Hey, there! Log in / Register
Mystery train gets VIP treatment as it lumbers up Tremont Street in the South End
By adamg on Thu, 08/15/2024 - 11:54pm
Stationed at Tremont Street and Massachusetts Avenue, roving UHub photographer Robert Choate had a perfect location to watch a couple of new Red Line cars get delivered on flatbed trucks with a police escort tonight.
At least we're assuming those are Red Line cars headed to the Cabot yard just on the other side of Fort Point Channel, because delivering Orange Line cars to the Wellington yard in Medford via the South End would seem to make no sense, but we couldn't pierce the shroud of mystery that covered them.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Newbie
Hi all, just moved into the city from out of state a few weeks ago. Discovered UHub, it’s great! Discovered MBTA. It’s not so great, planning to document my commute via a to be set up insta. Hope I’ll get to ride on these new trains.
Welcome to Boston
Welcome to Boston!!
The T isn't that great but it has its moments. Today I left at 655 and was sitting at my desk at 7:30. Normally takes 45m to an hour. Today I made my connections within a minute or two of each other.
I'm glad you were able to find work again.
Best of luck, cybah. I bet it feels good to be employed.
where have you been
where have you been? I've been working for over a year now since I was laid off in Jan of 2023.
Also who are you?
I guess it depends where you are relocating from.
I once met a random tourist from Texas who was completely awed by the T. He sort of opened my eyes to the fact that some places don’t even have public transportation to speak of and to be a bit more appreciative of what we do have.
I am proud that we had the first in the nation and that you can still ride through the same state of the art (for their times) tunnels.
Modes
One thing I will give the MBTA.. vs many other systems in the US is we have modes. Lots of different modes.
Each line is its own type of car, you don't see that in many places except
New YorkLos Angeles and Philly. For someone new to transit, it can be very interesting to ride on these different modes.New York doesn't have as many
New York doesn't have as many different kinds of cars as lines. everything is either an IRT car (numbered lines, plus one shuttle service) or IND/BMT (letter names). Also, the New York system is set up so they can reroute one line's trains over another line, either to deal with immediate problems, or longer-term for reasons like construction or politics. This has meant reminding myself "take the N, not the R" while waiting on the same platform, to get to the same destination.
New York doesn't have trolleys running on tracks down the middle of the street, if that counts as a separate mode.
You're right
You're right. Most of the trains are the same. Updated post.
A late friend of mine...
...used to refer to the N and the R as the "Never" and the "Rarely".
I guess it's better
...than Neutral and Reverse
Yeah, all relative
I have a friend who lives in Arlington, Texas who reminds visitors he lives in the largest city in America without a public transportation system. (A warning, not a compliment.)
Looking at similar sized cites and regions in the US, the MBTA is one of the more comprehensive and usable public transportation systems. But compared to the rest of the world or bigger US cities (NYC, Chicago, etc), the T is pathetic.
The devil is in the details
Couldn't tell which police department is getting double time for escorting and protecting these new trains? Before the month is over they will be covered with graffiti which is everywhere on the MBTA.
Do you live here?
You must not live here.
We are no where near the level of graffiti on subway cars like New York City.
In fact, graffiti removal is one of the few things the MBTA does right and does fast. Anytime something is tagged, the tag is removed within a day.
And yeah you actually *want* a police escort for this. Small streets making wide turns. Police make sure people move and the truck can get thru.
Train people: how come subway
Train people: how come subway cars come from the factory by truck rather than by rail? Even though the power, signaling, etc are not standard, isn’t the rail gauge standard? Couldn’t they be towed behind a locomotive with a temporary hookup for braking?
Wear and Tear
I am sure Ari will reply but..
I bet it has to do with wear and tear. Those train cars aren't 'accepted' by the MBTA until after they have run on the test track a while. Shipping them via rail would add miles/wear and tear on the car before it went into testing. By shipping it by truck, it leaves the factory un-used until it arrives on the test track in South Boston.
I agree, it seems silly. Especially since there is trackage near the CRCC facility in Springfield that would link to the trackage going into Boston.
But I'd rather have a car arrive not broken so it can go into service faster after its testing.
I've seen cars for other subway systems...
...shipped by rail, but on flatcars.
Except for the Green Line, which has a direct connection with the former Boston and Albany main line at Riverside, I don't think any MBTA subway lines have direct connections to the national rail network, making delivery by rail impractical.
Connections
Kinda.
Remember that the Red Line test track was apart of "Track 61" in the seaport. That trackage connected to the main line just south of South Station. At one point there was discussion about using it for DMU service to the seaport from South Station. So yes track exists.
However as far as the main Red Line, no.. nothing exists. But it wouldn't be hard to create one if they connected it to the Braintree branch using the Old Colony line next to it (for Greenbush CR service)
Same could be done for the Orange Line and the Haverhill CR Tracks at Wellington or South of Forest Hills on the Providence line. It doesn't exist yet but it could.
The only line that it wouldn't be possible is the Blue Line, which is narrow gauge anyways. The only way is building a track from the Newburyport/Rockport CR line to Wonderland some how. Fat chance that happening, especially with Revere High School going up on the old dog track parcel.
Standard gauge
The blue line is standard gauge. The right-of-way it uses used to host a narrow-gauge railway, but the blue is standard.
If they went by rail...
...they'd still have to be loaded on flatcars. Subway cars aren't even remotely capable of traveling in a freight train consist on their own wheels. Couplers, brakes, wheel profiles, etc. are all different. Even if you devise a compromise coupling system, they'd have to move as a special train, likely at low speeds. That becomes big money. (Yes, there are photos of the early days of subways showing this done, but federal regulations and company policies were a lot more lax 100+ years ago.)
The load/unload costs are probably higher to load on flatcars as well, since the truck trailers which haul these cars are specially designed for subway and light rail cars, with rails on the trailer, etc., and are typically loaded/unloaded without needing cranes.
Lastly, given where they're going (South Boston), it's also possible a Red Line car sitting on its own trucks, on a railroad flatcar, could be too tall for the clearances on the rail route. So then you're either talking about separating the car and the trucks (again, cranes on both ends), or off-loading somewhere short of Boston and trucking in. At that rate, just truck it from Springfield.
A fair question, and after a
A fair question, and after a little googling on DuckDuckGo, it looks like the answer is that connections between mainline rail and subway systems are few and far between, although there used to be more.
I suppose you could build (or as the case may be rebuild) connections to the mainline, but that's going to be a substantial engineering project over what's often going to be very expensive real estate, for something you're not actually going to use that often.
Red line is not standard
The answer is no. The rail gauge is not standard. The red line has wider tracks than all the other transit lines, which requires custom trains. They are not interchangeable.
No
The Red Line uses standard gauge just like all the other lines, but the cars are wider.
Freight railroad lack of access
Cabot Yard has no connection (that I know of) between the freight trains and Cabot Yard, despite the rails being right next to each other. Wellington Yard has no access because the commuter rail tracks are far away from the facility and cut off by Wellington Station.
New trains are getting track time
Been regularly watching the TransitMatters New Train Tracker... over the past couple of months, the Red Line has moved from "one new train, occasionally" to "two new trains most of the day" to "three new trains during peak times" (out of ~20 total trains). Been good to see progress being made!
Rollin', rollin' rollin'
Another video of the two cars wheeling up Tremont.
Mystery train?
So it was sixteen coaches long?
But are they built to last? It’s only a bargain if the ball fits
I know someone who’s relative’s spouse worked for the MBTA car maintenance and they said the new CCP Rolling Stock cars are very made up of very chintzy components. How long are these going to last?