Passenger Trains > City of New Orleans extremely late

Anyone know what happened to 59 ? It is reported to be running about 9 hours late . It looks like the problem happened near Carbondale, early this morning.
Thanks for any info on this.

Arrived into Carbondale on time, did not leave until around 11am. Something with the brakes, or a faulty brake message on the lone engine. Sorry no other details.

I believe a spare engine was supposed to have come down to CDL on 391 this morning.

Another trainload of "Never Agains", I'm afraid. Poor people--I hate to think how miserable they all were.

Amtrak's long hauls are having a terrible summer.

I hope the delay situation can be correct soon--before the public abandons long haul passenger trains.

Joe

Total mismanagement of motive power.

Not to Fulton yet as of 230pm CT

It really amounts to abuse of passengers---most of whom are very loyal, but there are limits to what will be tolerated. Frankly, I am always surprised that so very few of these Amtrak fiascos result in much media attention or large scale protests.

It is another: "We will only put one engine on a long distance train" nightmare........

But somehow there is millions of dollars to wastefully speed up the NEC from 125 to 160 mph a VERY few short miles from Trenton to New Brunswick. What a joke.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 13:34 by MEKoch.

This is sad.

I wonder if Amtrak will consider buying back or leasing the P40 units it sold for the NJ ACES gamblers train? ready to start business tomorrow.

Hopefully this problem isn't the result of failure to fuel, or replace some scheduled maintenance parts.

is there any money to lease extra power?

66

goneon66 Wrote:
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> is there any money to lease extra power?
>
> 66


There's plenty of money to build modern shops at Chicago, Miami, Seattle, etc. It would be great if they had something to maintain.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > is there any money to lease extra power?
> >
> > 66
>
>
> There's plenty of money to build modern shops at
> Chicago, Miami, Seattle, etc. It would be great if
> they had something to maintain.


Different buckets of money that can't be mixed.
Facilities money has to be used for facilities, Operations and maintenance money has to be used for operations and maintenance.
Thems are the rules when you use government money.

The upgrades to some of the shops was badly needed. For the most part, however, it came from one-time grants, such as were made under economic stimulus programs. Use of a one-time grant is also possible for equipment purchase, although typically it has not happened that way in the past. Most equipment is purchased with loans that must be repaid from operating revenues.

NewRiverGeorge Wrote:
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> The upgrades to some of the shops was badly
> needed. For the most part, however, it came from
> one-time grants, such as were made under economic
> stimulus programs. Use of a one-time grant is
> also possible for equipment purchase, although
> typically it has not happened that way in the
> past. Most equipment is purchased with loans that
> must be repaid from operating revenues.


If the loans to purchase equipment need to be repaid, I'd think buying a few engines would be a good investment. Esp if they're former Amtrak engines in good condition

Hey all,
The problem was indeed an engine issue. A CN unit (CN 5727) that came down from the north (Edit: likely Champaign, not Du Quoin as I said earlier) led the train out of town and towards Fulton. I am not sure if the CN unit stayed on past Fulton. Here it is leaving Carbondale.

Lewis M.
Carbondale, IL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 17:14 by IC1034.

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what was the final verdict, how late was the train on arrival?

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> what was the final verdict, how late was the train
> on arrival?

I called USA-RAIL and was told the train terminated in Memphis - bus beyond.

Andy

It ran empty to New Orleans. Passed Hammond at 2 AM and changed crews.

What took so long to get an engines 9 hours for engine?? What a joke.

railcity Wrote:
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> What took so long to get an engines 9 hours for
> engine?? What a joke.


Considering that Centralia and Du Quoin's yards don't have power always sitting there, they probably had to get one to run down from Champaign yard (the largest terminal/yard in the area).

Lewis M.
Carbondale, IL