Trainmaster5

On 4/22/2024 at 11:39 PM, Trainmaster5 said:

Actually I'm not in disagreement with you on the basics. Where I come from the infrastructure, not the equipment, is the most important component. Signals, switches, rails, CBTC overide the NTT cars. It's the "other" things that are holding things back. My opinion. Carry on.

In case people misunderstand what I’m getting at just go back to the  website and read what I’m talking about. People on the tracks, pulled cords, disorderly behavior and the like. What I mean is that no matter what equipment is present , R9-R211, the delays will still happen. My opinion. Carry on.

10 minutes ago, Kamen Rider said:

For a lot of people, it's often also what comes with the new equipment.

In the case of the R211s, that would be CBTC on 8th Avenue, which means retirement of much of the legacy signal hardware that is often the root cause of problems. 

Actually I'm not in disagreement with you on the basics. Where I come from the infrastructure, not the equipment, is the most important component. Signals, switches, rails, CBTC overide the NTT cars. It's the "other" things that are holding things back. My opinion. Carry on.

I asked a question way back around Thanksgiving and I’ve yet to see anyone answer it. Looking at the website from way back then I pointed out that most delays were not caused by equipment troubles but other issues. We’ve had disruptive passengers. We’ve had people on the tracks. We’ve had signal and switch problems. I haven’t even mentioned the network communication breakdown problems that seem to crop up intermittently. Meanwhile I keep seeing posts about the R211 cars and how the anticipation has increased for the introduction. I’m trying to figure out what the justification is for this. I don’t see anything that shows that the R211 will eliminate the present day problems. The problems that I’ve pointed out have nothing to do with car equipment. There’s nothing wrong with being a pom pom waver but it’s time to come back to reality, IMO. I don’t think the introduction of the new equipment will help improve the quality of service to any degree. Stevie Wonder can probably see my point. Just my opinion though. Feel free to disagree. Carry on.

16 hours ago, Kamen Rider said:

I think we ether need to rename this thread or spin off a new one for sharing our road based pearls of wisdom beyond Schoolcar.

 

like, for example, just because you are running on the express track during a GO… don’t expect to actually go faster. You will probably be crawling along at 10MPH past more yellow lights than you can count. “Express” just means “I’m not stopping”. 

Back in those ancient days we were taught that in the subway express meant that you made fewer stops than the locals. 

21 hours ago, Teban54 said:

I mean, does an average passenger really know this? How can they know, for example, that the Crosstown tracks aren't connected to the IRT or BMT systems in downtown Brooklyn (which may be perceived as being possible for the rerouted  to use), or that they aren't even connected to Jay St-MetroTech so that the rerouted  train can't be heading towards York St and back to Manhattan? (On the Queens side, they may also not know whether it's possible for the  to make a turn from Queens Plaza to 21 St-Queensbridge, or whether the only destination possible is Jamaica-179, but that's less relevant since a would terminate at Court Sq anyway.)

Coming back to the  example at Times Sq, if they're unfamiliar with the system and such reroutes, someone going to Clark St can legitimately believe that the rerouted  train will switch back to the  after Fulton St, via an imaginary track connection that doesn't actually exist (but they don't know that). Somebody going to Grand Army Plaza may believe the train will switch back to Eastern Pkwy Express at Atlantic-Barclays, where a switch to do so actually exists.

We know that even a lot of railfans making deinterlining proposals make mistakes about which track connections exist and which do not, and people commenting on them can make the same mistakes. With some proposals swapping the 8th Av/6th Av locals past W4, which is enabled by the track layout, some comments shut them down because they wrongly thought you can't do so without introducing more interlining. Some proposals forget that CPW can only feed into 6th Av express but not local, or that SAS only feeds into Broadway express but not local, while others forget tracks that can go into either local or express (e.g. 63rd to 6th, 53rd to 8th). If even railfans don't have perfect knowledge of where it's physically possible for trains to go, how can you expect that from the general public?

