Passenger Trains > "Train car Modification???"

_ 04/14/25 4:25pm EDT
_ Mechanical Assessment: As of 3:23 PM CT Empire Builder Train
_ 7/27 which is scheduled to depart Chicago (CHI) on 4/14
_ is delayed departing due to a train car modification. A
_ delay between 90-120 minutes is anticipated. This time is
_ subject to change.


_ 04/14/25 6:46pm EDT
_ Mechanical Assessment: As of 5:44 PM CT Empire Builder Train
_ 7/27 which is scheduled to depart Chicago (CHI) on 4/14
_ continues to be delayed departing due to a train car modification.


NO trace as of an hour after the last "Assessment." The modification must be taking a while.

Rearranging the deck chairs.

Rule for a modification-- If it can't be fixed with a hammer it's an electrical problem.

Posted from Android

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
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> Rule for a modification-- If it can't be fixed
> with a hammer it's an electrical problem.

Is washing a modification after a long enough time without?

TAW

Sounds like they're adding an experimental sleeping pod to one of the coaches or sleepers (ha-ha).  The folks writing these alerts really need some "training."

Bad order sleeper at departure time after the train was loaded and ready to roll. Back to the yard she goes. Luckily there was an extra sleeper available. Coaches are kinda hard to find now with the Borealis and one Hiawatha running superliners with no horizons available. 

was this the turn for the 8 hour late #8 to start with?

TAW Wrote:
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> ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Rule for a modification-- If it can't be fixed
> > with a hammer it's an electrical problem.
>
> Is washing a modification after a long enough time
> without?
>
> TAW
>
>
> that's aerodynamic dirt.............

dan Wrote:
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> was this the turn for the 8 hour late #8 to start
> with?

Yes it was. With a damaged lead engine that needed replacing. Train was ready to go on-time except for the sleeper that went bad at departure time. 

thought it was set out?  no bnsf unit?

dan Wrote:
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> thought it was set out?  no bnsf unit?

Came in with two P42s yesterday evening, very late. 

thanks Mr Chicago!

sethamtrak Wrote:
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> except for the sleeper that went bad at departure time

That's a potentially generous reading of the situation. It was the bathrooms that went down in the sleeper. Did the bathrooms go down around departure time? Or were the inoperable bathrooms discovered around departure time after languishing in the yard that way? Can't say I'd bet on the former.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> NO trace as of an hour after the last "Assessment." The modification must be taking a while.

Eventually departed 4hrs 21mins late at 7:26 pm CT.  #7 may have been held in the station for some time account signal problems between CUS and Western Ave. -  8(12) was  extensively delayed there around 5pm after being only 38 mins down at Glenview, IL (MP 17.4 from CUS). 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/25 17:40 by illini73.

HighballSoCal Wrote:
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> That's a potentially generous reading of the
> situation. It was the bathrooms that went down in
> the sleeper. Did the bathrooms go down around
> departure time? Or were the inoperable bathrooms
> discovered around departure time after languishing
> in the yard that way? Can't say I'd bet on the
> former.

Don't get excited, just another manifestation of the well known 14th St.
poltergeist activity.  A car leaves 14th St in tip top, like brand new condition
and by the time it gets to CUS it is trashed.

"Don't get excited, just another manifestation of the well known 14th St.
poltergeist activity.  A car leaves 14th St in tip top, like brand new condition
and by the time it gets to CUS it is trashed."

I wonder if that's an "inside job"...or lack of an "inside job"?

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> HighballSoCal Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > That's a potentially generous reading of the
> > situation. It was the bathrooms that went down
> in
> > the sleeper. Did the bathrooms go down around
> > departure time? Or were the inoperable
> bathrooms
> > discovered around departure time after
> languishing
> > in the yard that way? Can't say I'd bet on the
> > former.
>
> Don't get excited, just another manifestation of
> the well known 14th St.
> poltergeist activity.  A car leaves 14th St in
> tip top, like brand new condition
> and by the time it gets to CUS it is trashed.

Has that ever happened? A car leaving 14th St in tip top, like brand new condition?

Don't inspectors and shop crews sign off that all required / requested work was done before the car is released for service?
 

This happens more than you think - at Chicago and Sunnyside Yard. And rarely does the train "go back to the yard."

My last episode was last October when the Lake Shore Limited pulled into NYP and I boarded my assigned Viewliner II Sleeper Car of 4912. I had a bedroom. Immediately I found out that the bathroom wasn't flushing in this brand new Viewliner II Sleeper. Some young newbie Amtrak service manager came down to "check it out." To his credit, he said they should have never released the car from Sunnyside Yard like this......Maintenance crew came onboard to try and resolve (shuttled in from Sunnyside Yard). They "worked on it" but then said nothing more they could do and they had hoped "it would work itself out while on the journey." Yeah right! I overheard the back and forth. Service manager then got a bit heated and said to take the car back to Sunnyside and get it swapped out or fixed because "people had paid thousands of dollars" for bedrooms and roomettes that wouldn't have bathroom access in the car. Good for him, but we needed to depart and no pun in intended - Sh!$ or get off the pot here.....Since the load boarding in NYP was a little light, I noted that none of the bedrooms in the 4911 sleeper were occupied. That was somewhat odd, especially for this time of year. So it appeared that it would be a relatively "light load perhaps" in sleeper reservations??? So I asked to be move there - to car 4911 Viewliner SLeeper I, and said why not accommodate as much revenue paying passengers in that car and leave 4912 for the crew. It appeared that the common room bathrooms at the far end of the car had been working intermittently. So they had that bathroom to try, or they could use the bathrooms in the coach car. Service manager gave in, as we were now one hour late in departure, and released the train to head to Chicago. They re-assigned as many revenue passengers to the 4911 car as possible and blanked out any future sleeper sales for the train in the NY section. Ironically, that was another suggestion I had given to the service manager.......I was quickly re-accommodated in 4911 room B. 

I later found out that this Viewliner II Sleeper made it to Chicago and then Amtrak sent it BACK to NYP that evening with the inoperable toilets. No Viewliner Sleeper available in Chicago to sub in!  

jp1822 Wrote:
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> This happens more than you think - at Chicago and
> Sunnyside Yard. And rarely does the train "go back
> to the yard."

Hard to keep a straight face at meetings when I was designing the Seattle coach yard and Amtrak Back East would call out features I thought to be imperitive and they would say no, adding Chicago doesn't need that.

TAW