A side effect of Allan Fisher's recent "Festival Express" style journey from New York to Saint Louis in a private car full of transit Youtubers was a 3 hour and 22 minute long high definition rear facing railfan video of the entire Amtrak Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington. The video was filmed from the PV's position behind Amtrak's westbound Cardinal Train 51 with no observable delays and a top speed of 110mph.
This video is an important historical artifact as it captures certain NEC elements that are under imminent threat of replacement including the PORTAL bridge and Baltimore's B&P tunnel complex as well as all of the associated signaling that will likely be part of upcoming Rule 562 expansions. I was also able to confirm some recent changes such as the replacement of the pneumatic A-5 point machines at GRUNDY interlocking with electric M3's. If you have any questions about current NEC layout, this is the resource for you.
Interesting video. I worked for Amtrak from 1977 until 1996 as both an operator and a train dispatcher. I'm very familiar with CP Avenue to Holmes and rode the head-end Holmes to New York with a head-end dispatcher pass when ever I could. Here's some of my observations -
ReplyDeletePart 1 New York to Philadelphia
It's still strange to see A interlocking at New York completely covered over.
Glad to see the new Portal Bridge coming along nicely.
Newark to Trenton I'm surprised how much of the outer tracks are still rule 251. I'm guessing the Metropolitan division is waiting on Rule 562 permission as not to have to hang all those automatics. At least all the interlocking have high signals for all tracks.
New interlocking at the 37:18 mark just west of County. Switch looks to be a No.32 turnout with movable point frogs. This switch would be the No.43 switch if CTEC numbering is followed. I assume this is to get afternoon NJT express trains back to No.4 track while avoiding locals pulling into Jersey Avenue yard.
New interlocking at the 39:33 mark. Like the one above I assume this is to allow NJT express trains to crossover from No.1 to No.2 track. Switch looks to be a No.32 turnout and would be the No.12 switch in CTEC. I'm surprised both interlocking weren't combined into one kind of like Iselin and Menlo.
Slowing down the video I see movable point frogs at Midway but the switches still look like No.20 turnouts.
While not signal related just west of Midway you see the start of the constant tension catenary project that runs to just west of Princeton Junction. What's interesting is the new poles, some erected and some on the ground, go all the way to Ham. I know that project ran over budget so either it got cut back or maybe plans are to extend it down to Ham in the future.
I see Morris also now has movable point frogs. While this helps reduce frog wear being that nothing on the corridor is "dual control" one frog failure means everything sits until a maintainer arrives.
You mentioned Grundy being converted to electric. I'm surprised Amtrak never replaced the No.23 switch (10MPH IIRC) with a No.20 turnout. It must really suck to cross an Acela over at Grundy.
Part 2 Philadelphia
ReplyDeleteBaldwin like Grundy is a left hand interlocking only. The original plans were for SEPTA to build a station and small yard off of No.1 track to short turn trains there. The story I heard while at CTEC was that SEPTA paid Amtrak to keep Baldwin just for this plan. I see the No.91 switch has now been removed so I guess that plan is dead. I'm surprised Amtrak hasn't ripped out Baldwin all together.
Davis. Plans called for a new station and interlocking south of Davis. I've heard those plans have been scaled back. Be interesting to see what happens here.
Prince. While not signal related it looks like the two crossover switches (No.23 and No.32) are NOT wired. There's an interesting story concerning the interlocking at Prince. The switch coming out of the MW yard is north of the crossover from 2 to 3. While this looks like a parallel move it isn't. One night the CTEC 3 dispatcher had a move lined 2 to 3 while wanting to get an MW train out of the yard. Not being able to get a signal out of the yard the dispatcher "talked" the MW train past the signal. As luck would have it the MW crew stopped when it looked like they would hit the train crossing over. No one had bothered to tell the dispatchers that the "parallel" that looked so on the screen wasn't one and that the signals were correctly wired to prevent that. Oops! It's possible the two crossover switches were moved slightly south to allow that move but not yet "wired" up. Seems a lot of money to spend for a move that may rarely happen again.
Point. I see the North Point yard track between Bay and Point has been pulled up with just a short section at Bay kept to park the wire train/cat car. The switch from the yard track to No.1 track has been pull out.
Baltimore station I see the new platform on No.8 (formally F) is complete. It looks like there is enough room to add a No.9 track and make it an island platform. What's interesting from a dispatchers standpoint is a northbound routed to No.8 track will have to go all the way to Point to get back to No.2 track. Perhaps a future NO.32 switch at Biddle might be called for.
I see Fulton is still air. I guess this interlocking goes away once the new tunnel goes into service. Not sure if they plan on single tracking the old tunnel or just seal it up.
Carroll. I wonder why the 2N signal is still there south of the station? With the gauntlet gone it protects nothing.
Landover. Sad to see it gone as that's where I began my railroad career in 1977. At least the new interlocking at Hanson (I forgot the new name) got the switches off of the curve with only the No.91 switch remaining. I see the 1S signal is now a left hand signal just south of the route 202 bridge. I'm kind of surprised Amtrak didn't hand off what's left of Landover to CSX in Jacksonville.
And finally I see the signals have been moved off of the CSX bridge at Cheverly.
Also note that Oak to Bush is now 562-ready. New signal huts have been installed at intermediate and cut locations, interlocking home signals are equipped with 'C' lights, etc.
Delete