This morning I headed to the Mansfield train station to catch the "super express" #806 at 7:40. Arriving at about 7:30, I noted that the Mansfield-originating local, #832 (five single coaches instead of its usual six, by the way), was just pulling in on Track 2. I ran across the parking lot, and got on board the first car. The engineer and conductor were busy debugging a problem, which looked to me to be with the ACSES sysetm -- as they were resetting buttons both on the engineer's console, and in the cabinet just inside the passenger section of the coach. The brakes kept on dumping and recharging as well (not sure if it was being done manually).
Knowing that the 806 was rapidly closing in behind, I wondered what would happen. The first thing to happen was a freight which had entered Track 1 from the Foxboro spur, preparing to change ends and the Mansfield interlocking and move inbound to a freight siding just east of the station, was shoved back into the Foxboro spur. A few minutes later, Amtrak Acela Express #2155 heading to NYC/WAS blew by, at about its usual time of 7:39. The conductor of the 832 then announced that all passengers for Back Bay and South Station should disembark, and cross under to Track 1 for the 806 which would wrongrail at Mansfield. And so we did.
I got on and moved up to the railfan window at the front; at that point, we were even with 832. And we both left at the same time! We "raced" to Sharon (832 winning as it was much lighter; 806 had four bilevels and two singles, and many more passengers). The engineer said over the PA to the conductor that we'd be making an unscheduled stop in Sharon to pick up passengers there. But I guess the dispatcher didn't know that the 832 was under way, and when we platformed at Sharon on Track 1, the 832 was already picking up its passengers on Track 2 (about a half hour late). So we gave up our 80mph head-of-steam for a station stop on the wrong rail, where we picked up no one!
Both trains then left Sharon at the same time, but were slowed approaching Canton Junction. The 832 had a stop signal before the platform, and we got a medium approach to cross over. After we crossed over, I saw Amtrak Regional 171 waiting on Track 1 for us to clear Canton Junction interlocking, it now running about 15 minutes late.
You'd think that the 806 would then be able to highball into Back Bay, but now we were stuck behind Stoughton train #906, and had to crawl behind it while it stopped at Route 128 and Hyde Park. Finally, it crossed over to get to Ruggles, and we were cleared to Back Bay.
The 806 got in about 22 minutes late, and 832 behind us about 40 minutes late. The conductor of 806 even announced for those passengers who had transferred from 832 to 806 at Mansfield to put in for their "guarantee" fare refund, but of course, not those who were orginally on 806.
Knowing that the 806 was rapidly closing in behind, I wondered what would happen. The first thing to happen was a freight which had entered Track 1 from the Foxboro spur, preparing to change ends and the Mansfield interlocking and move inbound to a freight siding just east of the station, was shoved back into the Foxboro spur. A few minutes later, Amtrak Acela Express #2155 heading to NYC/WAS blew by, at about its usual time of 7:39. The conductor of the 832 then announced that all passengers for Back Bay and South Station should disembark, and cross under to Track 1 for the 806 which would wrongrail at Mansfield. And so we did.
I got on and moved up to the railfan window at the front; at that point, we were even with 832. And we both left at the same time! We "raced" to Sharon (832 winning as it was much lighter; 806 had four bilevels and two singles, and many more passengers). The engineer said over the PA to the conductor that we'd be making an unscheduled stop in Sharon to pick up passengers there. But I guess the dispatcher didn't know that the 832 was under way, and when we platformed at Sharon on Track 1, the 832 was already picking up its passengers on Track 2 (about a half hour late). So we gave up our 80mph head-of-steam for a station stop on the wrong rail, where we picked up no one!
Both trains then left Sharon at the same time, but were slowed approaching Canton Junction. The 832 had a stop signal before the platform, and we got a medium approach to cross over. After we crossed over, I saw Amtrak Regional 171 waiting on Track 1 for us to clear Canton Junction interlocking, it now running about 15 minutes late.
You'd think that the 806 would then be able to highball into Back Bay, but now we were stuck behind Stoughton train #906, and had to crawl behind it while it stopped at Route 128 and Hyde Park. Finally, it crossed over to get to Ruggles, and we were cleared to Back Bay.
The 806 got in about 22 minutes late, and 832 behind us about 40 minutes late. The conductor of 806 even announced for those passengers who had transferred from 832 to 806 at Mansfield to put in for their "guarantee" fare refund, but of course, not those who were orginally on 806.
