Passenger Trains > #30(17th): What Happened ?

5 hrs., 26 mins. late at Elkhart
ETA Cleveland 9 hrs. late
ETA Pittsburgh 8 hrs., 39 mins. late

Bad weather a problem ?

Left Chicago 1 hour, 42 minutes late thanks to late turn of equipment. Encountered freight train interference all the way between Chicago and Toledo, OH.

Not just freight train interference. Amtrak 48(17) overtook it, too, east of Elkhart and was about two hours ahead st Waterloo.

Did this 30 have one or two of the AEC64's? Wonder if they were having problems with them or a locomotive on 30?

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/14 06:33 by RNinRVR.

29 got in 4 hours late. That crew was not fully rested and its equipment was not able to be turned in time for 30. A recrew was sent to recrew 30, but they ran out of time. Then another recrew was sent out of Toledo to recrew them, who also died near Cleveland. NS is in total meltdown mode west of Cleveland. And to think, Conrail offered to sell Amtrak the Ft. Wayne line in the late 80's for scrap...

Hm, just watched a NS commercial where it looks like trains are zooming around like crazy with a model of efficiency! Can this possibly not be true?

No electric motors on this train!

NS is in full meltdown mode on much of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Chicago route. an almost 12 hour late 30 is now sitting near MP 25 outside Pittsburgh behind a dead freight.

Does anyone know how well NS's UTCS "AutoRouter" dispatching feature is working on the Dearborn Division? I wonder if its use has contributed to the meltdown conditions reported.

In my area of the Piedmont Division, the "AutoRouter" was activated about two months ago. Dispatchers no longer line the signals. Instead the "AutoRouter" lines signals, and the dispatchers watch out for the computer to make mistakes. Based on my observations, the "AutoRouter" unnecessarily lines trains through crossovers, over temporary slow orders, through restrictive turnouts at the ends of double track, and generally just can't seem to deal efficiently with more than about two trains in any particular area. All of this is in the name of improving system velocity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/14 12:57 by DirtyShirt.

I've heard some very unprintable nicknames for the new "AutoRouter" system based on a whole assortment of idiotic dispatching decisions the system makes not by any means limited to the ones you listed. Making 79 mph Amtrak follow 40 or 50 mph freights is not un-heard of and throw in summer maintenance work that has tracks out of service or various slow orders and it's become a cluster-F to rival the ongoing one on the CSX Chicago main to the south (that is happening for different reasons). Last night alone I heard both NS 178 and 184 getting through Toledo around 7PM. 184 is usually a morning train (7-9AM) and 178 a late morning train (say 9-11AM) under normal times. I bet the programmers trying to replicate the complex dispatching decisions humans make have zero real world dispatching experience and simply don't understand the number of factors a dispatcher takes into account when making decision about how/when/where to run real trains in the real world. Computers do an awesome job stamping out uniform parts or in situations with limited options or basic logic, but put the complex real world into play and next thing you know GPS has you driving into a lake...

DirtyShirt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anyone know how well NS's UTCS "AutoRouter"
> dispatching feature is working on the Dearborn
> Division? I wonder if its use has contributed to
> the meltdown conditions reported.
>
> In my area of the Piedmont Division, the
> "AutoRouter" was activated about two months ago.
> Dispatchers no longer line the signals. Instead
> the "AutoRouter" lines signals, and the
> dispatchers watch out for the computer to make
> mistakes. Based on my observations, the
> "AutoRouter" unnecessarily lines trains through
> crossovers, over temporary slow orders, through
> restrictive turnouts at the ends of double track,
> and generally just can't seem to deal efficiently
> with more than about two trains in any particular
> area. All of this is in the name of improving
> system velocity.

# 30 is estimated to leave Chicago Wednesday night at 8:45 pm