Passenger Trains > Zephyrs fouled up by collision with vehicle west of Creston IA

California Zephyr, Train 5(7), was on time out of Creston, IA.  It collided with a vehicle, was placed into Service Disruption, and is now estimated to be 9 hrs. late at Omaha. Currently at zero mph.  Train 6(6) departed Omaha 12 minutes late, went a few miles but has been standing still ever since.

UPDATE: 5(7) arrived Omaha 9 hr. 15 min. late; 6(6) underway, 2 1/2 hrs. late.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/16 07:48 by GenePoon.

Thanks for this! My wife and SIL will be on #5 Wednesday and I started wondering what kind of mess happened in Iowa this time. Any idea why the long delay? I can't find any news reports, but haven't dug very deeply yet.

I don't know, yet.  My information was from Train 6(6), from crew announcements
and radio traffic, forwarded to me.  No media reports yet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/16 10:03 by GenePoon.

I was told they hit a stranded car south of OMA at 60mph. After dealing with that they hit a fallen tree due to high wind again south of OMA. Then they were waiting for a BNSF freight motor to continue out of OMA. Don't know what they ended up with only they are gone from LNK now.
Steve

another unit depending on the damage, no doubtedly will have to be taken offline and sent to Beach Grove for repairs ... with all these grade crossing accidents and all the vehicles that idiots abandon or willfully put into the path of Amtrak trains taking Amtrak locomotives out of service, Amtrak needs to procure funds for "protect units" to be ready to go into service whenever a unit goes down for repairs ...

Good luck with that. If they did get any, the money would somehow find itself on the NEC, just ask the experts here.


Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> another unit depending on the damage, no doubtedly
> will have to be taken offline and sent to Beach
> Grove for repairs ... with all these grade
> crossing accidents and all the vehicles that
> idiots abandon or willfully put into the path of
> Amtrak trains taking Amtrak locomotives out of
> service, Amtrak needs to procure funds for
> "protect units" to be ready to go into
> service whenever a unit goes down for repairs ...

Posted from Android

AMTK 47 was damaged, between the vehicle collision and the tree collision; it failed a BNSF inspection.

It was set out and AMTK 122 continued solo.  BNSF unit added before the 9 1/4 hour late arrival at Omaha.

There is an Amtrak police department, and there seems to be plenty of law enforcement at airports and football games.  Maybe there should be some attention paid by law enforcement to this type of activity as well.  It is "terrorism" and it has consequences.  Putting vehicles on tracks will full gas tanks seems to be a very common occurrance, and you know the perps are around somewhere close because they want to watch and see what happens (and probably make youtube videos and selfies).  Rolling boulders on tracks, hurling things from overpasses, knocking out passenger car windows with rocks and other objects, building stacks of rail and rail road ties on the tracks, this has been going on regularly.   Never heard of anybody being detained or prosecuted. 

What, is this type of activity not glamorous enough for law enforcement to investigate?   Are the people doing it too well connected politically or socially to be prosecuted?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/16 13:37 by NewRiverGeorge.

NewRiverGeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What, is this type of activity not glamorous
> enough for law enforcement to investigate?   Are
> the people doing it too well connected politically
> or socially to be prosecuted?

​you nailed it ... they are too well connected politically and socially (in other words rich people are doing this) for anybody to investigate

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> ​you nailed it ... they are too well connected
> politically and socially (in other words rich
> people are doing this) for anybody to investigate...

But not in North Philadelphia, where there are no rich people shooting trains and throwing rocks. 
They would have been beaten and robbed.

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NewRiverGeorge Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What, is this type of activity not glamorous
> > enough for law enforcement to investigate?  
> Are
> > the people doing it too well connected
> politically
> > or socially to be prosecuted?
>
> ​you nailed it ... they are too well connected
> politically and socially (in other words rich
> people are doing this) for anybody to investigate

The problem is that there likely is lot of useable evidence left behind at the crime scenes that would aid in the identification of suspects and for the most part, a lack of witnesses. The vehicles are stolen quite often and dumped Not much evidence can be found in the vehicles, so the investigations don't end up going very far. Unless is something like the wreck of the City of SF or The Sunset with a great loss of life, which brings in a plethora of resources, the railroads and most local agencies don't have the resources (manpower) to continue investigations beyond the first dead end. In large scale incidents, the FBI gets involved and they have the time and manpower to profile all the known criminals in the area, etc.

The Amtrak host railroads are generally responsible for any criminal investigations that occurred along the line, with some exceptions. Amtrak PD is more concerned with the stations and what is happening on the trains, except where the line is owned by Amtrak.

Gary

Posted from iPhone

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Out_Of_Service Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > ​you nailed it ... they are too well
> connected
> > politically and socially (in other words rich
> > people are doing this) for anybody to
> investigate...
>
> But not in North Philadelphia, where there are no
> rich people shooting trains and throwing rocks. 
> They would have been beaten and robbed.

Let's not single out North Philadelphia.  Perhaps you don't remember it,  but the MBTA installed "ghetto grates" [as they came to be known up there] on the windshields of their engines some 25 years ago because of the same problem in Boston.

Amtrak put ghetto grates on all their E60s, but the reason wasn't Boston!

The ones on F40PHs were for Boston.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/16 17:21 by GenePoon.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> California Zephyr, Train 5(7), was on time out of
> Creston, IA.  It collided with a vehicle, was
> placed into Service Disruption, and is now
> estimated to be 9 hrs. late at Omaha. Currently at
> zero mph.  Train 6(6) departed Omaha 12 minutes
> late, went a few miles but has been standing still
> ever since.
>
> UPDATE: 5(7) arrived Omaha 9 hr. 15 min. late;
> 6(6) underway, 2 1/2 hrs. late.

Media update:

http://www.omaha.com/money/stuck-car-fallen-tree-delay-amtrak-train-for-hours-just/article_3543bb3e-ce82-11e5-8b7f-8f102e92837b.html

Tim Vana/Omaha, NE

The BNSF unit added at Omaha to 5(7), replacing the damaged AMTK 47, was removed at Denver and replaced by the UP 3857.