Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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9xs
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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LakeATCS wrote:For some reason there is a second CP 500 notice.

12:01 p.m., Wednesday, 08-03-16 (note that is NOON tomorrow, not midnight tonight)

Retire the existing Electric Lock at CD500.1 in its
entirety located at MP CD 500.1

Speed
Track speed in the new Pine Siding between
CP 500 and CP 501 is 40mph Freight and 45mph Passenger

CP 500 at MP CD 500.1

#1 power crossover has been installed at MP CD 500.2, for Eastward movements from the Pine Siding Track to the Pine Yard Track.

2E Home Signal located to the left of the Pine Stub Track on a Dwarf signal at MP CD 500.2
4E Home Signal located to the left of the Pine Siding Track on a high mast at MP CD 500.2.
2W Home Signal located to the right of the Pine Yard Track on a high mast at MP CD 500.1.
4W Home Signal located to the left of the Pine Siding Track on a High Signal mast at MP CD 500.1
All signals located between the EJ&E bridge and the casino bridge. Difficult to see or get to without authorization, jail time, or paying for a train ticket

Dave

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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The updates begin to show their usefullness
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twropr
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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Looks like some work has been accomplished since the 2008 timetable that I have for reference.
Am I correct in assuming that the following new tracks are in service?
A north controlled siding CP 490-CP 492
A north controlled siding CP 497-CP 501
TK 3 CP 503-CP 506, equating to TK 3 in service between CP 503 and CP 509
Also, was CP 491 retired and new CP 494 placed in service?
Are these new tracks helping Amtrak thread its way thru the territory?
Thanks!
Andy
Jacksonville, FL

LakeATCS
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

Unread post by LakeATCS »

twropr wrote:Looks like some work has been accomplished since the 2008 timetable that I have for reference.
Am I correct in assuming that the following new tracks are in service?
A north controlled siding CP 490-CP 492
A north controlled siding CP 497-CP 501
TK 3 CP 503-CP 506, equating to TK 3 in service between CP 503 and CP 509
Also, was CP 491 retired and new CP 494 placed in service?
Are these new tracks helping Amtrak thread its way thru the territory?
Thanks!
Andy
Jacksonville, FL
Been a LOT going on since 2008 yes.

Yes everything is sailing thru.

Lots of projects. Create Englewood and Indiana Gateway Project, plus NS money to add 3mt Elkhart to Goshen.
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justalurker66
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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twropr wrote:Am I correct in assuming that the following new tracks are in service?
A north controlled siding CP 490-CP 492
Yes. (Millers Siding)
twropr wrote:A north controlled siding CP 497-CP 501
Not in service. Close, but work needs to be done at CP 498 and the new siding speed announced was only for CP 500-CP 501.
twropr wrote:TK 3 CP 503-CP 506, equating to TK 3 in service between CP 503 and CP 509
Yes.
twropr wrote:Also, was CP 491 retired and new CP 494 placed in service?
CP 491 was replaced by CP 490 (although a different layout). CP 494 is new.

Add it your list upgrades at CP 487 and CP 485 that are extremely useful.
twropr wrote:Are these new tracks helping Amtrak thread its way thru the territory?
Yes. There is a lot of freight threading going on as well.

9xs
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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twropr wrote: A north controlled siding CP 497-CP 501

Are these new tracks helping Amtrak thread its way thru the territory?
Thanks!
Andy
Jacksonville, FL
The third track between Clark Rd and 497 currently does not exist, although there may be a stub track west of CP 497
East end of Pine siding is a switch at Clark Rd to track 1

DaVE

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justalurker66
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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At CP 500 there seems to be a "Drill Signal" that allows for local control of the switch. I have seen times where CP 500 works remotely (EB or WB signals clear then occupancy as a train passes through) as well as the use of the "Drill Signal" with no signals cleared as the train passes through the interlocking.

tttodisp
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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I agree on the drill signal, at least based on testing.

I was looking at the MCP plot from last night for various activity and nothing moved there at all.

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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Yeah I haven't seen a live train in there yet.

