Trainmaster5

To answer the question(s) about Pelham Parkway on the line. As mentioned earlier the uptown express track, Y4, ends just south of the station. There is no trackage from that point to north of Baychester where it begins again and continues up to s/o of Dyre and switches into Y2 track and on to the station. Y4 is a layup track on the Dyre end and was a layup track between the Morris Park and Pelham Parkway stations. Before the test track was put in Y3 served the same purpose as Y4 did at the same locations. I have made sration stops on Y3 at Pelham Parkway when the normal track, Y2, was blocked but those times I did it were technically unauthorized. The Desk Superintendent was told, by me, after I did it. I used to have a good relationship with what was then Command Center.. My reasoning was that there were passengers waiting on the island platform and I saw no reason to bypass them in that situation. Their only recourse was to cross over to the Dyre-bound platform, travel n/b to Dyre and board a s/b train to bypass Pelham Parkway again. Waste of time, IMO. The reason the trains appear to bypass Pelham Parkway in this G.O. is simple. AFAIK there is no 10 car marker or conductor's board at Pelham Parkway on Y3 track so therefore no legal stop. As I've pointed out in the past, common sense is not so common down here in RTOland. Carry on.

I've operated road trains down that track due to blockages on Y1 track, mudslides and fallen trees come to mind. Just north of Baychester you lose signal protection to s/o Morris Park. There's an automatic just s/o Pelham Parkway where you have to stop and operate a release lever. Looking at the video I think the stop arm was probably hooked down during the test. Last I heard the track belongs to Car Equipment,not RTO, so you need permission from RCC to operate a road train on it due to lack of signal protection or a G.O. must be in effect.

Track test track (Y3) runs from s/o Dyre Ave to s/o Morris Park. The test area begins at the north end of Baychester and the train runs down toward the interlocking area at the south end of the Morris Park station which is located beyond the slight curve seen at the end of the video. That's why the train could reach the speed it did,allowing for it to slow down while passing Pelham Parkway station as per rule. BTW it's the n/b middle track (Y4) that ends s/o Pelham Parkway and picks up again north of Baychester

I did it about 5 times as a road M/M and it can be nerve-wracking depending on the personnel you have with you on the move. Depending on the supervision on the scene I usually made the call on who would be the eyes and ears up front and control of the brakes and who would control the motive power. That was then but I believe the RCC makes that call these days. Remember that earlier in my career C/Rs were qualified to read the signals and help out but, with all due respect, when I left 2 years ago there were only a few RTO personnel in any title that I would trust 100% in that move.

Mariner's Harbor? Detroit? Meredith ? Where are these neighborhoods located? What happened to Brooklyn guys? Re-read the thread title and respond to it or move on. Please. Carry on.

I've noticed posters in a few subway threads who don't seem to fully grasp the concept of subway frequency. In a thread about the BMT Astoria line someone complained about an R train being followed by a M train ( or vice versa ) about a minute later on Queens Blvd. It was stated that because those lines ran on 10 minute headways that there should be a 5 minute wait between trains. This is a faulty assumption IMO. We are talking about 2 different lines that happen to share trackage on a portion of their routes. In a perfect world this simply means there should be 10 minutes between each M train and 10 minutes between each R train, period. How they mesh with each other on the QBL has nothing to do with 10 minute headways but how they interact with the other routes on the Broadway, Fourth Ave, Sixth Ave, and Broadway(Brooklyn) lines. I've said it before and it bears repeating that when schedules are being prepared or discussed it's important to view the whole routes involved rather than focus on a segment to critique.The important stat in the above scenario is that each route's trains arrive 10 minutes apart. If they do that means each line is running as scheduled. Carry on.

What's up with Fedex these days? I ordered some stuff from Amazon which was "delivered" yesterday, for want of a better word. I was talking on the phone with a friend, standing 10 feet from my front door, when I heard something fall. I walked further into the house trying to determine the source of the noise and found nothing unusual so I retraced my steps toward the front of my house while I continued my phone call. My friend said to look outside and I did. Lo, and behold, there was my $250+ package, on the front step, in full view for anyone passing by to pick up and walk away with. The Fedex man never rang the bell or knocked on the door. My next door neighbor was pruning some shrubs at the time and witnessed the whole incident. He said the man never reached the front door of the house, instead the Fedex guy flipped the box toward the steps from 5 feet away and walked back to his truck and drove off. Is this the new method of delivery for Fedex or UPS? The much maligned Post Office has never done this to me, either here in NY State ,( in BK or on LI), nor in NC. Fedex and UPS haven't done this to me in NC. I went online to track the package and it said it was "delivered" at 1:30 pm." Delivered" to whom? If my neighbor wasn't a witness to the whole thing it would be my word against the driver's word if I claimed I never received the package Why not leave it with my neighbor with a notation on the website?. Has this happened to anybody else out here?

