Since Metro North replaced all of its signaling and retired the M2/4/6's and FL-9's, it has been a pretty dull railroad. After all, how many pictures of M8's and P32AC-DMs does one need? (Hint, not that many.) However, MNRR still has a few things going for it, an an interesting electrical system with components stretching back to 1906 and a series of drawbridges with build dates going back even further. In 2019 I teamed up with a couple of local enthusiasts and we went about visiting a number of Metro North's historic New Haven line drawbridges including COB, WALK, SAGA and PECK. You can view the full set of photos here (mirror).
We start off at the COB movable bridge (SS29) in Cos Cob, CT with an Amtrak Acela Express power car #2039 passing over the span while a Metro North high rail truck sits on the out of service track #2.
Passers by often mistake this structure on the west end of the bridge for an interlocking tower, but it is actually the New Haven railroad's power dispatcher's office that controlled the entire 25hz AC power network. The New Haven system of 1914 and modified over the years uses an autotransformer architecture with 22/24kv feeders supplying 11/12kv overhead contact wires. Cos Cob was chosen as the site of the power dispatchers office because it was also the site of the power plant supplying the 25hz electrification power.
Here we see an MNRR New Haven bound train comprised of M8 cars passing by the Cos Cob power tower. The electrical switchgear mounted on the overhead gantry dates from 1914 and is still in service for catenary sectionalization.
Here a Stamford local passes a Grand Central bound train at Cos Cob.
Here we have a video of a train of M8 MU cars passing through the Cos Cob Station without stopping. Even on weekend Metro North operates two service zones with locals running to Stamford and express trains to New Haven making stops after Stamford.
Here is another video of a westbound weekend Amtrak Acela Express train with power cars #2032 and #2034 passing an eastbound Stamford local at the Cos Cob station. Note the slow speed of the AX caused by the curve and SS29 COB movable bridge.
The old Cos Cob power station was shut down in 1986 and subsequently demolished and turned into a public park over the ensuing 3 decades. This park in turn provides an excellent view of the Cos Cob drawbridge, which was built in 1904 by the American Bridge Company and consists of two independent, parallel rolling bascule spans, one for each pair of tracks.
The bridge sees the most openings on the New Haven line, being immediately downstream of a marina and also has some of the least restrictive opening policies.
For a while the daily departure of a party boat around 5:30pm would
require an opening during the evening peak and anyone standing at the
railfan window of the 5:09 New Haven super express out of GCT might get
quite the scare as the tk1/3 bridge was lifted as the train passed by on
the still closed track 2/4 span.
The 1906 New Haven electrification project between New York City and Stamford was the first of its kind in the world. To deal with the complexity of figuring out how to string 11kv overhead wires across a movable bridge, the New Haven Railroad just chose not to, leaving a gap in the overhead lines across the drawspan that passing trains need to coast through. The wire on both sides raises up to leave the pantograph at maximum extension, eliminating the need for the engineer to raise and lower the pans themselves.
The ban on DDT has made various railroad structures attractive to osprey and other coastal birds. As disrupting an active nest is illegal, Metro North has placed this owl puppet to try and scare the birds away so the nest can then be removed.
The SAGA movable bridge (SS52) in Westport, CT was built in 1905 and later electrified in 1918. During my visit both tracks 2 and 4 were out of service, allowing for this photo from the end of one of the double platform bridges at the adjacent Westport station.
Westport is known for its pedestrian walkway which allows one to get right up close to the action, such as this eastbound Amtrak Regional train with Amtrak ACS-86 #650.
Track #4 was getting a complete rebuild with new expansion joints, rail breaks and counterweight modifications.
Unlike the Cos Cob bridge the overhead lines are continuous across the movable span. A fixed metal bar is employed instead of a wire with a lift up break at the west end and a drop down break at the east end. Power is fed only from the west end with the east end permanently gaped. Each overhead circuit is fed up and over the drawspan to prevent the possibility of the span trying to break a loaded circuit and striking a potentially destructive arc. Here we see a video of the catenary structure in action as trains of M8's pass beneath.
