New Red and Orange Line Cars

Jahvon09 said:
Good to hear, F-Line!! It's about time. Those are probably the ones that can no longer be repaired, or just too old to continue on. :)
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Yes. Any major crap-outs from here on out pretty much go straight to the dead line...no attempt at repair unless it's a trivial fix. The mild winter we had in 2020 and light duty during the COVID service reductions was a godsend for fleet uptime so they're still at a several-set surplus. But now that the weather's been more typically shitty for a sustained month you can probably expect more culling of the herd in the next couple months. The tail track to the RR switch on the Medford Branch has been brush-cut and re-ballasted. That's where they'll be shoving the retirees away from the yard.
 
I heard that the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennybunkport, Maine is slated to get 2 apiece ( 2 old Red & 2 old Orange Line cars. The rest of them, I think, are up for grabs. Whoever gets what, I have no idea. But they'll be salvaged for parts that are still workable. I think that they should do like New York City does; Put them on a barge or two, take them out to sea & dump them in the water for the fish to live in. :)
 
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Jahvon09 said:
I heard that the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennybunkport, Maine is slated to get 2 apiece ( 2 old Red & 2 old Orange Line cars. The rest of them, I think, are up for grabs. Whoever gets what, I have no idea. But they'll be salvaged for parts that are still workable. I think that they should do like New York City does; Put them on a barge or two, take them out to see & dump them in the water for the fish to live in. :)
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Aluminum bodies degrade too fast for reef-building. The NYC cars they dumped offshore were old steel heavyweights.

The cars are worth more in recycled metals than they are anything else, so aside from the Seashore set-asides and maybe an USDOT set (to use as crash test dummies at their Pueblo testing center) the retirees will all go for scrap.
 
Some new OL trains sitting at Wellington

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From Today
 
Looks like there's 4 new train sets there now!! Are all of them in service?
 
North Shore said:
Uh, oh. Looks like one of the new OL trainsets has derailed:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1371856983691833346
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Happened inside an active track work zone near Wellington that was to result in single-tracking on the inbound rail for 3 weeks while they reconfigured all the leads to Wellington Yard. For that reason might want to take a deep breath and resist temptation to blame the new cars unless new confirming info faults them and not the track.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Happened inside an active track work zone near Wellington that was to result in single-tracking on the inbound rail for 3 weeks while they reconfigured all the leads to Wellington Yard. For that reason might want to take a deep breath and resist temptation to blame the new cars unless new confirming info faults them and not the track.
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This looks to me like the train was switching tracks, but it might just be damage to the tracks caused by the accident.
 
Equilibria said:
This looks to me like the train was switching tracks, but it might just be damage to the tracks caused by the accident.
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Location is adjacent to the Mystic Bridge, Medford side. Can see the Wellington Greenway path to the side of it in some of the news chopper shots. There is a mainline crossover pair and a crossover to the test track/yard lead in that spot...3 switches touching the southbound rail in a span of ~175 ft. Those are the switches that are all being worked on with the ongoing track work.
 
Equilibria said:
Per the Globe, the train was indeed crossing tracks:

www.bostonglobe.com

MBTA pulls new cars, will run shuttle buses for 3 weeks after Orange Line train derails at Wellington Station - The Boston Globe

An Orange Line train derailed in a work zone at Wellington Station in Medford Tuesday morning, prompting the MBTA to pull the system’s newest subway cars from service and to plan for three weeks of shuttle bus service, officials said.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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Yep...midday single-tracking ops @ Wellington started yesterday, per the T bulletin. So northbound trains would be crossing over upon touchdown at the Medford side of the bridge to wrong-rail up the southbound track thru the Wellington platform then cross back over back onto the northbound track on the next crossover set immediately past the Route 16 overpass. Project start timed with Week 1 of the reduced midday service levels so the wrong-railing can fit inside of a standard headway without cascading southbound delays.

So...pics are showing the train on the leading crossover right next to the bridge on the little ithsmus of land making up the bridge approach. Switches would have to be thrown for every single alternating-direction meet, so this happened during Day 2 of the heaviest use those switches have probably ever regularly seen. Coming at the end of a record cold snap to boot, so those switch heaters would've gotten a workout in the day-plus this service diversion has been operating.

Since it's on the crossover, the displacement is not nearly as dramatic as the pictures would've otherwise shown had there been no switch there (i.e. completely jumping tracks). Inches of displacement, not feet...as it stayed within the trackbed of the crossover track. Also...since temporary wrong-railing is usually done at highly restricted speed the displacement is consistent (i.e. few inches max) with a split switch taken at well below design speeds. Highly unlikely there's any consequential vehicle damage here.
 
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chmeeee said:
Looks at least somewhat consequential.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1371856764380057601
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No...really not. The side got a scrape from knocking over the switch-heater box which nicked the door frame as it was being dragged aside, but that's it. Total displacement looks to be about 6 inches or less. That's the kind of dent they pound out with mallets and an acetylene torch, though with it being warrantied CRRC might provide a spare stainless steel panel to swap out.


Those photos do show definitive proof of a split switch, because the derailed car is right on top of the switch. And it was definitively low-speed since there was only a few feet of forward movement across the switch when the train came to an emergency stop.

Only remaining mystery is who's at fault for the train splitting the switch: truck mis-alignment or switch mechanism mis-alignment. That should be relatively easy to discern from crews onsite. Less likely than usual that this would be operator error, since the wrong-rail temp crossover moves are being heavily inspector-supervised during all service hours with this being an active track work area.
 
Looks like one car is damaged!! They are going to fix that, I hope! That was really all prettied up & shiny!!! Must've tipped over. My beautiful orange!!!! :(
 
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Is there any reason they can't use the express track to help trains pass each other?
 
Wash said:
Is there any reason they can't use the express track to help trains pass each other?
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That is the express track you see all dug up in the photo. Construction access has to come across the northbound track. And that bucket loader looks like it would swing into the clearance envelope of the NB track when in use. Ground-level spraypaint also indicates that the area around the NB track is next in line for getting dug up.


No idea what they're physically reinforcing in the pic with all that new rebar. Must be something structurally-related to the adjacent building, or an additional utility trench they're about to pour concrete boxing for. The yard leads are due to be completely replaced during the shutdown, so the switch the train derailed on is quite likely pretty old and up for its own replacement during one of the upcoming weekend shutdowns.
 
You'd probably think that would be the thing to do, but does it make sense to them? Probably not. Hah!! What do you think might happen if they still put that car in service with it banged in like that? Passengers probably wouldn't get on it.
 
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