Passenger Trains > General symptom of delays on #4 and #5?

In preparation for a trip later this summer, I've been tracking perforance for #4 and #5 to look at general trends of delays.  What I've noticed is that up until mid-May, both trains were routinely running close to on-time (except for the occasional delay due to equipement breakdowns (either Amtrak or host railroad), track issues, etc.).  However, starting around mid-May, both trains have started having significantly higher delays after leaving their starting points.  Is there more trackwork going on that would cause delays, heat-releated restrictions, or other general reasons one can point to which would indicate a cause for these increased delays once out on the road? 

What I'm seeing is often a train will loose 5-10 minutes or so between each station, which may not seem like a lot, but after 20 station stops that 5-10 minutes per station adds up to a 2-3 hour delay at the end, outside of other causes.  Just curious if there's a reason why I've started seeing these typical delays in mid-May, whereas I wasn't seeing them before that time.  This timeframe does correspond roughly to adding an additional coach/sleeper to the consists for summer, but I doubt that's the cause (but I may be wrong), unless adding an additional car means double station stops whereas with the shorter winter consists a single stop at each station is sufficient.

Thanks in adavance for any insights!
Scott

That's a fair question, Scott. I don't think you can attribute it to longer dwell times. Maybe someone with access to delay info will comment. Otherwise, I'd just say "its summer."
There have certainly been some big delays due to weather issues.

locomotive problems?

66

Locomotive "problems" do not account for a lot of this. You can probably factor in severe weather and alerts for same, slow orders, signal trouble, and unusual events.

I was tracking #4 for the past week between LA & KC, as I'm leaving tomorrow evening for KC. The on time performance looks very random, anything from 10-20 min early to 4+ hours late.

Roll of the dice.

I'm just hoping that #5 is either on time to SLC, or 7+ hours late to SLC.  That way I can either get a good night's sleep in SLC (if on time), or cancel my hotel ahead of time and not have to pay for it that night if it's really really late.  Getting into SLC at 3am will be the worst case scenario as I won't get a good night sleep, and I'll still need to pay for the hotel room.  :-(

atsffan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was tracking #4 for the past week between LA &
> KC, as I'm leaving tomorrow evening for KC. The on
> time performance looks very random, anything from
> 10-20 min early to 4+ hours late.
>
> Roll of the dice.

Train 4 maybe MOW work east of Albuqerque.

Yes, the summer loadings can see delays at stations and at some up to three stops required to load the train with short platforms.

#4 absolutely, positively has to get out of Albuquerque before 1:30pm,
otherwise it is delayed by the raillrunner.  They really need to add a
little more padding between Albuquerque and Lamy.  That has to be
the most inconsistent of on time city pairs on the route! 
Another problem area is when #4 is 1 & 1/2 hours or more late out
of La Junta.  There are only a handful of sidings open between Dodge City
and Hutchinson on the single track mainline.  They can lose up to an hour
sitting in one of those small town sidings waiting for #3 to pass.  It seems
the dispatchers favor the on time Westbound train at that point which makes
some sense, I suppose.  It has become more critical as of late though, because
of the new Heartland Flyer bus connection at Newton, and also the restablished
connection to #314 at Kansas City.  Signal trouble is all too often a problem on
many parts of the route.

I'll have my RR scanner with me, so will at least be able to listen and hopefully know why delays are occuring, rather than just wondering. 

Although one thing that doesn't have anything to do with departure times that was mentioned in another post here is severe weather more during May when the average of tornadic thunderstorms is higher through tornado alley.

Posted from Android