BusTalk Forum Index BusTalk
A Community Discussing Buses and Bus Operations Worldwide!
 
 BusTalk MainBusTalk Main FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups BusTalk GalleriesBusTalk Galleries   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

'A JUNCTION NAMED HAROLD'

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    BusTalk Forum Index -> General Transportation - All Other Modes
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Mr. Linsky
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 5071
Location: BRENTWOOD, CA. - WOODMERE, N.Y.

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2012 12:58 am    Post subject: 'A JUNCTION NAMED HAROLD' Reply with quote

'Guiding Hundreds of Trains, a Junction Named Harold'


By PATRICK MCGEEHAN - New York Times May 23rd. 2012

The century-old Harold Interlocking in Queens, which guides hundreds of trains under the East River each day, is one of the busiest railway junctions in the country and for decades, the standard response to delays and disruptions on passenger trains in New York City has been to "blame it on Harold".

Harold Interlocking, the intersection of 14 tracks in Sunnyside Queens, is where trains traveling between Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and points east and north are sorted. The central role it plays in the life of the city is invisible to almost all New Yorkers. At least until something goes awry.

Harold was incriminated again this week when officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that connecting the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal would take six years longer and almost $2 billion more than originally estimated. Tunneling beneath Harold and rearranging the spaghetti-like web of overhead wires and other equipment there is proving more daunting than expected, they said.

For railroad operators in the city, Harold is a complex necessity. It was created to deal with the advent of train traffic under the East River from Manhattan when Pennsylvania Station opened in 1910. Until then, suburbanites riding trains into the city had to get off in Brooklyn or Queens and board ferries to Manhattan, said Peter Derrick, a transit historian and former executive of the transportation authority.

After the tunnels under the river opened, the four tracks that run through them had to be woven into the existing rail network in Queens, including the two lines of the Long Island Rail Road. To make seamless connections required a system of signals and track switches operated by men sitting in towers like control towers at airports.

In the mid-1970s, Ray Kenny was one of those men. He can describe in detail what it takes to get an eastbound Amtrak train to cross four tracks as it cuts north toward the Hell Gate Bridge that carries trains between Queens and the Bronx.

Orchestrating those maneuvers from towers required precision and a thorough understanding of the railroad?s schedule, Mr. Kenny recalled. ?You had to be very exacting and really on top of things,? he said, ?because in addition to handling the trains, you?re handling the power.?

Today, the Harold Interlocking is busier than ever with 600 commuter trains and 48 Amtrak trains passing through it daily, Mr. Kenny said. Since the mid-1990s, that traffic has been directed from a computerized central control post in Penn Station.

?It?s a whole big complicated ball of wax,? Mr. Derrick said. ?You?re trying to coordinate running rail service while trying to do a major construction project in the midst of it. Anything you do at Harold always has problems because there?s lots of trains going through there.?

The area is often packed with trains because it is next to the yard in Sunnyside, Queens storage yards, where trains are parked during off-peak hours.

Some commuters still remember the frequent delays that were caused by the last big reworking of the Harold Interlocking: In summer 1990, the Long Island Rail Road replaced the switching system there a few months after a power surge left thousands of commuters stranded on the first night of Passover.

The current project, which includes digging tunnels to allow Amtrak trains to cross under the tracks without disrupting commuter train traffic, ?is a much bigger event and reconfigure,? Mr. Kenny continued.

So, who was Harold anyway?

The junction was named in 1910 for Harold Avenue, one of the streets that approach the expanse of tracks in Queens. After Long Island City was absorbed into New York City at the end of the 19th century, Harold Avenue was renamed 39th Avenue, said Jack Eichenbaum, the Queens borough historian.

But who Harold Avenue was originally named for even Mr. Eichenbaum does not know. His best guess, he said, was that Harold was a landowner, because many of the streets in Long Island City were named for landowners. But, he said, ?This is just conjecture.?

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York


Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
traildriver




Joined: 26 Mar 2011
Posts: 2452
Location: South Florida

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2012 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for that link, Mr. Linsky. I recall that summer, when the LIRR published special "Harold" public timetables (I think I saved one or two somewhere), that had a large figure of a PRR position light signal on it....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
JimmiB



Age: 81
Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 516
Location: Lebanon, PA

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2012 8:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fascinating Mr.L. Reminds me of "Zoo" interlocking in Philly.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    BusTalk Forum Index -> General Transportation - All Other Modes All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You can attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group