A stroke of luck . . .

[P40Power]

They couple an Amfleet I food service to the back of the P32DM when it is getting ready to take the train to New York. Seems easy enough to me, just back it on infront of the coaches, no extra hassle needed really. Maybe Amtrak will realize this . . .

Im still waiting to see when some of the "heritage replacement" cars are gonna come about, the ones mentioned in the five year plan. Then hopefully we will have some more cars to work with!

 

[AlanB]

Wouldn't they be better off having a cafe 75% of the time between NYC & Albany than not at all?

They probably would in some sense, but people do get pissed off when they expect something and then don't get it.

That's one of the reason that the Palm was renamed to the Palmetto, to set it off from the other Silver Service trains and it's former self.

 

[AlanB]

They couple an Amfleet I food service to the back of the P32DM when it is getting ready to take the train to New York. Seems easy enough to me, just back it on infront of the coaches, no extra hassle needed really. Maybe Amtrak will realize this . . .

They probably could do that, however that would add to the amount of time the NY section would have to remain in the station. Plus it's one more movement out of the yard.

Since Amtrak hasn't found the money to complete the track work at Albany, they still only have three tracks that hit plaforms. The station was built to accomodate 4 tracks. So with other trains coming and going and the LSL tying up two platforms, they are trying to minimize the amount of time that the LSL remains in the station. Adding more time to throw a cafe on the rear on the NY section, just means that some Empire Service train gets delayed.

Hopefully one day Amtrak will be able to install that fourth track and ease the bottleneck that occurs everytime the LSL hits the station.

 

[tp49]

So now I'm curious maybe someone has some idea but how much business do the cafe cars do on trains that have them open between Albany and NYP? Is there enough business there to keep them open for that portion of the route?

 

[AlanB]

So now I'm curious maybe someone has some idea but how much business do the cafe cars do on trains that have them open between Albany and NYP? Is there enough business there to keep them open for that portion of the route?

Well I honestly don't recall how busy the lounge car on the LSL was, back when it was open before the reconfiguration and schedule change. I was generally in the diner having either lunch or dinner, depending on direction.

I can however tell you that the cafe cars on the typical Empire Corridor trains is usually well patronized between NYP and ALB.

 

[Amfleet]

They couple an Amfleet I food service to the back of the P32DM when it is getting ready to take the train to New York.  Seems easy enough to me, just back it on infront of the coaches, no extra hassle needed really.  Maybe Amtrak will realize this . . .

They probably could do that, however that would add to the amount of time the NY section would have to remain in the station. Plus it's one more movement out of the yard.

Since Amtrak hasn't found the money to complete the track work at Albany, they still only have three tracks that hit plaforms. The station was built to accomodate 4 tracks. So with other trains coming and going and the LSL tying up two platforms, they are trying to minimize the amount of time that the LSL remains in the station. Adding more time to throw a cafe on the rear on the NY section, just means that some Empire Service train gets delayed.

Hopefully one day Amtrak will be able to install that fourth track and ease the bottleneck that occurs everytime the LSL hits the station.

Wait, I think P40Power is saying just pre-attach the cafe car behind the P-32DM, not attach to the rear of the New York section. Then when the LSL does its thing in Albany the P-32/Cafe just back up onto the New York section's Diner. In affect, there are no extra movements of attaching cars onto the rear of the train. Remeber the New York section is now running Coaches forward. I beleive that something to this extent was done back in the day before the LSL was reconfigured.

 

[AlanB]

Wait, I think P40Power is saying just pre-attach the cafe car behind the P-32DM, not attach to the rear of the New York section. Then when the LSL does its thing in Albany the P-32/Cafe just back up onto the New York section's Diner. In affect, there are no extra movements of attaching cars onto the rear of the train. Remeber the New York section is now running Coaches forward. I beleive that something to this extent was done back in the day before the LSL was reconfigured.

Oops, my bad. I read that one too fast.

Yes, sticking a cafe on the back of the P32 AC-DM before backing down on the NYP section, would probably work out ok. Although I have to say that I'm still rather partial to the idea of running the train with two cafes or a full lounge and then a split cafe car.

