Where Do Trains Sleep at Night? | The Layover Yard Operations of the MBTA

have you ever been to a usually busy train station and seen this a passenger train with a completely silent locomotive sitting away from the platform track what's going on here well you have found yourself in the middle of a layover yard a place where passenger trains sleep overnight but how do these trains know when and where to call it a day keep watching to find out [Music] [Music] at each and every MBTA Terminus station layover operations are performed late at night and early in the morning for example at Rockport station on the mbta's Gloucester Branch it goes something like this train 117 is the first to put away around 6 20 PM this means that there is no corresponding inbound trip the train is now in the yard for the night next train 123 puts away around 10 on the other layover track finally the last train of the night 125 puts away on the third and final layover track around 12 15 am overnight the yard is dormant until 5am when 125 set heads back to Boston as inbound train 100. next train 123's set heads back to Boston around 6 as train 102. finally train 117 sat heads back around 7 as train 104. one hour after the yard is cleared the first outbound train arrives in Rockport ending the rush hour Shuffle so now that you know let's check out this operation in real life it's June 22nd and I'm set up for train 117's arrival into the station This Crew began their day on train 104 out of Rockport and will be putting away this set on track one shots like this are only made possible by rockport's unique track alignment which places the layover in the middle of a busy public area right now I am standing on a public sidewalk located directly behind the bumping posts for the tracks this makes rail Fanning and Rockport a true luxury [Laughter] [Laughter] the passengers now disembark from the train and 117 gets the okay to reverse back to the switch [Music] now the conductor hops out and opens up the switch for track 1 where 117 will put away before we stopped right [Laughter] this layover operation is relatively quick taking only about three minutes [Music] [Laughter] [Music] as soon as 117 pulls all the way up track 1 the engineer Powers locomotive 125 off foreign steps towards putting 1025 to sleep are not necessarily simple so let me explain them first the yard maintainer who is stationed at Rockport overnight must hook 1025 to the power receptacle just as a car battery is powered by a car's movement a train battery works the exact same way and because trains take up 10 times more power than cars there is a much bigger chance of the battery running out overnight if not given power so here at Rockport and all layover yards on the system each layover track has its own power receptacle with these Nifty cords that are hooked onto the front of the locomotive these give trains enough power overnight to be able to wake up the next morning the next step towards a restful night for the locomotive is installing what is known as the blue flag the blue flag is a light placed in the cab of a locomotive which indicates that the train is out of service and that nobody can touch it except for the mechanical crew finally the Rockport yard maintainer must put up the derail at the end of The Layover track the derail is a device used to prevent people from stealing trains out of the yard especially in such an exposed place like Rockport where one could theoretically walk into the cab with ease the derail plays a necessary safety rule to prevent a potential disaster with 117 all set the same steps will be repeated with trains 123 and 125 later tonight which will put away in layover tracks 6 and 7 and leave early tomorrow speaking of which let's use the magic of YouTube to send us 11 hours in the future to the next morning and would you look at that it's now morning time and 10 25 remains in the exact same place it was last night however 1025's new friend 1126 is awake and ready to pull out of the yard and into the station as train 102. this is the set that operated on train 123 last night talkative earlier [Music] [Music] 11 26 was the first MBTA gp40mc to receive LED ditch lights and an e-bell something we're all definitely used to seeing now [Applause] foreign now that the 1126 set is on the platform track it is nearly ready for service about 30 minutes later here is 102 departing from Rockport towards Boston so far too okay to go if you guys are ready [Laughter] [Music] 15 minutes later at 6 30 the crew for train 104 arrives at the station and begins to prepare the set just like the crew these deer are spending their morning by the railroad tracks I bet the crew won't see many deer in the city though anyways the same engineer that operated train 117 last night hops into the cab and starts up the engine and her morning [Music] it's not common as a rail fan to see the same locomotive power down and power up all within 24 hours without having to trespass Rockport is just special like that now that the set is ready the crew gives the okay to reverse the train onto the main line [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so hard the conductor now steps out and realigns the switch for track two and just as we did last night we will be seeing 1025 enter Rockport with this unique head-on shot [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] the engineer now heads down to the other end of the train to get ready for the inbound trip but before 104 can declare itself ready for service the conductor must step in the cab and do a final break test okay thank you now 104 is ready for service and just about 25 minutes later 104 receives the okay to go out of Rockport station [Music] [Music] as 104 rounds the bin it marks the final inbound of The Layover Rush the next train to enter Rockport is 101 the first outbound of the day here is train 101 at the Babson Reservoir in Gloucester Massachusetts check out that reflection and that puts a wrap on this video I hope you learned a thing or two about where trains go at night and other interesting things about layover yards but until next time I will see you all again soon out there on the rails

Channel: Boston By Rails

Views: 11,083

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Id: ROlkegIMCdk

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 13 2023