Passenger Trains > Amtrak Chicago wash rack “Testing and Certification” failure?

Resurrecting some threads from a month ago, rumor on the street here has it that the Chicago wash rack failed its acceptance test and substantial rework will be needed, perhaps taking several months.  I think it's time for someone who "knows but does not speak" to confess what's actually going on.

I'll say it again.  Amtrak needs to get the washing done by some one of the nearby Metra facilities.  Frankly,  the Chicago "maintenance farce" needs to be threatened with ALL of the work being contracted out to Metra.  IINM,  the various Metra facilities are unionised, so I am explicitly not calling for decertifying a bargaining unit, but i do want to see the work performed.   The plan to have metra field the rockford service should be a wake up call to Amtrak./

BrynMawr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'll say it again.  Amtrak needs to get the
> washing done by some one of the nearby Metra
> facilities.  Frankly,  the Chicago "maintenance
> farce" needs to be threatened with ALL of the work
> being contracted out to Metra.  IINM,  the
> various Metra facilities are unionised, so I am
> explicitly not calling for decertifying a
> bargaining unit, but i do want to see the work
> performed.   The plan to have metra field the
> rockford service should be a wake up call to
> Amtrak./

You can keep saying it, but it will never happen.

illini73 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Resurrecting some threads from a month ago, rumor
> on the street here has it that the Chicago wash
> rack failed its acceptance test and substantial
> rework will be needed, perhaps taking several
> months.  I think it's time for someone who "knows
> but does not speak" to confess what's actually
> going on.

Just unbelievable incompetence. The time they have spent messing around with this thing in well over a year is mind blowing. Several people should be fired over it. Near my house is a new gas station/convenience store. They started with bare ground about three or four months ago and the thing is already open. A brick building. I see other businesses constructed in a similar timeframe. Including a local car wash company that can put up a very nice new brick car wash facility in three or four months. They have to deal with waste water rules and all the same stuff that Amtrak has to deal with. 40% of the water they use is recycled through their system. Amtrak is a poster child of incompetence.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/25 06:05 by alan2955.

The politically savvy people at NARP should arrange for a congressional hearing into the matter.

When the Honorable U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Dan Lipinski, was in office he held one in downtown
Chicago concerning CUS.  His hearing, which I attended, was unfortunately a campaign stunt that lobbed
nothing but softball questions. He lost the election anyway.

Either that or someone should contact DOGE.

As noted in this article, after accumulated grime is removed, a daily wash needs nothing more than water.
Scroll down to the end of the post and the first page describes the Burlington's procedure.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5897998,5899017#msg-5899017
Like the wheel, car washing can't be that much different than 60 years ago.
 

I'm sure the Wash Rack Improvement Team has put themselves in for Presidential Achievement Awards due to their years-long dedication to the project.


alan2955 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just unbelievable incompetence. The time they
> have spent messing around with this thing in well
> over a year is mind blowing. Several people should
> be fired over it. 

Not only is Amtrak a joke, America in general has become a JOKE.

It’s dirt. 2 people with power washers from Harbor Freight and 45 minutes later you can start having clean(er) trains. If this is a microcosm of how Amtrak spends its money, we are in big trouble. RG

Posted from iPhone

Several new car and truck washes have been opened in the Martin County FL in recent years. In areas designated as sensitive coastal regions where water runoff and drainage is scrutinized.

One, a truck wash run by a large food wholesaler is adjacent to the north fork of the St Lucie River. Scrubber, sprayers, and a shallow concrete recapture pit. Water and solution is recycled, the waste is trucked out occasionally. 

When I was in Chicago it was clear that the Metra washer was working, and was being used that very day.  It is not too far from the Amtrak fiasco of a car wash.  

I do not know how a company can be SO incompetent as this one.  It is truly breathtaking watching Amtrak flail about and really do nothing to move forward.  Nothing.  

Chessie1963 Wrote:
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> When I was in Chicago it was clear that the Metra
> washer was working, and was being used that very
> day.  It is not too far from the Amtrak fiasco of
> a car wash.  
>
> I do not know how a company can be SO incompetent
> as this one.  It is truly breathtaking watching
> Amtrak flail about and really do nothing to move
> forward.  Nothing.  

It's worse than that. They actively sabotage their own business (ie. 448/449).

Englewood Wrote:
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> Either that or someone should contact DOGE.
>

That would only work if Amtrak was part of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. DOGE has no authority outside of the Executive Branch.  

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Englewood Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Either that or someone should contact DOGE.
> >
>
> That would only work if Amtrak was part of the
> Executive Branch of the Federal Government. DOGE
> has no authority outside of the Executive
> Branch.  