Also Amfleet, that is sort of what happened before they reconfigured the LSL last year. However that arrangement did require an extra move. In that case a typical Boston section ran like this.

2 - P42's

1 - lounge

2 - coaches

1 - sleeper

Upon arrival the 42's would pull off with the lounge attached. They would run up past the yard leads, and then back down into the yard. Then cut off the lounge, pull back up out of the yard and onto the main. Mean time the NYP section after making it's station stop had pulled up the main and backed down onto the Boston section.

After coupling on they'd cut off the P32 AC-DM and run the engine up the main. Then the 42's would back down onto the combined consist. Then finally after all that, the Express Trak had to be put on the bottom. Depending on the overall length of the now combined LSL, this sometimes meant that they could slip the freight out behind and just shove it on. Other times the combined consist would have to pull forward to allow the freight out of the back end of the yard. In that case, the combined consist would then back down on the Express Trak, instead of the switcher shoving it on.

So as you can see there was quite a bit of jocking going on with the old arrangement. The new configuration has cut down on some of those moves and streamlined others.

 

[P40Power]

The old method of having the Boston section in the rear was a pain in the posterior during the break up and combining at Albany, especially with local trains moving in and out (especially ones too and from western/northern points which they too require a loco change, holy moly all this on 3 tracks!)

The Lake Shore would often rack up considerable delays during this ordeal and then we all know that most of the time it just snowballs, the train is delivered to CSX out of slot then the delays just keep on adding, not always but most of the time.

Now adays actually the Lake Shore's time keeping has been actually pretty decent, the eastbound has been running into Pittsfield with the more frequent on time arrivals, there are still many late trains but the amount of time that they are late has gone down on the most part.

Granted you will still have the occasional train that is very late for various reasons, take 48/448 which was about 6 hours late last Sunday, Saturday night for some reason it departed Chicago about 3 1/2 hours late for some unknown reason.

But getting back on topic, the new arrangement has allowed the Lake Shore to have MUCH better time keeping in Albany, the westbound often leaves fairly close, if not right on time. The easbound has even been making up time in some cases at Albany!! That was UNHEARD of a few years ago!! So thats awesome, now just to fix the food service on the NYP section and the Lake Shore will be a pretty sweet train, just keep on with the decent timekeeping.

Also Id like to say that Amtrak did a good job in the Northeast this past weekend during the big Noreaster, granted there were some delays on the NEC but most of them were under an hour and everything kept on moving. Thats the way to do it!

 

[Amfleet]

Also Id like to say that Amtrak did a good job in the Northeast this past weekend during the big Noreaster, granted there were some delays on the NEC but most of them were under an hour and everything kept on moving.  Thats the way to do it!

While Amtrak did do a good job of running on time in the snowstorm there were however a few fatal incidents. One in Rohde Island where a snowmobiler was hit and killed by an oncomming Amtrak train (I think it was the southbound Federal as the incident was around 11pm) traveling at 110mph according to the Providence news station. Amtrak has since then issued this warning.

There was also a blurb on New England Cable News about an MBTA worker being struck and killed by a commuter train (or it may have been CSX) while performing some track work during the storm. I can't remember what line it was off the top of my head, but I think it was the Worcester line.

 

[P40Power]

Ya see, its those morons who give snowmobilers like me a bad name. I love to snowmobiling, but I would NEVER ride down an active right away, especially the northeast corridor!! Not only do you have to watch for trains, but alot of people ride tracks and hit switchpoints and other things which destroy the snowmobile and can seriously injure the rider.

A railroad right away is NOT a place anyone should be on, or closely near!! Well unless if you are a worker or something of course!

Last year there was an article about how snowmobilers were fowling up the Downeaster in Maine, its just uncalled for espcially when states like Maine and New Hampshire have thousands of miles of groomed snowmobile trails.

The only reason I can think of them riding the railbeds would be that they offer a long, usually straight and flat area to go fast on . . . . and ususally they do that after having a few beers in em, another thing that isnt responsible to do!