Personally it seems like you are making excuses for people. I hardly consider myself a rail fan but I knew the difference between the IRT, BMT and the IND before I started junior high  when Ike was still president. . I think anyone with a subway map would be able to figure it out. I’m of the opinion that the vision and hearing impaired people can get around better than many so-called healthy, intelligent people.. My opinion. Carry on.

11 hours ago, LTA1992 said:

I mean, that's pretty easy to do when ridership dropped to levels not seen since 1910....

Read the post above yours again. While we’re at it let me tell you something we were taught on the first day of school car. The motor instructor, a former Marine Corps drill instructor, told us that people were getting dumber by the year and he wasn’t only talking about New Yorkers. He questioned how immigrants from Europe after WWII and poorly educated transplants from the South could navigate the transit system on trains without PA systems yet the so-called intelligent New Yorkers were often confused. He said the trick was platform signage and the marker lights on the trains. COLOR was the great equalizer. As he pointed out the sight and hearing impaired people seemed to have more knowledge than the other passengers had. This is the first two days of  Conductors school car. He and his 3 partners quizzed all thirty of us about neighborhoods, railroads, subways and buses we were familiar with. I was exempt from most of those discussions because I had a bus and train pass since before JFK was elected and I was also a provisional RR Porter for a year. Heck, I rode or worked on many lines that had been demolished by then. The one thing that all 4 motor instructors instilled in us was that the Conductor was in charge of the train and the passengers. The drill instructor also said that people were getting so dumb over the years that one of the duties of future Conductors was to walk the riders home to their front doors because otherwise they would get lost. My classmates and I would laugh about those things until I was a Motorman on a rerouted  train headed s/b to Flatbush at Times Square. Never mind that the  to the ‘ Bush regularly stopped at the same station and track and we were headed to the same terminal many folks would not board my train. Despite my C/Rs announcements and those of the station PA the dispatcher told us to close up and leave the clueless people behind. We were all taught to treat the passengers with dignity and respect but after that experience and those that followed I tried to keep my distance from the general public. My own experience. You’re entitled to your own opinion. No hard feelings. Carry on.
 
 

13 hours ago, Wallyhorse said:

I actually rode a few  trains that were shortened, especially doing messenger work in 1980-'81 when I believe they were really short on trains due to many of them being unavailable for service.  Most of those trains were five cars.  This was before and after the infamous day in January 1981 when one-third of the entire fleet was unavailable due to cars having issues. 

Although I was unaware of the 5 car occurrences on the  I’m well aware of the breakdown problems in the IRT back then. Trains breaking down, catching fire, going dead, etc. I remember leaving New Lots on a  headed towards my job at Lenox . Got to Grand Army Plaza and an announcement was made about a train delay at Chambers and no service past Nevins. I transferred to a  at Atlantic Avenue and rode to 145th Street and walked to Lenox Terminal and jumped ahead to make a s/b to Flatbush. Heading n/b we got to Atlantic Avenue and then Command Center told us  to take our 9 car(  train up Lexington Avenue to the Concourse. We encountered NO delays (because riders were smarter back then)) compared to today’s folks in my opinion. I definitely agree with you about the unreliability of service back then. Every day was an adventure in that era and, IMO, things didn’t get much better until the MK Redbirds were introduced to supplement the R62/62A class of cars. I was part of the Lenox Division in those days which limited me to the  ,  ,  lines. From what I remember the  and  weren’t much better in those days. It never entered my mind that you were that ancient 😃. Carry on.

7 hours ago, RTOMan said:

Going by what i see online and in person with some of these folks, they dont..

 Got Attitudes act like they doing transit a favor mad because they on WAA and are asked to do a relay...

New flash  we are replaceable pass numbers they'll clip one and use that pass number for the next one they hire.

