CBTC is a Scam and the MBTA Backs Me Up

Communications Based Train Control promises higher capacity at lower costs thanks to the magic of WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY!  However almost every real world situation that makes use of it seems to wind up costing a ridiculous amount, having major reliability problems or both.  It turns out that with signaling there is no free lunch, but when faced with overcrowded subway trains, planners can't help but get seduced by those lovely braking curved.  I mean fixed block, that's so 1890, surely we can do better!

In 2016 the MBTA was conducting a capacity study for the Red Line, which currently has a somewhat anemic throughput of 13tph in the peak period.  With new rolling stock on order, the (T) would literally have more cars than it could run.  The current signaling system made use of fix block audio frequency cab signals installed in the 1980's.  This is similar to many other transit systems such as the CTA, WMATA and BART.  Of course CTBC is the to go technology for capacity expansion and the study quickly confirmed this.  Oh wait, it didn't.

• A detailed analysis assuming a moving
block CBTC system on the Red Line was completed.

• Analysis found that a CBTC system would produce
an improvement of just one train per hour beyond
the improvement from the new cars and minor
system changes.

• Major Red Line capacity improvements can be
achieved without implementing very costly CBTC. 

• Long dwell times in the downtown area and close
spacing of stations limit CBTC as much as they
limit fixed block systems.

That's right, just like the costly NYC Subway L Train CBTC system only increased capacity by 2 trains per hour, applying CTBC to the Red Line would only improve capacity by 1 train per hour over a fixed block alternative.  Past a certain threshold capacity is limited by dwell time and the efficiency of terminal interlockings. The study also found...

• The shorter the block length, the closer the
system is to the ideal CBTC (moving block)
braking distance

• MBTA block lengths in the central subway already
average less than 500 feet (6 car trains are 416
feet long)

It's nice to see that for once a transit agency actually ran the numbers and decided that CBTC just wasn't worth it.  It turned out the best way to increase the capacity was simply to allow the new rolling stock to use updated braking curves that will result in later braking and more aggressive cab signal speed stepdowns.  Also the 1980's audio frequency cab signal system will have its components replaced with digital versions that have faster reaction time and thus allowances for less conservative block progression. 

The Alstom GM4000 - It's a Fake!

Excuse the click-bait-y title, but I just discovered something the other day that I wanted to bring to everybody's attention.  In North America there are effectivly two families of electric point machines,  The Union Switch and Signal M3 family and the General Railway Signal Model 5 Family.  You can order these in a variety of variants, single control, dual control, low profile, high profile, etc.  These two families have been around for so long that in the case of the M3 a variety of third parties are offering legit off-brand examples at a lower price point and without the US&S trademark.   Back in the 60's, GRS decided to get ahead of the copycats by designing a brand new point machine with a new set of associated patents and trade secrets.  Known as the Model 55, this cheap looking rectangle was relegated to North American transit systems, although it did kind of become the closest thing to a standard point machine that the UK has (so like I said, transit systems).

GRS Model 55 on the TTC's Scarborough Rapid Transit.

Needless to say the Model 55 was never very popular and even some of its enthusiastic early adopters, namely the Washington Area Metro and South Jersey's Port Authority Rapid Transit, eventually ultimately their Model 55's for US&S M3's.  I don't know why this was the case, but I suspect a lack of support was part of the reason as GRS had a new European parent in the form of Alstom and daddy Alstom was intent on making its own new M3 "killer" along with the associated patents.

Low profile US&S M3 on the NYCTA (7) Line at Queensboro Plaza

Backtracking a few decades, to take on the GRS Model 4 and GRS Model 55's electric transit switch machines, US&S had developed a low profile version of is venerable M3 because third rail shoes are a thing on transit. Basically it looks just like a regular M3 only flattened down by an inch or two.  So when the following appeared at Amtrak's rebuilt CORK interlocking in 2005, I thought they had opted for some sort of off brand low profile M3.

