Well anytime you have a Fest in the middle of winter, always be ready for surprises and adventure. We lived by the seats of our pants today, but accomplished everything we set out to do albeit late and on one different train than originally planned.
Things went very well at the beginning. Our trip on #160 left our various departure points and arrived in New Haven right on time. There were 9 of us on this segment, of which one boarded the train in Philadelphia, two in Metropark, one in Newark, and five in New York.
We were joined in New Haven by a tenth person. But our on-time performance was anything but a "10". Shuttle Train #460, which originates there, was very late getting out of the yard. When it arrived it looked like they had just dug it out of a snowdrift. Only one door worked, aside from the door of the cab control area. We left NHV about a half hour late.
Because we were out of our window, we passed #401 at a place the trains don't normally pass. This put us on a siding that had not been used since the major snowstorm hit earlier this week. Some grade crossings were not functioning because our track was covered in snow. At one point all we saw ahead of us was a couple of feet of snow, including plowed remains across a street crossing. At slow speed we just went right through it like it wasn't there.
With a 35 minute scheduled turnaround, being so late was a major concern. We weren't sure whether the consist of 460 turns as 463 or not. We asked the crew, and they told us they had not seen more than one shuttle consist sitting in Springfield before. They did not appear to be 100% certain. We decided to gamble, and remained on board rather than a possible short turn at Hartford.
We got to Springfield at 12:43 PM, 3 minutes after the time we should have left. Luckily, this was indeed the only consist available. We remained onboard, much to the confusion of the incoming crew who wondered how we had gotten on since the boarding passengers were being held in the station. There was a slight delay in boarding as they had to fix an HEP problem.
Now as Train 463, we left SPG at 1:04, 24 minutes late. On the way we encountered the same malfunctioning grade crossings, but fewer snow issues since we had already plowed it ourselves about an hour ago.
When our Springfield Ten got back to New Haven, the faces of the group changed. One took the immediate transfer to 163, which was waiting for our late arrival. Another went right home. We were met in the station by Jan Van Eck, with whom we discussed DMU's while dining at Sbarro. Also we had two new late arrivals who got there separately on Trains 82 and 164.
Then we found out that our intended southbound Regional train, #135, was first posted as 90 minutes late, and then entirely cancelled. We found out its engine died in Boston, so it never ran. When we went to the ticket window, we were told to just board Train #57, the Vermonter, which was due 1/2 hour later than 135, and use our existing tickets. One of us chose to take Metro North and make his way across the city from Grand Central to Penn Station, where he would again meet up with us.
The Vermonter itself (with 9 of us aboard) was about 23 minutes late. We left NHV at 5:05 PM, and got into New York at 6:37 PM. All told we still got back to New York less than an hour after the time we originally planned to be there. Two on the train remained on to Philadelphia, and the other 7, plus the person who went on Metro North, went for dinner at the Skylight Diner on 34th Street.
As for weather, it was cold but it could have been a lot worse. It was more managable than some previous January Fests where we were in windy conditions and lower wind chills. We did not experience any precipitation, and never had to climb any snow banks though we observed from the trains that it was very deep in places.
And that ended our first wild day. We got our money's worth of excitement, worry, and of course AGR points!
Back to New England tomorrow for what surely will be more interesting developments.
Edited by KevinKorell, 15 January 2011 - 10:31 PM.