I can remember changing signs on the platform at Dyre with my C/R countless times because the T/D couldn’t find the C/Rs who were supposed to be on WAA. He actually picked the job at East 180th Street where he wasn’t responsible for the folks who put his job on the line. The sad part is that these people are supposed to be responsible adults. You and Kamen Rider know what I mean. Carry on.

On 4/7/2024 at 6:14 PM, Wallyhorse said:

I remember back in 1980 or so the used to be a half-length train (five cars) middays.  The old  would often be four cars then for example. 

I think you better check your statement about the midday  . The train ran from Dyre to Atlantic Avenue midday alternating with the  from Woodlawn. Both lines ran 10 car trains. I was stationed at Atlantic Avenue frequently in the early Eighties by the crew office daily. I can tell you that the  ran 5 cars on the midnights from VCP to the ferry because I was assigned there to cut the 10 car trains to 5+5 a few times. I also know that the  train ran 4 car trains middays out to Euclid in the mid eighties. 
Finally I had a job on Sunday nights on the  from New Lots to 241 Stb and WPR. We ran 5 cars on that interval and the train was cut in the station , not the yard, at New Lots. 
Back then we had signals that alerted the M/M if there  any cars in the station as you approached. Just a few things that I observed over the years. The only time that I left Dyre on the  with less than 10 cars was Thanksgiving Day 1988 which was the last holiday I ever worked 😁. I had 6 cars. Carry on.

Just saw a Washington Post article about the unveiling of new subway cars for the Metro. There’s a mock up on display down there.

7 hours ago, RTOMan said:

Well said i always told my partner " we a team" that's how it works..

Some of our coworkers dont know how to work well with others and that's a fact.

That’s why my C/R and I were together for 14 years.

1 hour ago, danielhg121 said:

Actually, the M9A order consists of both LIRR and MNR cars. The M9A was purchased with federal money that was specifically set aside for increased rolling stock due to East Side Access opening up. Regardless, a builder hasn't even picked yet as far as I'm aware so they haven't even started production on those. It'll take awhile till we see an M9A on either property. 

I was actually replying to Jake’s reporting on the LIRR car acceptance progress but thanks for your clarification. Carry on.

On 2/17/2024 at 6:02 PM, TyBusLover1 said:

Looks like all the M9As will be in service soon.

Are we talking M9 LIRR or M9A MNRR cars ? They’re different animals.

52 minutes ago, Bill from Maspeth said:

On Friday I rode on the R211T.  From a passenger perspective I like the train.  I rode northbound from Chambers St. to 168 and southbound 168 to Hoyt Schermerhorn.   It ran nice, except for the hard stops made at the overwhelming majority of stations!   I can live with all the new "bells and whistles".  But from the perspective of operation, I have big issues.

I am going by the rules of NYCT.  I don't want to hear about Toronto or systems in Europe that have similar open gangways, because I don't know their rules for train operation, nor do I know if they have automatic tripping devices which would activate due to an obstruction on the roadbed not seen by the train operator till it's too late.  All I know are the rules for operation at NYCT as per the procedures described below . 

In the case of a BIE, he is required to fully inspect the train from the roadbed if it re-charges.  Debris or a body, they would have struck the automatic tripping device or a stop arm coming up underneath the train before it cleared, or maybe even if no cause is found (this would mean a problem with the train which the t/o would not be able to diagnose).  In case of no clearance areas, the t/o must check in between the cars.  There-in is the problem as his only entrance to the roadbed with the R211T is out the front (or rear 600' away) door. So instead, he has to go into the car body (while getting peppered with harassing and cussing passengers and he has no time to explain the process) and open a side door to climb down.  But suppose there are bench walls in the way on both sides (or some other obstruction) as in an under river tube? Now he can't check underneath the car/from between cars.  Multiply that by several other cars.  Now he moves the train and it goes BIE again because he couldn't carefully check under the whole train.  This is what we're up against as the T/O, Control Center and right up the line as we get into the decision makers.  Also, looking in between the cars from inside a station, you can't get down in between cars because there are no steps, plus there is some piece of hardware protruding preventing one from even reaching the roadbed from the platform.  Of course, the same is true if the train goes BIE in between stations and the t/o is walking the bench wall, he still can't get down in between cars from that way either.