Later, after being passed by a westbound, MNRR M8 #9366 leads a New Haven bound train across the bridge for my to get some stills. It was strange, but the schedule seemed to have the MNRR MU trains set to pass eachother at COB, SAGA and WALK.
And here is a westbound Amtrak Acela Express led by power car #2024.
After returning from their man cave, MNRR signal track workers go about thermite welding bond wire across the new track 4 rail joints on the bridge. I wasn't sure why the new rail wasn't welded, but I didn't object to the show.
The WALK movable bridge (SS45) in South Norwalk, CT was built in 1896 and is the world's only 4-track swing bridge. It is currently under threat of being replaced with a vertical lift bridge, but hopefully the project will be a casualty of the COVID related economic and public transport collapse. Because opening the WALK bridge is a bit more involved the rules are more restrictive than either COS COB or SAGA. Overnight requires a 4 hour notice with the remaining time only being a two hour notice. However the bridge is not to be opened between 5:45am and 9pm weekdays excluding holidays.
As with the SAGA bridge, tracks 2 and 4 were shut down making it a bit more difficult to photograph the crossing trains. Traffic included an Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #665, a number of MNRR M8's and a large hi-rail suck truck.
The overhead electrification is handled with solid contact bars running the length of the span, each connected to the catenary wires by a solid knife switch that pivots upward before the span can move. An air gap is placed in the center of the span to prevent the knife switches from ever opening under load and drawing a destructive arc.
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The SS44 BERK interlocking tower museum in South Norwalk was open and my tour group decided to pay a visit there after lunch. I have discussed the SoMoToMo more in depth in previous posts.
From the tower I got lots of photos of MNRR M8's passing, but I missed at least two Amtrak Acela Express trainsets due to my quest to one take a pull up of the Track 6 to Danbury route on the old SS44 lever frame.
Note the barricades and MoW equipment on tracks 2 and 4.
The PECK movable bridge in Bridgeport, CT was built new in the mid-1990's, replacing a earlier bascule span built in 1902. It's not really noticeable, but the bridge consists of two side-by-side, two track bascule spans that can be worked independently.
It stands adjacent to and can be easily photographed from the defunct Congress Street bridge, that has been de-bridgeified and turned into a public park/homeless shelter.
The high girders of the bascule span obscure passing traffic, so the best photographs can be obtained when the traffic of interest, like Amtrak ACS-86 #633 and MNRR M8 #9338 seen below, is on either one of the approach spans.
Here is a video of a westbound New Haven train passing over the PECK bridge. The sounds certainly haven't change much between the new style and the old.
The modern take on electrifying a movable bridge involves lift breaks on the east end with the overhead wire allowed to droop down to the bridge deck on the west. Here Amtrak ACS-86 #637 is passing under the isolation switches for the droop/movable bridge segment of the wire.
With the drawbridge tour wrapped up, I proceeded back to Ossining to start on a 5-seat, 5 hour ride back to South Jersey. Of course something just had to be screwed up on the Hudson Line with both northbound expresses and locals running reverse on the southbound track. In fact, Amtrak P32AC-DM #714 appears to have gotten lost as it travels northward on track #4 at Ossining, which is usually reserved for southbound locals!
A northbound local of M7's was on the southbound express track #2 with Metro North P32AC-DM #209 leading a northbound express behind it.
My GCT bound express train finally arrived about 15-20 minutes late with Shoreliner I cab car #6107 in the lead. Because of MNRR's lateless I almost missed my NJT connection which would have added another 90 minutes to my trip.
That would have been an hour for NJT at Penn Station and then another 30 or so minutes for the poor RiverLINE connection at Trenton. Fortunately I snagged a reasonable connection with RiverLINE LRV #3510 at Trenton which gave me a "seriously sketchy" connection at Walter Rand near 11pm, instead of a decidedly more risky post-midnight transfer.
Well thanks for staying with me over the course of this long post. Next week I'm back to HARRIS tower with a brief stopover in Las Vegas.
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