Because I believe the moderators are doing a good job as it is and I'm content to sit back and enjoy the forums the way they are. We can all be civil toward each other even if we don't always agree with another poster. I have no desire to get on the phone with my former co-workers or supervisors 24/7 to correct something I may see posted out here. I think we have enough current employees and mods who are providing us with useful information, even things I'm not aware of, and I like it like that. Besides I'm retired and moderating reminds me of work,LOL. Thanks, but no thanks. Carry on.

News Flash !!! The TA can run any type of rolling stock within their respective divisions without prior notification to the riding public or railfans. I operated an R62A consist 5 days a week for an entire pick which was never shown on the official 5 line roster because the cars belonged to Westchester Yard's 6 fleet. I've also operated R142A equipment for more than a week which officially belonged to the 4 line. The official yard rosters only show how many cars are assigned to each line and their respective yards to make up service. I've seen 3 line equipment returning from the 239th St car wash pressed into service as a 5 train because East 180th yard was short a train for full service and Lenox didn't need a train at the time. Is that cause for speculation about a fleet swap? I laid up a train from the 5 fleet on a Friday evening but by Monday morning that same train was now 239th St property and my amigo took it out as a 2 train. The CED decided to start a fleet swap that weekend and the train crews and train dispatchers knew nothing about it Friday evening Last I heard T/Os are required to carry equipment for SMEE and NTT at all times. I still have full sets of tools for both types of equipment to this day.What I'm getting at is there is absolutely no reason to flame each other over speculation about a fleet swap we have no control over. The original plan was to swap the Westchester yard cars with the Corona fleet so unless someone in Car Equipment or RTO tells us something different let's accept that as the program for now and keep it civil. Carry on.

Perhaps Threxx and The Subway Station are referring to your post.

Are you suggesting that because a 2 train is occasionally late you would disrupt the 2, 3 ,and 4 lines to rectify a "sometime" problem? I bet if you would post your address in the crew rooms of the affected lines those same crews would be beating a path to your door to show their appreciation. Wow.

I've seen the terms " Gold St Interlocking", "142nd St Junction" on official documents which is the point I was getting at. In the IRT, for example, I"ve never seen an official document naming the junction between 1 track, GCS and 1 track Lexington Ave. It's called the "shuttle spur" by RTO although it may have another name to those in the engineering department. Similarly the diversion north of 125 St-Lex toward Pelham or Jerome is commonly to as a "split" rather than anything else although when work trains wrong rail through the area it's known as "making a 5-11" move over the junction between the Lex and Pelham Lines in reference to the switch numbers the trains use. Finally ,although the physical plant at the Brooklyn junction I mentioned may start closer to Rogers Avenue s/b it starts and ends at Nostrand Ave just north of President St on the Nostrand Ave Line. FYI the signal plates and survey markers reflect just that. Take it from one who has laid up snowbirds on 3 track at Nostrand Ave on the Eastern Parkway Line, been in the tower trackside at the old Nostrand tower at the junction before it was demolished, laid the cable for the present Utica tower/Junction signals connection and been in the tower at the south end of Presiident St while it was in operation the name was/is Nostrand Junction. I just brought up the terminology for the "real" rail buffs who want to be "in the know". Carry on.

A quick question for all the IRT crew members out here. I've seen numerous posts in the subway threads about a (to me) mythical place in Brooklyn called "Rogers Junction". Has the name of the junction between the Eastern Parkway Line and the Nostrand Avenue Line been officially re-named by RTO? I just talked to some friends in Utica tower and in the course of 20 minutes I've heard it called "the junction" and " Nostrand Junction" which was the official name since it was constructed. In all my years in RTO I've never heard it called " Rogers Junction" informally or in any official report so is this the new name or something dreamed up by railfans? Just wondering. Carry on.

