Interlocking Walkthrough: HAROLD

HAROLD interlocking is where the LIRR’s Mainline, Port Washington Branch, and Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line.  At this point, the trains from all three of these lines have to be narrowed down to the four tracks which will run into the East River Tunnels.

Before I proceed further, I would like to point out that HAROLD interlocking has undergone significant transformations over the past couple years…and in the next couple of years, there will be even more significant changes made at HAROLD interlocking.  The following post will describe what HAROLD interlocking was like in 2009.  I have only a vague idea of what they have been doing to HAROLD interlocking since then, and I would not be able to accurately try to portray the interlocking now.  In 2019 2021 when East Side Access and all of the craziness going on in HAROLD interlocking simmers down I will be able to revisit the interlocking and compare it to what it was like before ESA hit it.

To the right of this diagram, the LIRR’s Mainline, Port Washington Branch, and Hell Gate Line all approach the interlocking.  If the tracks for the different mains all came into the interlocking at once there would be much more chaos within the interlocking.  Therefore, when they were constructing the interlocking they built in some flyovers to shuffle the tracks slightly before approaching the interlocking.

These flyovers are located east of the interlocking.  They shuffle the tracks around so that all of the eastbound trains are grouped together by direction.  In this way, all the westbound tracks are lined up next to each other, there’s a gap, then all of the eastbound tracks are grouped together.  Onboard westbound LIRR trains you can tell when you are going under these flyovers when there is a brief period where it looks like you have just went into the tunnel (but you quickly come back out).  And since these are flyovers, there tracks do not physically cross here, so trains can flow through here without getting in each others way.

This makes things much easier within the actual interlocking since trains now only have to switch among tracks that that are flowing in the same direction.  It would be much more difficult to keep everything   flowing if trains had to crossover tracks that have trains flowing in the other direction.  Moves like that would stifle capacity, since you would have to hold tracks open for longer to allow these crossover moves.

Once you get into the interlocking you can see two distinct groups of tracks…the westbound tracks to the north and the eastbound tracks to the south.

Starting with the westbound tracks, Port Washington Branch westbound track merges into the westbound Hell Gate Line (this is the line that carries Amtrak Northeast Regional and Acela Express trains that are coming into New York from Boston, Springfield, and Vermont).  West of here, there are three main tracks that flow through HAROLD interlocking.  Eventually, two of these three tracks will become lines 2 and 4 of the East River Tunnels.  The third will become the westbound passenger track into Hunterspoint Avenue station.   

Continuing west through the interlocking there are two parallel crossovers that allow trains from the two mainline tracks to shift over one track to the right.  Later on, there are a set of crossovers that allow trains to move from the northern tracks down to the lower ones. 

The HAROLD Protect engines
(Photo credit: Bobby Kasza/Trains Are Fun.com)

The HAROLD protects running through Woodside.
(Photo credit: Dave Keller Archive/Trains Are Fun.com)

In the midst of this, the unpowered North Engine Layup track sticks itself in here.  The layup track is usually used to store protect engines.  Protect engines, as you may know, are there to jump in and rescue a train that has broken down.  They can sometimes take a while to get to a broken down train, but it is better than nothing.  For some 50 years, the LIRR supplied protect engines at HAROLD interlocking during rush hours.  The engines that worked the HAROLD protect were often SW1001 engines #102 and #104 (the ones that are painted in the classic orange and gray paint scheme and adorned with Dashing Dan logos). 

(Photo credit: Bobby Kasza/Trains Are Fun.com)

The HAROLD protects are almost always not dual-mode engines.  The LIRR doesn’t have enough dual modes to start, and having one of the 22 parked on the North Layup Track tanning in the sun doesn’t help the equipment crunch much.  Amtrak and NJTransit have protect engines at other points in the New York Terminal district that can jump into the tunnels if the need arises (not to mention there are often Amtrak Dual Modes spending the day in Sunnyside yard if they really need a DM).  But, if things really get bad enough to the point where a protect engine has to intervene, I think a few diesel fumes in the tunnel would be the least of everyone's concerns.

Back in September of 2010 when the MTA was having their budget crisis the LIRR actually eliminated the HAROLD protects for a while (their "last day" was September 13, 2010).  This move, while done quietly by the LIRR, caused outrage among many, as the LIRR was basically trading off the safety of everyone who passes through the East River Tunnels for a couple million dollars a year.  The engines themselves muddled around the railroad killing time.  I believe it was about November 2011 when the HAROLD protects were spotted again at their old posts and they have been there fairly regularly since.

Protect engines aside, the westbound tracks continue fairly unimpeded as they get closer to the tunnel portals.  At one point, the southernmost of the westbound (top grouping) tracks separates from the west and heads straight for Hunterspoint Avenue.  At this point, the Sunnyside Yard exit leads come out of the yard and merge into the westbound tracks.  (this, however is a part of F interlocking and was discussed last week).

At this point, we’ll jump down to the eastbound tracks (the lower grouping in the diagram above).  These tracks exit out of East River Tunnel lines 1 and 3.  They go through F interlocking and allow the trains headed for Sunnyside Yard to go down on their way. Once they get into HAROLD interlocking, things become a little crazy.  There are a number of crossovers that go among the three tracks here.  In this particular grouping, Amtrak trains that come out of line 1 (which they normally do) have to cross all the way over to the northernmost track in this grouping.  Conversely, the LIRR trains, which normally come out of Line 3 have to cross over those same Amtrak trains to get to the lower tracks in the grouping.  There is a similar thing that happens in the westbound grouping (though the interlocking seems to flow more smoothly when you are headed west).

This criss-cross in HAROLD interlocking creates a station that is less than ideal.  An eastbound LIRR train can be caught up waiting for an eastbound Amtrak train to move across and a westbound Amtrak train can get held up by a LIRR westbound.  If your train has ever slowed to a crawl or stopped altogether while moving through HAROLD interlocking, this is probably why.

The following diagram is one I quickly created the other night in Adobe Illustrator.  My graphical design skills still aren't perfect, so forgive any sloppiness, but the following is a "cleaned" up version of what HAROLD interlocking looks like:

(note: Dramatization. Not anywhere close to scale.)

The diagram above follows pretty much the same coloring scheme as the others...light blue is the path that Amtrak trains normally take, purple for LIRR Mainlien trains (dashed purple for those coming to/from HPA or LIC), and red for Port Washington Branch trains.

You can see the two visible cris-corsses that trains have to get around and the potential headaches they might cause. Luckily, they plan to fix these clumsy cris-crosses.  As part of East Side Access, Amtrak will be getting two presents from the LIRR—the westbound and eastbound bypasses.  These two bypasses will let westbound and eastbound Amtrak trains sneak under the mess of switches and such that goes on in HAROLD interlocking. 

This will smooth things out for Amtrak passengers (and thus keep the landlord happy), but it will also reduce conflicts for LIRR trains.  Eventually, three ESA tunnels will be poking their heads into HAROLD interlocking and it will become even more of a zoo. 

The 'zookeepers' for this interlocking set up shop at Penn Station Central Control, and the interlocking is controlled from there, just like all of the other Penn Station interlocking's we've discussed so far.  HAROLD used to be controlled from a tower onsite bearing that same name, but that was closed when PSCC opened.  Prior to HAROLD's closing, the tower also had control over the Port Washington Branch, and that has since moved to the Section A dispatcher in Jamaica (not JCC, but the Movement Bureau).

At this point, we've sorted out pretty much all of HAROLD.  It's among the busiest interlockings in the country and it certainly shows it, but it's ingenious design, while not perfect, does an excellent job of moving hundreds of trains closer to New York City everyday.