However something always bugged me about that shape and style and my instinct was indeed correct as that is not a low profile M3, but an Alstom GM4000A switch machine.  The spiritual successor to the GRS Model 55 and, apparently to some comments I got, just as failure prone.  Nevertheless a bunch of railroads bought GM4000s about 15 years ago and I happened to run into some of the survivors for the first time last December at Conrail's CP-JOHN in Morrisville, PA.

Outwardly presenting as a US&S low profile M3, the GM4000A is given away by having just two segments on top instead of three,  However if you check out the manual for the original model GM4000, it does indeed have the three segments.

I'm not here to speculate about why this inferior modern replacement of tried and true 1930's technology is an inferior modern replacement of tried and true 1930's technology.  That's a question for a C&S purchasing officer.  What I want people to take away is the knowledge that GM4000 family point machines are a thing, how at first glance they may resemble low profile M3's and that they might soon vanish from the scene so go take some photos while you can.  In this day and age every bit of diversity is a plus. 

PRR Main Line Signal Documentation Summary

On Nov 25th I am going to be presenting my work to document the PRR Main Line signaling between CP-HARRIS and CP-PENN at my local NRHS chapter meeting.  While the project unofficially started in 2009 and gained urgency in 2012 and beyond, the bulk of the photos were taken starting in 2014.  While I was not able to document everything I wanted to or even everything I would have been able to document assuming perfect planning I am happy with my work and I figured I should present a summary of the results here.

I will be using terms like Fully Document, Partially Document and Survey.  These mean got photos of all components of a signal location, only some of the components and then only photos from a passing train.



The Pittsburgh Line has a total of 38 Conrail era interlockings of which I was able to fully document 22, partly document 6 and survey 10.  The biggest misses were CP-TUNNEL, CP-MG and CP-SO.  CP-MARY, CP-AO, CP-JW and CP-W had all already been re-signaled to varying degrees and were simply not a priority.

The Pittsburgh Line has 82 main line signal locations of which I was able to fully document 38 with the remainder being surveyed, although when only counting position lit automatic signals I got 33 of 59.  I regrettably missed two signals on the track 3 turkey path between CP-C and CP-CONPIT entirely.  There are also 2 or 3 yard signal locations (2 at Altoona, one previously at Harrisburg) that were also missed.

  Total number of photos taken was around 14,000, including photos of trains and other Main Line infrastructure.  Remember this is just between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh and doesn't count work I have done on the Amtrak portion of the line.

The photos were compiled over 25 trips, 4 of which were surveys on Amtrak's Pennsylvanian, 2 of which I would consider failures.  There was an additional trip on a fall foliage special that allowed me to cover the Rockville wye.  The other 20 trips were of the road trip variety, two doing double duty for Buffalo Line photos.  Six were trips to Pittsburgh.  Four were trips to Clarion, PA.  Three were dedicated Altoona trips and the other seven day trips along the Middle Division, often involving the always wonderful HARRIS tower.  Arguably my first trip on this series was the one I took to ALTO tower in 2004 so that would make this a 15 year effort.

All these numbers are probably off by a few, but they are the best I can figure without a full blown audit.  I plan to do a live stream of my presentation sometime on or about Nov 22rd to practice and content and see how it goes for time (Draft presentation stream can be found here). 

Another Secret Stash of Signal and Tower Videos

It's always been interesting how few tower videos there are compared with like aircraft stuff where Youtube can not only provide videos of every approach, but also how to start up and steal most types of commercial airliner as well xD  I guess part of it was that much of the towers vanished before the smartphone revolution, but it's still interesting given how many fans are also railroaders and how it was clear since the 1980's that all the 1930's tech was going to vanish sooner rather than later. 

Sometimes it turns out that these sorts of videos may just be hiding in plain sight.  One such nondescript channel goes by the name of M. P. Hicks and contains all sorts of general VHS-quality railfan content from around the globe.  However Mr. Hicks also appears to have been a railroad dispatcher and was able to fenagle all sorts of cab rides and tower visits.  Here we see a 1990 video showing a Conrail run from Pavonia to Abrahms Yard via Arsenal.  Of course in 1990 this route had not yet been separated from Amtrak so SHORE, NORTH PHILADELPHIA, ZOO and ARSENAL towers were all manned and were controlling the movement.  Moreover, even the pure Conrail parts had vintage signaling and some closed towers were still standing, like NORRIS. 



