Passenger Trains > Kansas Crews for 3 and 4

True or False?  Southwest Chief crews west of Kansas City operate Kansas City to Dodge City.  At Dodge the new crew carries the train to La Junta CO.  If so, are the crews at Dodge based in Dodge, or KCY and LAJ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/15 19:24 by railaddict.

Kansas City, Missouri and LaJunta, Colorado.

  Thank you SHT.  So when #3 sits at Dodge in the mornings sometimes taking a delay it is for crew rest from the precious night's #4, correct?

railaddict Wrote:
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>  So when #3 sits at Dodge in
> the mornings sometimes taking a delay it is for
> crew rest from the precious night's #4, correct?

Yes



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/15 19:52 by SandHouseTalk.

Yes, except they can turn the La Junta crew on short time, but there has to be a dog catch crew further West to relieve them at some point.  This involves the extra cost of an additional crew, but more importantly it keeps the train moving.

The idea is for the LAJ crew to have at least 4 hours off duty at DDG
sometimes that doesn't happen if No. 4 is real late and No. 3 is running
on time. Then they have to recrew somewhere east of LAJ

railaddict Wrote:

"So when #3 sits at Dodge in the mornings sometimes taking a delay it is for crew rest from the precious night's #4, correct?"

As an example, Train 4(19) arrived in Dodge City, KS at 133a, Saturday, March 21 (1 hour, 21 minutes late) and the same crew departed on-board Train 3(20) at 552a (27 minutes late).  Train 3(20) had actually arrived Dodge City at 512a (7 minutes early). Then add the Garden City, KS to Lamar, CO slow orders and you now have a Train 3 that's about 1 hour, 20 minutes late.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/15 06:30 by SandHouseTalk.

Where are all the crew change points on 3 & 4? And which are home and which are away terminals ?

I do know how crews operate between KC and Chicago on 3 & 4.  It is different for both engineer (1) and conductors.  On 4 one engineer runs from KC to Fort Madison Iowa where he will go to a motel for several hours and then return home to KC on 3  the same day.  When 4 arrives at Fort Madison it picks up an engineer (1) from Chicago who had stayed overnight in From the previous days 3.  The conductors work from Chicago to KC with Chicago being home.  I can also ad this between KC and Dodge City the train rubs with 2 engineers and unsure about number of conductors. This is due to the length of the run in running time, not miles.  Because the run from KCY to FMD and CHI to FMD is relatively short doing a turn for engineers only at FMD Amtrak saves on crew cost usually when things run on time.  Not sure when super lateness is added to the mix.  Confusing yes.

Sneebly