Recent content by smallspy

First off, all-in-all this was an excellent post. But I do want to point out this particular passage: It's not just operational staff. A lot of the staff supporting them - and especially in your case, the guys in charge of track blocks for example - are dealing with the same issues as you...

This has nothing to do with COVID. Shortly after Alstom was told that they were not going to get the operating and maintenance contract in 2023, they put into place a hiring freeze. Their logic was that "why should we pay to train these people if we aren't going to reap the rewards of their...

No, they can't. First off, the drivers need to be trained on them. Very few of the drivers at Queensway are, and those are just drivers who've recently moved from other divisions. And you can't force them to work on a weekend if they've chosen work that gives them weekends off. Second: are the...

thettctransitfanatic's point about the maintainers is a pretty good one. But keep in mind that the SRT's end time didn't align with the subway's, either. It's last trip outbound was at about the same time as the subway's last trip westbound - which meant that it ended service about 25 minutes...

There is no such work on the Bala Sub - yet. At least not for any signalling changes or installations regarding ETCS. All they announced was that they were going to use the Bala Sub for their testbed, in advance to rolling the system out system-wide. Dan

They aren't testing anything - they've only just signed a contract with Alstom to design and provide the system, including all equipment necessary. Dan

It's pretty standard for North American diesel locos to do it this way. On the F59, all of the roof panels come off in large assemblies, which allows for easy overhead access via crane. There is also a lot of space between the exterior walls and the engine itself, so a lot of the smaller work...

The tracks were originally located where the northern platform is currently being built, so they had to move no matter what. But to build the southern platform first - when there was space to do so - and then move the tracks once in order to build the northern half? I suspect that the issue...

Can you try phrasing your question a bit better, perhaps? Dan

That's correct - it has the geometry similar to a double-point switch, so you can see how much longer it is. In fact, as I recall due to its design this switch is not trailable anymore - any car that is forced to reverse through it is only allowed to do so a on the straight. So I had started...

Because they would have had to build the south GO platform and the south half of the underpass first, before moving them then. Dan

The plan was always to come back and build the south/east potion of the overpass and station after the north/west part was completed. Hell, one of the two tracks are not even in their final positions where they sit today - the northern track is on what will eventually be a platform and the...

30mph. Dan

The biggest issue to the speeds through that section is curvature, not switch size. The curves are just too tight to allow for higher speeds. The size of the switches can't be improved, either - not with how everything is currently laid out. GO's "standard" is to put in #20 switches - good for...

Yes, but only for a couple of years. They had been using the old station at Burlington West - just west of the current station, at the junction with the Halton Sub - until 1988 or so. Dan