when to and when not to yard. At 1039, D-3 was on the air with MOAY, but not the one holding on 2 west of the platform at Ayer, but the one at 464 waiting to come east, so the Ayer MOAY (starting to get confused?) was presumably really late while the-still-west-of-the-Hudson MOAY was merely late.
-The plan was for the Ayer MOAY to headpin and go to the yard for refueling before returning to yard its train, so 2 was occupied, and MBCR, which also had some late-making complications of its own, could run only on 1, which meant that getting foul time on 1 to clean out switches on West Main just wasn't gonna happen. Oh, and when 418 got east of CPF-AY, 419, which was east on 2, would hand-throw the crossover to get to 1, but the crossover was packed in so the MBCR maintainers hand-shoveled the crossover clean and 419 got even deeper in the hole, but nowhere near as much if the maintainers hadn't been there.
-EDNM had gotten west of River Street, Fitchburg, on 1 at 0928 with about 20+ cars hauled by 343, 614, and 617, not particularly noteworthy except that 343 was long-hood forward. EDNM was to stop at Wachusett. Already stopped at Wachusett on 2 was an unattended eastbound with elephant-style NewBlue 516 (how have the mighty fallen) and OldGray 502 plus about a half-mile of general freight. Having to be the crews changing at Wachusett seems not to be fun. Only the footpaths of your predecessors keeps you from getting hip-deep in the snow till you get to the plowed lot.
-Finally a new set of letters to add to my life-list: AYWA which got east of Depot Street, Westford, at 1045 with OldGrays 507 and 373 plus 41, after adding to D-3's stress by going into emergency at 0928 when trying to leave Ayer.
There's more but the site might time-off before I can finish.
"A gray crossover is definitely not company transportation."
