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| PHOTOS : The M-8 struts her stuff....and very well!! :-) (950531) | |||
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PHOTOS : The M-8 struts her stuff....and very well!! :-) |
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Posted by Train Man Paul : Metro-North's Best Conductor FOR ALL 3 LINES!!! on Wed Jun 30 12:13:27 2010 I guess someone, somewhere knew I had a longin' to be on one of the test trains for the M-8s!! So with a ring of the phone just about 5 PM yesterday, little ol' me, your friendly, neighborhood #1 Conductor HAPPILY (Yes Railman, with LOTS of foam!!!) answered the call, and at 2200 hours (10:00PM) little ol' me arrived in GCT to have a little road fun WITHOUT the passengers!! The M-8 rolled into GCT from NH at about little after midnight last night, and arrived on Track 107, where after all our briefings with supervision, including the Road Foremen aboard, we kicked off another nocturnal test run with these awesome machines!!Here we start...... (Bear with me folks, between road running I got in my shots when I can, and again with my continued reluctance to bring expensive DSLR cameras to work with me, I resorted to 3 MPs of cell cam!! Forgive the quality at times, folks!! And of course, with regulations in effect, NONE of this was done while the train was in motion!!) Little after 0000 hours (12 midnight), the M-8, 6 cars, 3 pairs total, arrives on Track 107......   And a smooth stop makes her trip from New Haven complete!!  The door opens off, the yard crew which brought it from New Haven hops off, and me and my engineer hop aboard......  With lots of testing computers about and TONS (probably literally lol) of sandbags to simulate a loaded train, not much as to be seen interior-wise, but I decided to make the best with what we had!! Interior views (just imagine the bags are gone!!)  The vestibule lighting (I love the looks of this lighting configuration!!)  The "Can" (Signs on the outside read "DO NOT USE!!".....should I tell them I used it already??? LMAO....just kiddin'!! We are, though, supposed to be breaking these things in, right??? :-D LOL)  A look inside the fare beater's best place to apply their trade on our trains!! :-D  WARNING!! Please allow 30 minutes, minimum, for the smell to ease to safe levels!! :-D LOL  The B End. Note how much like on Shoreliner III/IV Bombs, and on NJT MLVs, you have to press the button left to open the end doors, which slide horizontally across, but unlike the Shoreliner III/1V, when you hit the button, it opens BOTH doors on each side!!  Some cab views......  Combination ACSES/MNR cab signal ADU (Aspect Display Unit)......  The TOD screens, throttle and dashboard.......  Left side control panels, with duplex air guage......  Right side control panels......  Engineer-side conductor door control panel and cab circuit breaker panels......  Fireman-side door control panels......  Conductor control panels, fireman side (with cab signal ADU, radio/PA/IC controls, gimbal light controls, and windshield wiper and heater controls)  Fireman-side "jump"-seat!! (NO, you CANNOT sit here!! J/K :-D)  Engineer's seat, viewed from the fireman side (BEST seat in the house in the opinions of some!! :-D)  Now, with the kickoff of our run getting ready, off goes my phone, and off we go!!! After stopping at Yonkers to pick up some Kawasaki reps, and to change ends to being our tests, we stroll the platform for some wayside views!! When "Red" invades Yonkers!!! M-8, Track 2, Yonkers......   Y-Y-Y-Yonkers!!!!!  South end, #9101......  Now, me and my engineer (off screen at his and my own requests), board, and the tests being, load, speed and third rail operation testing!! Off goes the phone, and go goes the business at hand!! And in a couple hours, we tie up at Harmon Yard, Track 132 in the old shop!! We give up our hold on Track 2, having completed our tests for the night SUCCESSFULLY, to the RTC District C, Form Ms fulfilled, and we get ready to deadhead back to GCT as the daylight begins in the eastern sky, and the civilized world awakes from their slumber to begin their days, as ours ends!! But of course, you know there are always parting shots, right???? Well...... M-8 safely at Harmon, on Track 132, Old Shop......   (NOTE, those damn mercury lights wreaked havoc on my shots here!! Forgive the orangeness!!! :-P_ Folks, I think you for viewing this post, and hope you enjoyed a nice look inside one of Metro-North's newest toys to hit the rails!! Rest assured, this train can MOVE!! The brakes are on the money!! Awesome acceleration and deceleration (the techs indicated this train runs even better in AC territory!!!), and I agree this train definitely is up to the challenge of safely and reliably moving the people of New York and Connecticut for many years to come!! As always, it will have its bugs, much as any train, anywhere, but I am definitely confident, this train will, in the least, live up to the 200,000++ miles between breakdowns legacy the M-7/M-7As have set forth and more than accomplished and thensome. And again, no real problems at all occurred this night other than one broken third rail shoe!! This train is good to go in my book, and cannot wait to be moving the people from Point A to Point B and back with it!! Thumbs up here, folks!! You all shall see and judge for yourselves in due time!! I assure you, you all will definitely give it 2 thumbs up, as I do assure the people of Metro-North will feel the same way, and I am confident they will definitely be getting MUCH good feedback from the New Haven Line passengers, or pretty much anyone who steps aboard this train!! The NH will now have good competition against the Harlem & Hudson Line's M-7As!! Thank you all for viewing!! I truly hope you all enjoyed!! :-) |
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