It wouldn't be much of a reach to assert that Amtrak is part of the Department of Transportation.  The DOGE folks have reached a lot farther than that. Congress isn't resisting DOGE or the President.

Well it is more than just dirt. It is dirt, oil, petroleum grease, animal fat,hydraulic fluid and hundreds of other chemicals spread along the right of way all across the country. But I agree 2 guys with a pressure washer could make a dent in a typical consist in 45 minutes. Industrial equipment washing is basic mechanical, electrical and chemical systems and does require a Waste water discharge permit from the governing POTW. The feet dragging related to the car wash rack in Chicago has been going on way longer than a year, closer to 4 years now. Typically from design to initial installation would take 12-15 months and another 4 months to install and put on line. So lets say 20 months typically. It is Chicago so add another 6 months for the political and union dance and that gets you close to 26 months. A rebuilding of a system that is salvageable would take about 6-7 months but still not near as long as Amtrak has been letting this go. This "car washing" issue is just a drop in the bucket of the 2 real issues which is inept Amtrak management and Union control of the same management. No business in the world could stay afloat if operated as Amtrak has been managed

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Either that or someone should contact DOGE.


Their method is eliminate the people actually doing the work. In Amtrak Chicago, that might not be a sufficiently impressive number to interest them.

TAW
 

Comedian Nate Bargatze does a bit on Chuck E Cheese pizza restaurant.  Google it...very, very funny. The gist of the bit is that Chuck E Chese has been trying to go out business for years, but just can't seem to do it.

What we are seeing with Amtrak now is similar.  They are working at ending passenger rail, but they just haven't figured out how to get over the line!  But they are really trying.

1976steve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well it is more than just dirt. It is dirt, oil,
> petroleum grease, animal fat,hydraulic fluid and
> hundreds of other chemicals spread along the right
> of way all across the country. But I agree 2 guys
> with a pressure washer could make a dent in a
> typical consist in 45 minutes. Industrial
> equipment washing is basic mechanical, electrical
> and chemical systems and does require a Waste
> water discharge permit from the governing POTW.
> The feet dragging related to the car wash rack in
> Chicago has been going on way longer than a year,
> closer to 4 years now. Typically from design to
> initial installation would take 12-15 months and
> another 4 months to install and put on line. So
> lets say 20 months typically. It is Chicago so add
> another 6 months for the political and union dance
> and that gets you close to 26 months. A rebuilding
> of a system that is salvageable would take about
> 6-7 months but still not near as long as Amtrak
> has been letting this go. This "car washing" issue
> is just a drop in the bucket of the 2 real issues
> which is inept Amtrak management and Union control
> of the same management. No business in the world
> could stay afloat if operated as Amtrak has been
> managed

I don’t see any way it should take 12 to 15 months to design and build a washer for a train. They have existed since at least the 1940s. Sure you have new waste water requirements, etc. but that’s all done every day by places all over the country. For what it’s worth a 40+ story building was built in downtown Cincinnati in 1929 in less than a year from the first shovel of dirt to completely finished. An art deco masterpiece inside. Now we can’t build a concrete block facility to wash a train in that time period? There are already several car wash facilities in Chicago for Metra and the CTA, etc. Not like they’re trying to come up with something that’s never been done before. This is just shameful and gross incompetence on the part of Amtrak and/or their contractors.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/25 12:16 by alan2955.

Has anyone attempted guerrilla cleaning? Find where one of these trains overnights and a group of masked men come out and clean the train.

Would be a funny arrest charge if caught, and might embarass Amtrak management if it went viral. Lol. 

I forget who said it but the quote "Amtrak was created to oversee the orderly demise of the passenger train" comes to mind.

After 54 years they can't even get that right.


fulham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Comedian Nate Bargatze does a bit on Chuck E
> Cheese pizza restaurant.  Google it...very, very
> funny. The gist of the bit is that Chuck E Chese
> has been trying to go out business for years, but
> just can't seem to do it.
>
> What we are seeing with Amtrak now is similar. 
> They are working at ending passenger rail, but
> they just haven't figured out how to get over the
> line!  But they are really trying.

1976steve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well it is more than just dirt. It is dirt, oil,
> petroleum grease, animal fat,hydraulic fluid and
> hundreds of other chemicals spread along the right
> of way all across the country. But I agree.

So what is the difference between mother nature (rain) washing all of those things off the cars or a pressure washer? I understand the issue, I am being a bit obtuse but this should never have dragged on this long. Heck Santa Fe and Amtrak used to run a car washer down the side of trains in ALB mid run and right on the platform. RG

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