Canadian Railroads > Canadian Only 41 Minutes Late

No. 2 is only 41 minutes late at Rivers, MB. What happened?  Meanwhile, No. 1 is "only" 4 hours late at Hinton. Is CN finally getting it's act together? 

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> No. 2 is only 41 minutes late at Rivers, MB. What
> happened?  Meanwhile, No. 1 is "only" 4 hours
> late at Hinton. Is CN finally getting it's act
> together? 

That No. 1 was only 61 minutes late leaving Saskatoon, so it appears CN still found a way to delay it further.

Of the six departures from Vancouver this month that have completed their journeys, the average lateness in round numbers is 9 hr, 40 min, the worst being 13 hours.

Of the five completed westbound runs from Toronto, average lateness is 11 hours, the worst being 15 hours and change.

Not out of the woods yet, I'd say.

All three Canadian's currently on the road are currently less than 3 hours late! Will be interesting to see what happens after the new schedule goes into effect. 

The bottleneck seems to be the Wainwright sub,  Edmonton to Biggar.  The CN is doing extensive rail work,
double track,  extending sidings, and so on.   Does anybody have info on exactly what is being done?
Sure like to see that.  Used to know that territory pretty well.

            Sid.

As of yesterday, of  the four "Canadians" one was on time, two were about two hours late and one was about three hours late. Today's arrival of #2 in Toronto was only two hours late and # 1 departed on time. I can't recall the last time #1 departed on time.

DrawingroomA Wrote:
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> As of yesterday, of  the four "Canadians" one was
> on time, two were about two hours late and one was
> about three hours late. Today's arrival of #2 in
> Toronto was only two hours late and # 1 departed
> on time. I can't recall the last time #1 departed
> on time.

The last instances of No. 1 departing on time came on May 26 and 29.  Those were the first two departures after the "reset" following the cancellation of the May 24 departure.

My son observed train #1 of the 19th. It was missing its Prestige Park car. Yoho Park was the substitute. It is inevitable that some non-Prestige equipment will need to be used occasionally in peak season when all eight Château sleepers and four Park cars are in service. With Prestige sold out most of the time this could be a serious problem.
 
Prestige was not sold out on this departure. There were at least three rooms available. If the “accessible suite” was sold it would be a problem.
 

I Hope they get the Prestige Park car back when this train set returns to Toronto. I have prestige room "B"in the Park car on #1 to Vancouver on the 26th.

Posted from Android

DrawingroomA Wrote:
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> My son observed train #1 of the 19th. It was
> missing its Prestige Park car. Yoho Park was the
> substitute.

Then it would already have gone east on a No. 2, because I saw it on one of the storage tracks at Pacific Central Station in Vancouver late on the evening of the 11th, in the company of a diner, two unrefurbished Chateaux, and a scruffy looking coach with no numberplate on the side visible to me.

So Yoho Park must have gone east on the No. 2 of the 13th or 15th. Of course, it might have been deadheading, rather than substituting for a Prestige Park. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/18 16:15 by railsmith.

telegraphboy Wrote:
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> The bottleneck seems to be the Wainwright sub,
>  Edmonton to Biggar.  The CN is doing extensive
> rail work,
> double track,  extending sidings, and so on.  
> Does anybody have info on exactly what is being
> done?
> Sure like to see that.  Used to know that
> territory pretty well.
>
>             Sid.

OK, but this is not more than a five hour drive. It is likely delaying the Canadians, but time is being lost all over the place for the most part isn't it? Or more west of Winnipeg than east of Winnipeg, when factoring in any late departures from Vancouver or Toronto. At one point, the major delays were between Winnipeg and Toronto over the Canadian Shield. But I think I've heard it has been more of an issue "west" of Winnipeg than East. That sounds somewhat bizarre as there is directional running through the Thompson River Canyon, and large parts between Kamloops and Vancouver......

On a larger picture, does CN really need to consider double tracking MUCH more its mainline across the Canadian Shield, Praries, and into Jasper? This stretch between Edmonton and Biggar will help as Edmonton is a central western hub to a degree. Comparing the CP transcon to the CN transcon, who has more double track - CN or CP - across the country? At one time there was parallel track that one could find NORTH of the existing main CN transcon route, but I think a lot of that has been rationed down over the years? I mention this because BNSF has invested in double tracking much of its transcon between Chicago and LA. Same for the Hi-Line route across Montana and North Dakota when the oil boom hit around 2010. I mean, is CN comparable to needing more double track like these transcon routes?

railsmith Wrote:
...
> So Yoho Park must have gone east on the No. 2 of
> the 13th or 15th. Of course, it might have been
> deadheading, rather than substituting for a
> Prestige Park. 

I didn't see #2 so I don't know if it was deadhead or substituting for the Prestige Park. But Yoho Park was in position at the end of the train on #1 about an hour before it would have been backed into Union Station for boarding. Once this winter I saw a non-Prestige Park car on #1. In the off-peak season there is one spare Park car, usually kept in Vancouver. So it may not be where it needs to be to substitute for a bad-ordered car.

Thank you the update.
Guess I'll find out which Park car we will have when we board on Thursday.
Since this departure will be on the new longer schedule I'll post progress reports when I cell phone connections.

Posted from Android

RWS4449 Wrote:
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> I Hope they get the Prestige Park car back when
> this train set returns to Toronto. I have prestige
> room "B"in the Park car on #1 to Vancouver on the
> 26th.
>
The consist you will have from Toronto on the 26th is departing Vancouver this evening. The train with the non-Prestige Park car is due into Vancouver Monday morning. Of course nothing is for certain, but the odds are in your favour that you will have a Prestige Park car. I look forward to reading any reports you may kindly post.

DrawingroomA Wrote:
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> As of yesterday, of  the four "Canadians" one was
> on time, two were about two hours late and one was
> about three hours late. Today's arrival of #2 in
> Toronto was only two hours late and # 1 departed
> on time. I can't recall the last time #1 departed
> on time.

That on-time departure from Toronto (on July 19) left Winnipeg one minute early on July 21. But it then proceeded to lose time steadily across the Prairies, and on July 22 has departed Edmonton 11 hr, 11 min late.