I think NS is using the Porter Branch to Tolleston to the PRR/WAB combo line to get to the EJ&E line at Pine anyway.

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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What is the milepost for the new CP 490?
Has the #20 turnout been installed at CP 487 to replace the old ?#8 turnout?
I remember riding CAPITOL #29 in 1997 thru this territory. The scanner picked up an interesting conversation between the engineer and conductor, when the ENG said "looks like the dispatcher is going to route us thru that high speed/low speed crossover at 487 again." That was the first I knew of an instance on a main track of the Chicago Line (outside of Toledo) where the crew would get a "Slow Clear" to go thru a crossover.
Andy

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justin_gram
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

Unread post by justin_gram »

The westbound signals for CP 490 are practically at CD 490, maybe CD 490.1.

There is a new set of limited speed crossovers at CP 487. There is also the slow speed crossover for CSS to Midwest Steel at CP 487, and it has been upgraded to medium speed I believe.

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justalurker66
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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justin_gram wrote:The westbound signals for CP 490 are practically at CD 490, maybe CD 490.1.
WB at 490.1 and EB at 490.3 according to the document posted by LakeATCS earlier in this thread when the CP went live.
justin_gram wrote:There is a new set of limited speed crossovers at CP 487. There is also the slow speed crossover for CSS to Midwest Steel at CP 487, and it has been upgraded to medium speed I believe.
NS still runs trains through the slow crossover from time to time. We can complain about NS using the slow crossover at CP 482 instead of the new crossover at CP 479 and blame that on coordination between dispatchers (Chicago East and Chicago West). But which crossover is used at CP 485 is entirely in the hands of Chicago West.

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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If I had to guess. I would say that it looks like a Ballast train main several moves off the "temporary stub" that heads to 498 into and out of Pine yard.

When he was done, it looks like he shoved off the end of the circuit on the track between 500 and 498

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justalurker66
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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LakeATCS wrote:If I had to guess. I would say that it looks like a Ballast train main several moves off the "temporary stub" that heads to 498 into and out of Pine yard.

When he was done, it looks like he shoved off the end of the circuit on the track between 500 and 498
My logs show a train parked on Pine Siding overnight (7:50pm CT Saturday) until 10:24am Sunday.
At that point a train passed from the siding east of CP 500 to the siding west of CP 500.
The switch changed and the train passed from the siding west of CP 500 to the yard, clearing the approach circuit at 11:23am CT.
At 11:56am CT a train entered the westbound approach from the yard and passed through the switch.
The switch changed and the train passed back through the switch to the siding east of 500 (at 12:28pm CT).
At 12:48pm CT part of that train passed back through the switch then reversed into the yard. The approach circuit on the siding did not clear.
At 12:51pm CT the westbound signal was cleared for a train but it was cancelled 15 minutes later (with the switch lock timing out about 3 minutes after that).
The approach track on the siding east of CP 500 has shown occupancy then no occupancy on and off throughout the evening.
The last change seen was occupancy at 6:54pm CT Sunday.

I did not get a chance to take a look this weekend ... but it certainly appears that work was being done on the siding.

I also saw Track 1 OOS between CP 500 and CP 497 this weekend - so perhaps work was done on the old crossovers (preferably removal of the old switch at Clark Rd). If anyone had a chance to take a look at Clark Rd,we will know if the connection still exists,

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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On Friday, crews were working east of Clark on the new track. They weren't working on Track 1 at all.
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justalurker66
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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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Friday night Track 1 east of CP 501 was OOS for about two hours starting around 7:30pm CT.
Sunday afternoon Track 1 east of CP 501 was OOS from 10:09am to 2:53pm CT.

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

Unread post by justin_gram »

Someone has the new Pine siding between CP 500 and CP 501 including all tracks at CP 500 until 3 PM.

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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498 MCP went silent at 1:30pm

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

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Maybe that's a sign that they are getting closer (let's hope so).

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Re: Porter Junction rail project finally gets green light

Unread post by justin_gram »

Closer to what? I thought 498 was all done.

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