Electrical fire at Forest Hills halts commuter rail, Amtrak

By adamg on Sat, 04/04/2015 - 9:08am

The Boston Fire Department reports a fire that erupted in an electrical vault by the side of the Northeast Corridor tracks in Forest Hills around 6:44 a.m. went to two alarms as firefighters poured bottle after bottle of dry chemical extinguisher on it.

The fire halted commuter rail and Amtrak service along the nation's busiest passenger rail corridor. Orange Line service, briefly halted, has now resumed.

Neighborhoods:

Topics:

Free tagging:

Ad:

Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

More photos

By adamg on Sat, 04/04/2015 - 9:21am.

#BREAKING: Dozens of @BostonFire firefighters at scene of an electrical fire at Forrest Hills @MBTA Station. @NECN pic.twitter.com/UKLX0IFAXh

— Jeff Saperstone (@JeffSaperstone) April 4, 2015

FIRE PHOTO: BOSTON 2nd Alarm #MBTA #Amtrak at Forest Hills station MT @bostonnewsnow #PFFM_ALERT pic.twitter.com/cgCN7fFyY1

— Fire Fighters of MA (@THE_PFFM) April 4, 2015

#Boston electrical fire at forest hills station commuter rail line #mbta pic.twitter.com/eCOcpOeDKe

— Jack Hanlon (@jckhanlon) April 4, 2015

Fire continues at Forest Hills station @MBTA @BostonGlobe @BostonFire #fire #foresthills #mbta #orangeline pic.twitter.com/sIjPQ0mU7b

— Tania Bronsoiler (@bronso) April 4, 2015

Vaults at commuter rail fire pic.twitter.com/PXOxm8pYYy

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 4, 2015

Commuter rail just outside the station. Vaults on the right side. pic.twitter.com/wQwq53wiBh

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) April 4, 2015

Here's a confusing thing

By Waquiot on Sat, 04/04/2015 - 9:50am.

They (as of 9) are busing on the Needham Line, but the fire was before the junction. Also, the T is not reporting (as of 9) any delays on the NEC. At 8 (when I got into Back Bay from Forest Hills) there were delays on the board.

Thanks for the info. Best source of news in Boston.

No NEC Trains as of 5 PM still

By No Trains Still? on Sat, 04/04/2015 - 5:14pm.

I'd not be too certain of that as a final summary.

I live adjacent to the NEC and there have been no trains all day. While Amtrak is showing "delays" as of noon on their web site, nothing is rolling by the HP/Rossie line - not MBTA nor Amtrak.

As of 5 pm and all of this afternoon, MBTA is showing that Needham is being bused - full length.

Franklin is skipping Back Bay and Ruggles. The suggestion there, is they are running Fairmount and continuing on their branch from Readville. A couple of Franklin trains run express to/from South Station that way during the week.

Boston-Prov is showing shuttle to Fairmount station then busing to Hyde park where the train continues from there. Now it may make better sense to connect the NEC at Readville but the old NEC platform on the main line is not fully ADA ramped - never was. It has a high platform for one coach to connect but getting there from the Fairmount branch is all stairs.

The still images of the fire on line show a serious fire in the electrical vaults (small housings) on the Hyde Park Ave side just south (west in RR terms) of Forest Hills Station on the NEC. This is likely the control relays for the signals in that area as well as the interlocking (switches and permissions to pass).

I'd watch the MBTA service alerts as well as the Amtrak alerts through Sunday and into Monday morning as this may not be repaired in short order. If the interlocking is busted and signals are down rules will require slow orders through that area, and some switching if not all may also not be possible. One image shows them playing 2 high-pressure big lines from the fire department on the housings. They're soaking wet as well as fried. You're looking at a complete replacement of what cooked.

This could mean Monday inbound service to Ruggles is not happening, Needham could also be down, and more. We won't know until the T makes a more-formal update at some time Saturday night or Sunday for Monday's service.

YMMV

T alerts are odd

By Waquiot on Sat, 04/04/2015 - 11:04pm.

I checked at 9 AM and nothing other than Needham. The alerts for the other lines were from 4 in the afternoon. The detour makes a ton of sense, as that's what they did for 8 years in the 80s.

On the ride home, there was an Amtrak Regional at Forest Hills, going outbound, with one of the new Siemen engines, just sitting there. I don't recall seeing it in the morning, but I might have been sitting on the wrong side of the Orange Line.

Of course, I will await commuter rail troll's comment on the shuttle between Hyde Park and Fairmont.

On a scale of 1 to lucky

By Ari O on Sun, 04/05/2015 - 12:24am.

Damn they're lucky this didn't happen at 6:45 on a weekday. Stranding 25,000 people in Hyde Park would have been no bueno.

I will bang the drum again about how the Fairmount Line really should be built to full electrified specs (probably only about $50m to electrify it) so trains can better accelerate in and out of stations, less localized pollution, and faster trips. But electrification, and a track connection at Hyde Park to the NEC, would give huge operational redundancies for any issue in the Northeast Corridor between Back Bay and Hyde Park allowing trains to use the detour across the Midland Route to South Station. And the possibility to route regular commuter trains that way as well.