Maybe the gist of my post was misunderstood. If I worded it wrong I'm sorry. The fact is being the ancient one out here makes me try to see things in a more realistic manner than many. Bus vs subway wars are far removed from my ideas. My point is simply that the physical and fiscal realities of the state and the MTA should be taken into account before some people make these posts. For instance take the SAS thread. The state and the MTA had a plan to build a Second Avenue Subway. Parts of it are under construction today. IMO that's the focus that thread should be about, the SAS, yet it has become a thread about tunnels to BK, the BX, Culver, Fulton St, Astoria and the like. I personally think the plan they came up with wasn't ambitious enough at the start but ,given the financial reality, why not accept that reality and move on. Someone posted that the plan ignored the outer boroughs yet from what I see the Q is the focus of phase one. In the bus forum we had a lively discussion on the merits of the B44 SBS which has died down now with the upcoming bus service restorations in the borough taking center stage in the bus forums. With all the talk about buses and routings and such I'm still waiting for someone to point out the relationship between the local buses and this SBS, if there is one. Those are the types of discussions that pique my interest as a transit fan, things like the CO-OP City bus routes, Main St Flushing, Woodhaven/Cross Bay, Far Rock, Lower Manhattan, NICE, things that fans can show their ideas for improving bus service in the area. The SAS plan is set in stone so, IMO, any changes to it, however sensible, are fantasy and should be discussed in a Fantasy forum. No offense toward anyone/ Just my opinion. Carry on.

They're needed in both of those locations ASAP. Almost every thread in subways degenerates into fantasyland and the bus threads are heading in the same direction lately.

Via the "Q". The 1st phase IS to Brooklyn.

How about this for a random thought? I had a teacher way back in those prehistoric times (1960's) who decided to discuss computers and their pros and cons. This was back when there were those huge IBM mainframes and the like. The PC wasn't even a thought at the time. The class automatically was gung-ho for the computers. They would make life easier, schoolwork a snap, and we'd all have all this free time to travel and such. Life would be sweet, or so we thought. We bought into the scenario hook, line and sinker. Then he threw a monkey wrench into the equation. Back then most of our parents were civil servants or in the manufacturing field somewhere. The others were into sales or worked in banking or newspapers and magazines. A few were small business people. Many women were housewives and raised the kids. His monkey wrench was a question. If computers could do so much and replace people how would our parents earn the money for us to enjoy all this free time we would have for ourselves and our families? It's taken 50 years or so but his question is as valid today as it was back then. Most manufacturing has left the metropolitan area. Banking and service jobs use less people than they did years ago. The bigger places like Grumman, GM Tarrytown, Republic aircraft, the Brooklyn Navy Yard are history. Newspapers like the Herald Tribune,Journal American, the Mirror, and the like have bit the dust. Even the banks have merged wuth each other causing job losses from tellers on up. Even department stores have folded or merged with each other which costs jobs. Heck, there was a time not long ago where every gas station had guys pumping gas and a service department. I could go on and on but the central question remains, with the ever increasing population in this area, and country, and the increasing reliance on computers to do our work, how will people support themselves in the future? The health field, trucking, education and the like can only absorb "X" amount of people. Many of the service (help) desks have already been out-sourced to other countries. Re-training takes time and a commitment from our government(s) to make it worthwhile. What do people do in the interim to survive? I'd like to know what you think. Carry on.

If you study the original proposal and the later revisions for the SAS, including the present phased construction plan, it's obvious that what is being constructed is a direct replacement for the els. There wasn't anything in the plan that mentioned Culver ,Fulton , or the Rockaways, IIRC. I can't deny the severe overcrowding on the Lexington lines but it appears the plan was to reduce the crowding on the upper Lex 4,5, and 6 trains, hence the phased work on SAS. IMO the Bronx would be more deserving of any extension of the line if one were to be constructed because they lost the services (2nd and 3rd Ave els) to begin with. Whether one promotes a Bronx, Brooklyn, or combinations of an extension it's my opinion that either way comes very close to the realm of fantasy in today's world. It should be noted that many plans, including some we have promoted on this forum, were scrutinized and dropped from consideration before this so-called 'final" plan was adopted and this round of construction on this SAS was approved. I can't begin to imagine how much litigation, how many environmental impact studies and the like, and how many decades it would take before any further extensions would take place. That's what I was trying to point out in my earlier post today. I've seen new tunnels, new routes, new services being promoted lately while I'm saying let's be realistic about this before this thread breaks down into arguments about what service goes where when phase one isn't completed yet. IMO phase two might be 50-50 but phases three and four are on shakey ground at the present. I'm still waiting for the IND Second System to be built in it's entirety so you can probably guess how much faith I have in the MTA and New York City and State to complete a transit project. Let's try to be civil to each other. Carry on. i

And all the time I was under the impression that the SAS was a replacement for the 2nd and 3rd Avenue Els. You know, the areas of Manhattan that lost rapid transit service years ago. Now the Lionel Loonies have decided to improve upon a concept before it's even completed. WOW. Run trains everywhere while forgetting the original plan.

