trainfan22

I wonder if FLA will get some XD40s from UP to replace the NGs sent to ENY. Crazy that UP has artic's... Mainly because the depot itself is old as dirt so I didn't think it would be possible for artic's to run out of that garage.. Also crazy that the B1 rather than the B6 is the UP route they choose for artic's, considering in many cases artic's are a service cut and they would save money by having less B6 runs.

The R142A didn't get sidelined in 2018, I doubt Jerome has enough Bombardier 142s to make rush hour service without using the 142A's. We would have heard of trains from other yards being being transferred to Jerome while the 142A's were out. When the 142s had their problems in the mid 2000s, the got some 142A's and the got some 62A's to help those yards make service. Even then, there was Bombardier 142s still running throughout the whole ordeal. Perhaps the doors were the leading cause of failure on the 142A's and that bought the MDBF down, but I seriously doubt the entire fleet was sidelined in 2018.

4 tracking the Raritan Valley line? That came out of left field... I wonder if it's because that line shares the two tracks it has with freight trains, but I never heard of RVL service being negativity impacted by sharing it's tracks with freight trains.

Saw on the news that bus Ridership has went up since Phase 2 started, how they do know that if most of the buses in the city is still free?

On MTA.info go to the schedule section and put in Penn Station to Babylon and it shows you ALL the stops each train makes. To make things easier, the runs that say they take an hour or so to go from NYP to Babylon are the express runs. The expresses on the Babylon Branch seem to be pretty random as to what stops they make and what stops they skip, etc.

Today I finally did an railfan trip I've been wanting to do for an while now, railfan one of the Babylon Branch express runs. I've ridden the Babylon Branch quite a few times in the past but it was always local runs, etc. Finally rode it today and man did it live up to hype! Hit MAS (80 MPH) and stayed in the 70s for a good duration of the express run. Second best commuter rail express run in the Tri State, only the 3900 NEC express runs on NJT is better IMO. Coming back to the City the train I got was also an super express run, great day of fanning. Always nice to ride an commuter rail route from end to end. Also, I saw four sets of M9s running in service, NO M3 were seen in service. Read on RR.net that the M3s have only ran in service once in the entire month of June so far. LIRR service is pretty close to an regular schedule from what I saw today, once a few more sets of M9s are in service the LIRR M3s might be done for good sooner rather than later.

R62/62A get to live a little while longer!

I guess that explains why I haven't seen that bus in quite some time. I would say why they just don't take an spare B400 from a retired bus at ECH, but the last retired MTA bus fleet to use those transmissions in the masses was the Orion V and those buses are long gone. Reminds me of one time I caught an ex PBL TMC RTS on the Q69, I was happy as hell to catch that bus, driver let us on at the first stop before turning the engine on. Driver turned on the engine and the bus had an crappy EGR S50, I was pissed lol. They clearly took an engine out of an retired NYCT retired repowered RTS and put it in a PBL unit.

Flatbush Ave used to be one of my home stations, till this day it's my favorite terminal in the system. Many memories of going down to that station to see Redbird trains making that loud humming noise, as a kid I obviously had little to no knowledge of subway car inner workings so I thought the trains were warming up for their long run to the BX lol. In addition to that, I love the unique setup of the terminal. The side platforms never bothered me. IIRC, before the digital countdown clocks were installed there was this old school sign that lit up telling which train on which track was leaving first. Similar to the sign at DeKalb station downtown BK. There was an entrance to the station south of the bumper blocks so you could just enter there for easy access to both platforms. I also remember the NTT and SMEEs having separate stop car markers on the track where the terminates on. That's the only terminal in the system where I seen such a thing.

Is the eagle team even still doing rounds since the pandemic hit? I've had a station agent straight up tell me to walk though the gate when all the MVM in this particular station was broke. I have an reduced fare card (those with reduced fare cards can still pay with cash at the booth) I showed her my card and she directed me to walk though the gate and I did lol Off topic, but B42 riders get a free subway ride since B42 riders don't have to swipe to transfer to the train I've been abusing the hell out of that loophole.

I'm not I'm not employed by either of the two MTA railroads but, I would imagine that some of the cab controls in the middle of the train are "cut off" when not in use? I been inside the cab of both the M3 and M7's at Croton Harmon shop open house tour and none of the buttons worked when I pressed them. I know that on NYC Subway trains the horns still work in the C/R cabs as C/R's honk to T/O's on another train on local/express runs. I never felt tempted to do such a thing cause I'm pretty sure the train crew would call MTA Police to meet the train en route to have you arrested. I seen train crews on multiple occasions on both LIRR and NJT call for cops to meet a train en route and eventually see a passenger taking off the train in cuffs. I'm good lol

I rode the N/B from Utica to Union Square, ridership was light the whole ride, normally the is crushloaded by the time it leaves Fulton Street. The Union Square station itself was dead and wasn't nearly as busy as it normally is, transfered there to the which was empty the whole ride too. I took the home during rush hour, pretty much everyone in my car had a seat. That's UNHEARD of for the during rush hour during normal times. The is my home line and the only time I rode it where it's been SRO during the pandemic is when they have that 24 minute headway shuttle bus G.O. Ridership been fairly light otherwise. They probably aren't going to increase service until those Hipsters who make up the bulk of the ridership between Wilson and Bedford return to work in the masses.

Caught 4960 driver testing near Central Park, caught me completely off guard!

Even though we're now at Phase 2, ridership is still VERY light. Looks like there's no need for the TA to increase service, for now.

In regards to the "fastest train to Coney Island" discussion, someone once took each of the 4 lines that go to CI from 34th Street and it was proven that the was the fastest. IIRC the was the slowest, this was years ago.

They usually hook up two A-A pairs to make an 4 car set, I see A-A pairs on the line all the time.

It's still possible to have an 6 car R46 consist, just look up an A-A pair to an 4 car set = 6 car R46.

Y'all gotta be careful filming people personal cars like it's an transit vehicle. Some people might not be too happy about that. I could see if y'all was filming high end sports cars as I'm sure the ppl who drive those are used to the attention, ppl driving ordinary cars, not so much. Anyway my favorite cars..

They did use the same buses as the local fleet (but with express bus seats) until the late 90s when they switched over to MCI's. The MCI/Prevost offers more seating capacity and are more comfortable than transit buses.

The 2005 Orion hybrids are capable of opening the rear doors without passenger interference. I just rode one on a ENY route that did just that.

You mean an ignore button? If so then yes, this forum already has that feature. Just hover your mouse over a poster's avatar and a little box will pop up and the option to "ignore user" will appear at the bottom.

I think Breezy Point is a private community and they probably don't want the bus to come in their neighborhood. You can drive though there by car even if you don't live there though.

I just seen an R179 go into ENY maintenance shop, hopefully this is a sign that things are moving forward to bring the cars back into service. Saw it from far away (the train platform) but I kinda could see the trucks to know it was an R179.

Today on the train, the ppl who go through the train offering food to the homeless.... Well today is the first time I seen someone actually take the food. It was a homeless man and surprisedly, the meal was an rotisserie chicken, I thought the food they had was like Turkey and Cheese sandwiches or something along those lines. From what I could see, there was no sides and it was in a see though box, similar in size to the Chinese food box when you only order french fries.

I'm pretty sure buying brand new buses like the one listed in your post would make things MUCH more expensive. I'm too lazy look it up the prices of current day brand new buses but the OG Orion hybrids costed somewhere around 500,000 per bus.