Just wait for the first 12-9 they have with these cars and the body is somewhere under the train and they can't find the body because it's SOMEWHERE!  Police and Fire Department will call NYCT on the carpet about these cars.  Enjoy them while you can, because sometime in 2024 they will be permanently relegated to the Rockaway Shuttle. 

Put that into your vaping pipes and smoke it! 

 

 

Thanks for pointing out what many of us old timers see as an important issue. Most of us wouldn’t even pick a job on a line that primarily ran that equipment. Wait until a train gets caught up in the scenario you described and the public and the media will be screaming at the top of their lungs for heads to roll. Carry on.

Although I’ve been traveling to Suffolk County ( Brentwood ) since my inlaws moved here in 1981 I’ve only ridden one SCT bus in my lifetime and that was an exploration trip on the S1. Rode it from end to end just for the experience. I remember telling my father-in-law that as a Brooklynite I wanted nothing to do with a bus system that seemed to stop operating after 7 pm. LIRR had a single track at Brentwood and the station was located on the west side of Brentwood Road. No westbound trains between 4:23 and 7:23 pms on weekdays. Because I worked late pms on work trains in transit I had to get that 4:23 train or catch a ride to Babylon if I hadn’t driven out there to Brentwood. There were times I had to climb up onto the trailing diesel to make that train. The Conductor would read me the riot act after we stopped at Deer Park. When they upgraded the LIRR line to 2 tracks and relocated the station house they installed bus stops on both sides of Brentwood Road  although that 3 hour gap westbound remained and then I started paying attention to the bus routes down there. I think there were 3 routes prefixed with an S, 27, 41, and IIRC 47. There were 3 routes prefixed with a 3, A, B and D. I remember the 41 went to the VA hospital and the 3D was for Stony Brook Hospital. Even after reading B35’s adventures with SCT I still can’t see how the service was interconnected. In 40+ years of being around this area I travel to the South Shore Mall, Huntington Square and the Smith Haven Malls by car. I think I was spoiled by NYCTA bus service in Brooklyn and the city in general. Now with the new service out here in Suffolk I notice the 5 and 7 bus routes and I’ve seen a ARBOC (?) with a split 7/11 sign on the front door. The little jitney type buses have no numbers on the overhead signs which is bad enough but I drive through the Hauppauge Industrial area and I noticed old signs or missing new signs at some of the bus shelters or stops. Very tacky in my opinion. For all the fanners I thank you for enlightening me and keep up the good work. Carry on.

47 minutes ago, zacster said:

In the MTA EVERYTHING costs money.  They need storage space, security, maintenance, inspection, occasional operation.  It all adds up, and by MTA math. 

Let's try to clear this up. In the real world everything costs money. The  is no exception. Think about what you're saying. The  is not just subways as you seem to be implying. There are bus depots, transit hubs, railroads, stations and a zillion other things that cost money. A train in the transit museum, lights in the river tubes 24/7 as well as parking facilities. You have equipment in maintenance facilities using diesels. I've been in subway yards where older non-revenue cars were being used by Car Equipment and/or RTO  for equipment storage and such. What I'm trying to show that everything in the  whether it moves or not costs money. Just my take. Carry on.

3 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

I wasn't "waving pom poms" — I was merely noting that, instead of "kililng" the ferry system, the City will probably try to shift all the costs to the . But y'all already knew that.

I really didn't mean to equate you with a pom pom waver. I was actually focusing on those posters who act as if everything the  flacks put out in the press is the Holy Gospel. It's frustrating for some of us oldtimers to see some posters gobble up the B.S.. You've been around long enough that I'd never make the mistake of putting you in that category. Sorry if I offended you. Carry on. 