I'm not sure what this local/express switch is. IIRC on SMEE equipment your propulsion (speed) is controlled by the master controller which has 4 positions OFF,SWITCHING,SERIES, PARALLEL. The easy way to look at it is to imagine a 3 speed auto transmission.Back in the day we callled it taking points of power. From a stop take 1 point and hold it for a moment. Take a 2nd point and pick up speed. When you're moving at about 18-20 mph take that last point of power AKA "wrap it" and you're good to go. Your only constraints at that point are signals and track conditions, including grades. Field shunting, or the lack of it, basically affected the rate of acceleration and not overall speed so mich. Signals, grades, and train spacing have a greater effect IMO.The removal of shunting is like an auto tranny slipping a little in first gear is the analogy that comes closest to what happens.

It's not impossible but look at the costs and delays we've had with this pared down SAS already.Now add the cost of a TBM and underpinning to the mix. Billions of dollars more in cost and the express tracks of the SAS will end up costing more than the present project IMO AND take longer to complete.

240th barn IS old, I agree, but if it was in danger of imminent collapse management and the union would not have let the A&B yard picks go in effect this Sunday would they? 240th is probably slated for replacement soon but I recall East 180th being re-done for the new tech trains and the major work was done at 239th while the overhaul was done. The equipment was still stored at 180th, Unionport, and 239th as usual. I can see them storing some of the IRT cars at 207th but they do that already. BTW, the main shops and the overhaul shops don't neccessarily hold 10 car trains inside but usually married pairs or 4 or 5 car units that need specialized work. I've done transfers with anywhere from 4-10 cars from the IRT to 207th and, depending on the transfer work, the train was usually drilled out by myself or a 207th crew. Same thing for my CI transfers. Hope this clears up any misunderstanding my earlier post caused. Carry on.

The CED and Operations and Planning decide where equipment will go and be maintained. Period. There are no yard dispatchers(if that was the inference) who have any input on rolling stock in any yard. The yard dispatcher picks a job, same as C/Rs and T/Os, under seniority rules, and can be replaced by someone with more seniority at pick(preference) time. Line superintendants can be replaced or transferred at any time, as happened recently, by higher-ups so they also have no say in equipment selection.. As far as CI vs 207th St goes they are both main shops so why would the IRT transfer it's cars to CI shop for maintainence when most of it's barns are in the Bronx? There may be stupid people in transit supervision but I doubt the scenario mentioned is being realistically considered. Maybe Two Timer ,RTO Man, or Eric B, can comment on this a bit more. I was in Livonia yard and barn Friday and nobody mentioned this change, hourly or supervisor, in RTO or CED and I think they would know before anyone else. The bigger questions, IMO, is why would 207th become an IRT and MOW yard and since when did Pitkin become large enough to handle the extra work? There's a diesel barn at IRT Westchester yard last time I looked. Carry on.

Just thought I'd throw this into the mix. Astoria, NY, Forest Hills, NY, Ozone Park, NY, Springfield Gardens,NY Jamaica, NY, Jamaica Estates, NY. ALL Queens locations and Zip codes. Riverdale, NY.....need I say more?

The section of St. Johns westward toward Utica/Schenectady was a commercial, residential mix as was Utica from St Johns down to Empire Blvd. The area below the present terminals, heading eastward was the far larger commercial strip of Pitkin Avenue running past Rockaway Avenue to Stone Ave( Mother Gaston ). I've always looked at the bus routes in that part of Brooklyn as connectors to the commercial areas rather than feeder routes to the subways. Beside the B45 and B65 routes the B10(15),B46,B40, B7,B12,B14, and B60 all ran through or connected with the two retail districts I've mentioned as well as the Kings Highway, downtown Brooklyn.,Broadway Brooklyn, and Delancey St retail areas. Although the routes were established at different times by different companies there was some sense of purpose and cohesion that appears to be well thought-out compared to what we're left with throughout the borough. I also think the B45 and B65 should travel beyond the eastern terminal but I'll leave the destinations to B35 and others who have more knowledge of the travel patterns and conditions on the ground today. Carry on.