Kamen Rider

On a normal day, all one really needs to do is wait around at Penn Station.

To keep this thread where people can see it so our new hires can read and learn… also, here are a few words you might hear over the radio that are used as shorthand. The Well: Stilwell Avenue the Rock: Far Rockaway Pacific/Pacific Street: Atlantic-Barclays on the 4th avenue D/N/R (it’s name before Atlantic Avenue was applied to it.) the Highway: Kings Highway on the Culver Line the Boulevard: Rockaway Blvd

Trains in general don’t like having to deal with leaves, the NTTs are not special in that regard. additionally, until the new shop at Clifton opened, SIRTOA didn’t have a wheel truing machine. That required a trip to CIY. Hence why the flat wheels lasted so long. Now that work can be done in-house.

One of them, for the most part, was actually replaced. The Jamaica El with the Archer Subway. the rest… well, I don’t know if you noticed, but my generation and younger, we like transit. We like having an environment. We would like to enjoy the long, happy lives many of your generation are living. My grandma turns 96 in a few months… but that world we are supposed to be inheriting is… slowly becoming unattainable. we can’t afford things your generation took for granted and then get mocked because we don’t have them. I am 35. A lot of economists say people my age and younger will never be able to afford a house of our own without inheriting it. costs are high, wages don’t match them. if you want to find the problem with transit, with the city, with this country… with the world in general… it’s that some people refuse to let people like me step up. To offer our voices. no, it has to be all a bunch of 50-80 year olds, all out of touch.…

Great, something else to break…

Not necessarily… This is all an unknown. We don’t exactly know what effect the pricing program will have on the city and on ridership and on ridership levels on certain lines or stations. If we make changes immediately, we could make the wrong ones.

saw them installing one at City Hall

Okay, first of, get one thing straight, train crews are NOT lazy...

The R211s have functionally identical automated announcement system interfaces as the R160s. On top of that, as part of the qualification class, you have to program it. You can't crew the train without qualifying on it and you can't qualify on it unless you can, among other things, set the announcement system. Technically, per rule, the Train operator is supposed to set the announcement system at the terminal. In reality, more often than not. we conductors do it. If an NTT runs blank, more often than not, it's because the route isn't programed in. The other issue is that, sometimes, and this has happened to me with one of the 211s, the tachometer got out of whack and had to be reset, so the announcements were playing out of synch.

I mean the yard is CRAWLING with the little bastards. There were at least 15-20 dead in the hallway in the yard tower alone.

I watched 4100*-4109 roll out of Pitkin i also SHOULD have been on that R211T burn in test if not for the Random I ended up with. they keep sending me there when they don’t need me… send me when they do need me and then snatch me away…

Pitkin Yard has a Spotted Lantern Fly infestation… I’ve stomped on six so far in the last three hours and there are dozens lying around dead

There’s no float dock at Clifton Yard, so they would need to be craned off like the BLG20 work locomotives.

Yeah… um… reading that… as a transit worker… specifically RTO… yeah you don’t want to know my thoughts. At all…

Honestly… when I picked up, I was in the middle of something and was actually expecting a telemarketer or some scam call… I literally only answered to screw with them because I was in a mood. I even answered in a funny voice, only to nearly drop the phone when I heard the automated message.

I mean… at this rate the EPIC passes are going to be the last bastion of Metrocard hardwear… I haven’t heard a peep about switching to OMNY based units, given how many swipe door locks there are…

honestly, even our internal MTA ability to use other sections of our agency's network are a complicated mess as to who gets to do what where and when... though, for the record, I should point out that the Q70SBS to the airport is free for everyone at all times anyway...

well, problem #1 with that... Who's serving 205th street? The direct Mikey up 6th avenue is popular with riders. Then again, 95% of these sorts of plans involve, for lack of a better wat to put it, "robbing Peter to pay Paul" in some fashion.

They’re rusted. they’re leaking. the heat sucks. I have to half kneel on the seat to do my job. somebody with no brain put the crew doors at the number 2 end. I can’t train line unlock the storm doors without leaving my key in the slot. The destination sign controllers are half busted. and possibly the most annoying thing about them is they only have one buzzer button per cab, on the operating console. All other car classes I’m trained on have at least three, one on the console and one on each set of door controls. most starting stations where I’m on the offside “stand clear of the closing doors please”. Close rear section. Check for indication the rear is locked Close front section. Check for indication the front is locked Sweep back to front. Turn key control key to “run”. Give my partner the two long buzzer signals and off we go. r46s, when I turn the key to “run” and I’m on the left side, I have to run over to the console, give the two buzzes and then run back before my partner takes power because they sometimes forget to give me a second to get back.

Here’s the thing. One the one hand we are talking about nearly 50 year old cars, built by a company that no longer exists, using out of date technology that no one supports. On the other hand, brand new, state of the art equipment that is under warranty and form whom replacement parts can easily be purchased. we are also still dealing with the effects of a massive supply chain disruption caused by COVID. we cannot keep the R46s running forever as they are and we are not getting the R211s fast enough. some of the 46s have to go to support the others. This is just a fact. We do not have the resources to build every single replacement part we might need ourselves.

First off, don’t use that word. second, as I keep saying but no one seems to want to listen, the staffing shortage is still worse than the car shortage. Hell, they’re still short me for another week, I’m still on Grand Jury duty. and third, parts for the 46s are becoming too scarce. There is a point where keeping the class running means sacrificing some of them to retirement for their important components and it seems we have reached that point. plus i… I have to admit… something about having them on my train bothered me. also there have been a few times where CR/s (not me) have started setting up in the wrong cab because they weren’t paying attention.

Literally the only confirmed detail is the R211T and R211S will commence passenger testing within the next year. past that, it is all up in the air.

Yeah... I think I can count on one hand how many times I've used my sign changer since I left School Car. It might have something less to do with how many conductors there are and more to do with only the 62s and 68s still need them. When it comes to Astoria, it's just quicker to not change them, wait for an R46 and change that. takes less than a minute and no physical effort. R68 Novembers stay Novembers, while Whiskeys stay Whiskeys unless it is absolutely necessary. Now once the R46s are gone and the Broadway line has more R68s... well... i guess we'll jump off that bridge when we get to it. It does seem to more be coming from the armchair Line Superintendents... but to a certain extent it makes sense. When someone suggests the idea of moving the R back to Astoria is usually when this argument comes up the most. Going with your 3 example, you had Lenox on the 3's route... The R would have nothing on route, and all put ins and lay ups would require deadheading, which they see as unnecessary and or wasteful. If an R train needed to be added or removed from service, say needed to be Shopped on Arrival... "on paper" it feels easier to do that at Forest Hills and roll her down into Jamacia Yard vs having to run light up to (depending on circumstances) 36th or 59th and then lite down the west end or Sea Beach.. for every put in or lay up

So… I just got to meet Charlie Pellett…

… I give them one day… ONE DAY… and what do I get? Surfers! So, I am currently on paid leave for Grand Jury Duty. Yesterday, I had to go in to work since the courts were closed and per contract, when you’re not going in to court, you have to come into work. they gave me a job, I do it, they ask if I want to do one extra trip… Pull into a station, I see a bunch of kids standing around at the far end of the platform… We start to leave and two of them leap onto the side of my train. they ran when I pulled the brake. this grand jury gig is four weeks. I give them 1 day and this is what I come back to.