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| Visualizing LIRR Platform Lengths (1284187) | |||
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Visualizing LIRR Platform Lengths |
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Posted by lirr42 on Sun Apr 6 16:10:31 2014 The Long Island Rail Road is a system that was built in little bits and pieces over the course of a century. Platform lengths, how long the actual platform where trains can stop is, have never been standard on the LIRR. From the days when a LIRR platform was often just some gravel or asphalt on the ground to the almost universally high-level platform system we see today, there have always been those stations that have shorter platforms than others.The "standard" platform length on the Long Island Rail Road is 12 cars long, as that is the longest-length train that the LIRR runs in normal revenue service. However, many branches rarely, if ever, see 12-car trains, so in certain cases, the shorter platforms are good enough for those branches. Usually, stations in diesel territory will only see 8-car long trains at most, but there are occasions where trains of 9 or more cars are run. At the stations that have uncommonly short platforms, only the maximum allowed number of cars open their doors at that station, and the others remain closed. We have all heard those announcements over the PA: "only the first six cars will open at St. Albans;" "You must be in one of the first four cars to exit at Kew Gardens or Forest Hills;" "Only the first car will platform at Amagansett." At each station that has a uncommonly short platform, the unopened cars hang off the platform in a different way. At St. Albans the first six cars always platform, no matter what direction you're heading in, but at Valley Stream, the first eight cars platform when you are going east, and the last eight cars platform when you are going west. Since each station is different, there has to be a different policy for each individual station, since some stations have grade crossings that the LIRR like to avoid fouling and signals or switches which the LIRR can't foul. There are specific rules that indicate which cars are to be opened at which platforms in which directions for each station, so it's not made up on the fly. It is different at every station, and it can be confusing (though regualar riders at short platform stations tend to learn the patterns at their stop and adjust accordingly.) Last night, I created the following map which shows all of the different platform lengths, and if the platform is unusually short, exactly which cars will open their doors at that station. The number indicated in the circle represents the length of the platform in number of cars (multiply that number by 85 to get the approximate length of the platform in feet). In certain cases, a letter precedes the number, and that indicates which of the cars open their doors at each station. The letters mean the following:
Here is the map, you can click to enlarge it to get a better look. There are a couple of exceptions and remarks, which I will make below. (SubChat would only let me embed a map that was either really small or really, really large. But you can click on the map to enlarge it, or download a full-resoloution .pdf version at this link.)
The terminal stations all have different track layouts, depending on what track you are on and what direction you are going from. Instead of attempting to clutter up the map with them, I will indicate them below: Jamaica Universal 12-car platforms for Jamaica is on the LIRR's wishlist, but due to the very close proximity of switches on different sides of the platforms, extending the platforms would be impossible without either very large gaps or substantial interlocking reconfiguration. The LIRR will be doing the latter as part of the Jamaica Capacity Improvement Project, so we're likely to see full 12-car platforms put in for all tracks at that point: [SubChat doesn't show tables too well, but you can see the full list of platform capacities at Jamaica at this link] New York To the LIRR, all platforms at New York Penn are 12 cars long, and every train that goes there can platform all 12 cars. However, there are a number of platforms longer than 12 cars at Penn Station, but there are no platforms shorter than 12 cars, so it doesn't make much of a difference. (You can find out more about the different platforms at NYP in the New York Penn Track-by-Track posts) [SubChat doesn't show tables too well, but you can see the full list of platform capacities at New York Penn at this link] Brooklyn Several of the platforms at Atlantic Terminal are on significant curves, so only a certain number of cars open on certain tracks, despite the longer platforms: [SubChat doesn't show tables too well, but you can see the full list of platform capacities at Atlantic Terminal at this link] There are also a number of different smaller exceptions and notes that further add to the complexity of all of these platforms:
And that's just about it, hopefully I haven't forgotten anything. All this would be a lot easier if there were full-length, 12-car platforms at every last station, but, for the most part, platform lengths don't really have all that much effect on operations or load distribution. The very busy stations tend to all have full-length platforms already, and large swarms of riders is not much of an issue at the smaller stations that often have smaller platforms as well. There's more to discuss on the topic on the subject of platform lengths, but we'll leave it here for now. No Comments See more posts about: Atlantic Terminal, Equipment, Jamaica, LIRR 101, Penn Station, Stations |
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