Current Operation
The East River Tunnels are currently owned by Amtrak and are electrified by both third rail and overhead catenary. Diesel-powered locomotives are not allowed in the tunnels except in emergency because of ventilation concerns, so the LIRR uses DM30AC dual-mode locomotives to power a few trains from non-electrified lines into and out of Penn Station during rush hours.
The four lines under the river are numbered south to north, Lines 1 and 2 running beneath 32nd St and Lines 3 and 4 under 33rd St. Eastward trains tend to use Lines 1 and 3, so to bring the two eastward lines together Line 3 crosses beneath Line 2 underground a few hundred feet west of the east end of the Line 2 tunnel.
East portal Lines 1-3: 40°44′34″N 73°56′42″W / 40.7429°N 73.9450°W / 40.7429; -73.9450
East portal Line 2:40°44′32″N 73°56′54″W / 40.7421°N 73.9483°W / 40.7421; -73.9483
East portal Line 4: 40°44′35″N 73°56′45″W / 40.74305°N 73.94585°W / 40.74305; -73.94585
Approaching Harold Interlocking from the west, the four tracks are Lines 1-3-2-4 south to north (with three LIRR tracks between Lines 2 and 3, and Sunnyside Yard approach tracks here and there). East of Harold, Lines 1-3 become LIRR Main Line Tracks 4-2 south to north, while Lines 2-4 become LIRR Main Line Track 3 and the westward Port Washington main. (Harold was rearranged in 1990; until then Lines 2-4 became the westward Port Washington and the westward Hell Gate track.)
Read more about this topic: East River Tunnels
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or operation:
“Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. The only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of the electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of “Wut,” is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)