In this video we have a METRA cab ride on the MILW-West line that ends with a visit to TOWER A-5.



In this video with no description and a completely non-rail related title, are embedded 7 minutes of footage showing the operation of an 80's vintage computerized dispatching system complete with a lamp based model board display!



Mr M. P. Hicks has scores of videos uploaded, but there isn't always a good way to find it without skimming through them all.  Of course some are explicitly labeled as cab rides like this one on the Chicago to Milwaukee MILW route that starts with a slow tour of the vintage CTC machine in the Chicago CP dispatch office.



Anyway, happy hunting and enjoy the ride :-)

Yahoo Shutting Down Yahoo Groups

For those you who who either didn't get the e-mail or don't log into their old Yahoo or Hotmail accounts anymore, Verizon, corporate parent of the internet giant formerly known as Yahoo!, announced that it is pretty much gutting the Yahoo Groups service and converting it to a a system of e-mail lists.  If you are wondering why this impacts the signaling and rail history communities it is because those groups were some of the best communities for discussing rail history and signaling  between the years 2000 and 2007 when other, more hip, venues became available. 

Not only were these groups' archives web accessible, Yahoo also provided a small amount of user file storage which was a huge deal when the only other solution was to run some sort of private message board or file store.  As part of the changeover these archives and file stores will be deleted on December 14th, so if there is any content that needs to be saved, get it now. 

While I don't think the loss of a couple hundred megabytes worth of documents and low res photos from groups such as Railroad Signaling, RailwaySignaling 2, Interlocking Towers, Block Tower and AmtrakNec will be the Internet's worst loss, these archives are an important record of the signaling discussions that took place on the adolescent web.  Most of these groups have barely been used in almost a decade and some were infiltrated by porn and other span posts as the moderators moved on.  Unfortunately, increased internet and privacy regulation has made the user uploaded content a potential source of liability and therefore it is being deleted. 

Those boards with active communities are currently looking to move to Groups.io which has a a Yahoo Group data migration system.  If you were part of one of these communities you might want to check back in to see if your group is moving and if there is anything you want to save, do it before December.

Signs! Signs! Everywhere a Sign! - Western Freight Roads

Well it's time to cross the Mississippi and get this series finished up.  Today I will be exploring the signs of the Western freight roads.  Today this would be UP, BNSF, KCS, CP (former SOO) and CN (former IC).

We'll begin with the BNSF and you can't spell BNSF without ATSF.  Spoiler, western railroads had a big thing for white signs and black lettering so most of this post is going to be discussing all the ways one can do a white sign with black lettering and in my opinion the ATSF did the best job with white signs on black letters by adding a black border to the signs and a somewhat distinctive font. In this photo below we can see an example on the BNSF Raton Sub showing a single interlocking with a free standing ATSF style sign (probably from late in the ATSF era in the 1990s, and then more plain black on white BNSF signage mounted on the relay hut.

Elsewhere on the Raton sub we see a non-black border sign with the same ATSF font.

And finally we have a BNSF standard font.

On the BN side of the house we see a similar style of free standing black on white sign using a two post support.  On certain single track territories, interlocking signs would sometimes be replaced by a station sign similar to the one seen below. 



Note the variety of fonts.

That's All She Wrote for Pittsburgh Area PLs

Previously I reported that the NS Pittsburgh Line resignaling project had been completed.  Well I can now confirm that NS has also removed the signaling on the Fort Wayne Line between CP-PENN and EAST CONWAY in addition to re-locating the interlocking at CP-WOOD at Homewood Jct, PA.  Chief amoung the casualties was the famed CP-LEETS with its pair of 3 and 4 track PRR PL gantries and pneumatic point machines :-(

If that wasn't enough the pedestals at CP-ISLE were removed and, like I said, CP-WOOD was relocated about a mile to the west and rebuilt as a simple crossover without any secondary track connection.

Anyway, if you are looking for PRR position lights in Pennsylvania, you pretty much need to look elsewhere, like Ohio or Long Island.