Metro-North completes Cos Cob switching rebuild ahead of schedule

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Metro-North employees worked to begin repairs on a wayside signal switching house in Cos Cob, Connecticut, following a fire there on Saturday, May 10, 2014.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin

Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Metro-North Railroad employees have successfully rebuilt a switching control house in Cos Cob, Conn.

 

The restoration, completed four months ahead of an initial, already expedited schedule, means that a nine-mile section of the New Haven Line’s tracks between Port Chester, N.Y., and Stamford, Conn., is fully operational for the first time since May 10, when a fire destroyed the previous control house.

Metro-North was able to dramatically speed up the control house restoration by taking equipment that had already been built and was ready for installation at another complex that had a switch layout that was virtually identical.

Rebuilding a new control house would normally take 18 months of design, fabrication, installation and testing. Initially, Metro-North had expected to expedite that by using a retired switching complex. The railroad ultimately expedited it further by repurposing the modern complex.

The final component of the restoration, shifting control from a temporary emergency wayside control house back to Metro-North’s Operations Control Center in New York City, took place September 6 and 7.

“I commend all of the employees who have been involved in the effort to work around the loss of our control house and rebuilt it using an innovative approach,” said Metro-North Railroad President Joseph Giulietti.

In late May, Metro-North workers installed an emergency manual panel at Cos Cob that allowed limited switching capability by a signal maintainer who had to be stationed at the site at all times and in continuous communication with the Operations Control Center. This enabled Metro-North to make three of the four tracks available in each rush hour’s peak direction, easing congestion.

However, the ability to switch trains from one track to another remained limited. In the event of any operational problems that could have arisen in the area, train workers would have had manually switch trains from one track to another, taking up to 20 minutes to perform.

 

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