mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (01/23/86)
In article <1767@brl-tgr.ARPA> dennis@CSNET-SH.ARPA writes: >On a recent D.C. to Boston run the conductor said that the seating was >reversible (this was on an Amcoach), but that they just turn the whole train >around at the Boston end because it was faster and easier. It appears they do this on the DC end too. There's a short section of overhead which goes up the DC-to-P. of Rocks line, forming a turning wye. It would be interesting to know what they do in NYC. C. Wingate
rib@desoto.UUCP (RI Block) (01/23/86)
Suburban services which terminate at Penn Station in New York (LIRR and NJ Transit) are not turned. LIRR trains arrive generally arrive on Tracks 19-21 or so, discharge and proceed to a storage yard just west of the station. They are moved to Tracks 16-19 shortly before loading. The "traditional" LIRR coaches (pre M1) had seats which were turned by carmen (two hands, just walk down the aisle and flip). I can't remember whether M1 seats are fixed, but I believe they are. NJ Transit MU service generally use Tracks 1-4 as stubs and load from the same platform that they discharge on. Locomotive hauled trains terminate on tracks which allow the locomotives to "pass" on an adjacent track and couple to the opposite end. I don't know which locomotives are used now, but they used to be GG-1's. Amtrack services arriving from New England via the Hell Gate Bridge (as in New York, New Haven and Hartford, sigh) are through services. When the New Haven was in its prime, services which terminated in New York used to go to Grand Central Terminal. Amtrack services arriving from South and West can be turned on a long loop in Sunnyside yard (world's largest ?) in Queens. The Sunnyside yard is reached through the tunnels under the East River. To allow for the turning traffic (when Penn station was first built in 1905 - 1910 or so, trains were "it", no planes, no interstates) there are 4 tunnels under the East river rather than the 2 under the North (Hudson) river. This tunnel capacity is now mostly used by the LIRR. Because of NYC tunnel regulations, all underground service is electric hauled. Diesel hauled services on the LIRR are now double-headed, similarly most diesel hauled services on NJ transit are double controlled if not double headed. This eliminates the labor involved in switching the locomotives at terminals. I have no official connection with any of this, so there might be some inaccuracies.
dennis@CSNET-SH.ARPA (Dennis Rockwell) (01/24/86)
From: Charley Wingate <mangoe@umcp-cs.uucp.arpa> Date: 22 Jan 86 23:10:19 GMT Subject: Turning the Seats Around It would be interesting to know what they do in NYC. There's a turning loop in the Sunnyside Yard; it passes under (?) the corridor in the tangle where the LIRR is separating from the Hell Gate approach tracks. Dennis
jis1@mtgzz.UUCP (j.mukerji) (01/24/86)
> It appears they do this on the DC end too. There's a short section of > overhead which goes up the DC-to-P. of Rocks line, forming a turning wye. > It would be interesting to know what they do in NYC. > > C. Wingate In NYC at Sunnyside Passenger Yard they have a reversing loop. It is accessible from the two southern tubes of the four tube East River Tunnels. Amtrak usually uses only those two tubes. LIRR uses all four. Trains simply pull out of Penn Station through one of the two southern tubes, go around the reversing loop into the Sunnyside Yard for storage and servicing. The reversing loop branches out to the southern side of the main, ducks under the Amtrak and LIRR main line just before the bifurcation between the LIRR main to Jamaica/Port Washington and the Amtrak main to New Rochelle across the Hell Gate Bridge, and then enters the Sunnyside Yard (which is on the northern side of the main lines) from its east end. The East River Tunnels are at the west end of Sunnyside. Jishnu Mukerji AT&T Information Systems Labs Middletown NJ