8 hours ago, JAzumah said:

NYC Ferry is a real estate project sweetener. They will only kill it as a last resort. It was designed to raise property values, not transport people. In that respect, it is working.

Finally a knowledgeable person who can see behind the curtain. This simple fact should be drummed into the heads of every pom pom waving rah rah  believing posters out there. My opinion. Carry on.

1 hour ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

The  and the city really need to do something about the homeless and drug addicts hanging out on the edges of stations on the  line. 181st is pretty bad with some making it their own personal bathroom and the needles that keep piling up on the tracks. I feel for the train operators that manage to get a sniff of the station ends.

Been like that off and on since the early eighties. Nothing really changes except the dates. Carry on.

46 minutes ago, ABOGbrooklyn said:

The problem is the community boards are ran by old farts.

They are probably run by “ old farts “ because the young people don’t vote because they’re too busy worrying about new trains and buses. A man whom I was taught by and respected 40 years ago said that people were getting dumber instead of smarter as each new generation took over. He was a former USMC drill instructor before he became a Transit instructor and he saw it firsthand. I personally think he was correct. With all of the daily problems on the subways and railroads these days for someone to worry about station signage is beyond comprehension to me. My opinion. Yours may vary. Carry on .

6 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

People are forgetting these things are not meant to be true platform barriers. This is a test and trial run, not the actual installation.

😃😃😃 you’ve been  around long enough to know that many posters don’t even know the difference between real world orders and prototypes. Happy New Year. Carry on.

4 hours ago, Transporter said:

I came in and took the drug test and gave my application a week ago. I have no worries about the drug test so I am just wondering what the next steps of the process are? What is the timeline? Also am I a lock at this point to be hired once everything else is completed? 

 

I was planning on moving to Florida so I have everything on hold at the moment but I will need to do something soon so I was wondering if anyone knew these answers? I dont want to move to Florida and have to move back and break my lease there if I don't have to. 

Try the Transit Employment section for answers to your questions. That’s what it’s for. Good luck 

3 hours ago, Choo said:

When does the next Bus Operator class for NYCT begin?

Why not ask your question in the Transit Employment section ?

19 hours ago, R142A-6-Train said:

Perhaps you should blame the Cypress-Crescent curve on the / line. I don't know about the 's sharp curves tho', but I feel like we need to improve them both to gain back the 75-Footers.

Perhaps you can elaborate on your point about the Crescent Street curve ? I don’t know your age but BMT Standards , 67 foot cars, ran along the line from Broad Street to 168th Street and Jamaica Avenue. As far as the  line’s sharp curves perhaps you should ride it sometime before belittling the route. It’s the 75 foot equipment that was a waste of money in my opinion. The BMT didn’t demolish the Lexington or Myrtle Avenue Elevated lines. The City of New York did it because they would be too costly to repair or replace. The NYCT wouldn’t go back to an oddball fleet again. My experience with the agency tells me that. Carry on.

Hello and Happy New Year to all. Since Thanksgiving week I’ve been in contact with some of my former coworkers discussing subway issues and I’ve formulated a list of some things we’ve talked about. First off is we’re all wondering if you guys really read the  website ? There are threads about the unreliability of equipment like the R46, R62, 62A, and the R68 class of cars. Just curious because from Thanksgiving until today there isn’t much information about equipment caused delays. Signal, switch trouble. Network communication problems. Unauthorized people on the tracks. Disorderly people. People struck by trains .We haven’t seen much about equipment issues in either division. The R211 class is undergoing some issues at the moment but we figure those issues will be resolved soon. What we are saying is that some people seem really upset about the wrong things. Either that or they are prone to exaggerating. Look back at what I posted.at the beginning. R9-R211 doesn’t matter. The equipment doesn’t seem to be the reason for most delays as far as we can see. Old timers opinions. Agree or disagree. No hard feelings either way. Carry on.