Nostalgia & History > Reroutes of the Broadway Ltd.

Below is a Chicago - Hammond reroute in 1975.  I worked on the train in 1974-78 and the derailments were frequent on the PRR.  I don't have time right now to detail the many reroutes, but will do so as this thread progresses.  Tell us where you rode in your reroute and when.  Pics if you have them.  The possibilities were numerous in the 1970s.  

1) We came out of Chicago one night on #40 eb about 1976.  We went east on the NYC to Kendallville, IN.  We were quite pleased that the NYC was welded rail and CTC.  Then we turned south on the Grand Rapids and Indiana (PRR).  It was 25 mph for the 30 miles down to Fort Wayne and back on to the PRR mainline.  Delay was about three hours.  

2) We were in Ft. Wayne sitting still one evening as we were finishing up dinner in the dining car on #40 eb.  After about an hour, we departed east five miles to Adams Tower; then south on the PRR branch to Decatur & Portland, IN (25 mph).   At Ridgeville, we were supposed to turn east on the PRR line to Columbus.  I went to bed.  When we awoke in the morning, we were just arriving Pittsburgh, about 6+ hours late.  I always assumed at Columbus, we turned north on the NYC to Crestline, in order to return to our normal routing.  On this trip, we turned our train in Philadelphia at 30th Street to become #41.  

3) We were operating close to schedule on #40.  Derailment east of Alliance, OH, so we turned south and operated on the Bayard secondary to Wellsville, OH (Ohio River), and then east over to Rochester, PA, which put us back on our normal routing.  Time lost was at least three hours.  

4) I awoke in the morning and we were three hours late.  We had detoured on the Conemaugh sub from Pittsburgh to Johnstown.  In order to do this detour, they had backed us out of the PGH station about two miles, so we could proceed east on the Conemaugh sub.  

5) I awoke one morning east of Altoona, PA and we were making 25 mph on jointed rough rail.  Not a good sign!   EB #40 had turned north at Tyrone, PA and was operating up to Lock Haven, before turning east and south coming back to our route at Harrisburg.  5.5 hours lost.....

6) after a big ice storm in Ohio, #41 turned north at Alliance (Amtrak's current routing).   All signals were down and trees blocked the track.  We proceeded up to the south side of Cleveland, where I awoke.  Then somehow, we got on to the Cleveland Short Line (NYC) and went west to Berea, and then southwest to Crestline, which brought us back to our home tracks.  Nine hour delay.  

That is enough of my memories for now.  Get out your railroad atlas and have some fun..........

I only worked the Broadway one trip in June 1975, no reroutes. The previous winter I had a regular run on the champion of reroutes, the Floridian. First couple of trips were on the scheduled route Chicago-Indianapolis-Louisville(PC/exPRR). Then moved Chicago to Nashville via the L&N (Chicago-Evansville was former C&EI). One northbound trip we were stopped in Birmingham AL, a barge had struck the L&N Tennessee River bridge at Decatur AL. So we detoured  to Chicago via the old City of Miami/Seminole route-Frisco-Southern-ICG. Over 700 miles, no stops for passengers. A fan trip for a coach porter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/19 08:25 by cnr6776.

Love hearing the old Amtrak stories. Truly an adventure each trip, starting with the equipment!

MEKoch Wrote:

> That is enough of my memories for now.  Get out
> your railroad atlas and have some fun........

Great stories of the reroutes.
Gary