South Norwalk, Connecticut - Norwalk River/WALK Bridge under construction

Inspection Train To New Haven. On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, MTA Metro-North Railroad operated an Inspection Train with wrapped heritage unit MNCW 217 (Penn Central/40th Ann), MNCW 5010 (Laser Train), and its 3 office cars. The cars are in fact old, one former New York Central and the other two former Lackawanna Railroad. The locomotives are contemporary models, but "wrapped" in the paint scheme of predecessor railroads. The train headed up the New Haven Line to New Haven, Connecticut, where the train then went around the loop for the return trip to Grand Central Terminal, giving railroad executives and management the opportunity to inspect many ongoing, completed, and needed improvements on the line. The Laser Train car (MNCW 5010) is one of two Comet IIIs (5009 is the other) purchased by the MTA for West-Of-Hudson service. After retirement, they came to the east side of the river.

This car was equipped with The LaserTrain works by vaporizing ("laser ablation" of) leaf residue off of the rails throughout the system. The task of leaf removal had previously been done by MNR's "Water World" trains spraying water, which will still supplement for this task. During the autumn season, leaves falling on the tracks can cause "slip-slide" conditions when run over by trains, and are especially a problem for braking. Poor rail adhesion causes flat spots on train wheels, which requires the trains to be withdrawn from service for maintenance. The LaserTrain does this traveling at 60 miles per hour, while trains that spray water must travel much more slowly to be effective. Metro-North states that during the pilot test last in 2022, this car cleaned over 12,000 miles of track, which resulted in "the lowest wheel-true cost season on record". This colorful wrap was recently applied by MNR, with a leaf design decorating the car.

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/6Vtd7PZDz7k

Full resolution pics and prints: https://www.riverrailphoto.com/metro-north

Metro-North YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLulDlhUgESnJ5FMBOL0zY2BKA_dHSp4r9

More on the Laser Train and Laser Precision Solutions: https://www.laserprecisionsolutions.com/lasertrain