Passenger Trains > All time latest train you've ever ridden?

Interesting discussion on the Canadian board regarding whether VIA's bad timekeeping on the Canadian is a glitch, a feature, or just a thing you need to acknowledge.

This brings up an question: What is the latest train you've ever been on?

My record holder is from February 1979. The eastbound Empire Builder got caught behind a derailment in the Cascades, wound up crossing the mountains three times, on both the NP and GN. When I woke up, we were in Spokane, already about 9 hours late. Weather across Montana was brutally cold, the diner froze up, and we wound up calling ahead for takeout, so our dwell time at several stations was quite long. The lounge and two of the coaches retained heat, which was good because it was in the mid 30s below zero across the Dakotas. I eventually bailed off at Milwaukee and decided to ride a French Turbo into Chicago, instead of staying on board the Builder (I was on a pass, so this cost me nothing, and it was the only time I ever rode a French Turbo).

Sure enough, the Turbo passed the Builder before we got to the Illinois state line, and we arrived in CHI more or less on time. The Builder limped into Chicago almost exactly 24 hours late. I was connecting to the Lake Shore Ltd, and he ended up 12 hours late into Schenectady. So the overall journey time was 36 hours off the advertised.

Oh yeah, the Schenectady station was under construction at the time, and nobody told the conductor that he had a sleeping car passenger that wanted to get off. So I got a carry-by to Rensselaer, and had to divert my dad (who had just flown in from Tokyo in less time than it took me to get in from Chicago) to pick me up at the wrong station. If I'd waited for a westbound back to Schenectady, the total delay would have been just a whisker under 38 hours.

The good part? Well, I have shots of the Lake Shore at Buffalo Central behind a brand new Conrail GE, normally a night shot, but we were so late that I was actually shooting into an afternoon sun. I met some really cool people on board, none of whom seemed too awfully bothered by the delays, since it was god-awful cold and they had some sympathy for the people who actually had to run the train. And in the grand scheme of things, this was part of my first trip out west, which eventually resulted in the job offer that launched my career in geology. So there's that.

I've also had two other Amtrak LDT rides that were in the 10-12 hour late range, one from the pre-Superliner era, and one in 2007 due to signal failure and engine failure on the wb Builder. Curiously, my two trips on the Canadian were both basically on time.

What other horror stories, stories of perseverance, or "let it go, we'll get there sometime" tales are out there?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/17 13:19 by march_hare.

I rode the famed 33 1/2 hour late Zephyr that first got stuck on Donner then we get stuck in the Rockies behind broken rails; food was loaded at certain stations along the route in 2009. You can see this thread I wrote here:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1597291,1597830#msg-1597830

and also:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1594866,page=1

Train 27, the New England States, Utica to Chicago, 27 hours late but never made it to Chicago! The Rock had derailed a train (train had lost contact with the rails) in the midst of a massive snowstorm that reached from the east coast past Chicago. So, we all were off-loaded into a very crowded Englewood (63rd St) Station ... no taxis around, EL had been suspended, etc. So I just waited until the first east-bound NYCRR train to anywhere came along (turns out it was headed for Detroit, so I could get to my brother's in Ann Arbor) and got on board. Riding on a pass, I didn't need to worry about a ticket (in those days). Got a seat in the end-of-the coach foursome with three stranded semi drivers who used the trip to lubricate themselves ... when wine, beer, and hard stuff ran out, they were on to cordials when I last saw them.

So, I guess you could say that trip lasted way longer than 27+ hours late because I was not able to finally make it to LaSalle street until about a month later.

You two have me crushed, but my seven-hours-late trip on Amtrak #48/448 from Chicago to Springfield, Mass., 25 years ago was nonetheless interesting.

We took an initial brief delay in northern Indiana because Conrail TV-1 had hit a car somewhere. By then, though, word had already filtered through the train that we were going to take a bigger hit when we got to Toledo.

It was the November, 1992 night that the laker Algonorth had hit the Maumee River drawbridge after getting caught up in heavy, wind-driven river current. We pulled into Central Union Terminal just after #30 backed out, and it was clear from scanner traffic that we would be doing the same thing it did: back up to Alexis Junction on the Detroit Line, then run around the north and east sides of town on CSX's ex-Toledo Terminal trackage. I remained awake throughout the entire detour in my Slumbercoach room, but fell asleep soon after we passed through what I would later learn was Vickers for the second time after regaining the ex-NYC main via Walbridge and Stanley towers and CP-286.

I woke up in Erie with the train running five hours late, although because the eastbound Lake Shore ran on a much earlier schedule at the time, we weren't much later in the day than what an on-time #48 would be doing now. While northern Ohio had just gotten a little snow, it was a full-blown lake-effect snowstorm in western New York and I alit during the stop at Buffalo-Depew to take some pictures of the train and the Amtrak staff cleaning the coach windows. We gradually lost more time across western New York, including having to stop somewhere between Rochester and Syracuse because we set off a dragging-equipment detector. During the stop at Albany, microwave meals were put on the train for the Boston section passengers, who otherwise were not scheduled for dinner on that leg of the trip.

A little more than ten months after getting the grand rail tour of Toledo courtesy of the Algonorth, I moved there to take a new job.

By contrast, the most frustrating train I've ever ridden was the eastbound Canadian in late August of 1998. We arrived in Toronto about five hours late, but that was after midnight, and it was virtually all thanks to CN's hostile dispatching. Since then, VIA has lengthened the schedule considerably to account for freight-train related delays, and CN -still- can't run the train on time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/17 15:59 by toledopatch.

You guys got me beat. I was on an Empire Builder that arrived about 11 hours late at Chicago. Very little delay along the route. The delay was at Seattle. There was a problem with the diner and they took the train back to the yard to fix it. It took an hour or two to get that fixed. We thought we were about ready to head out of town as we saw the locomotive coming around from behind the stadiums. Well, that was as far as it got. They derailed the diner in the yard. It was about 8 hours before we saw it again. We were between 10 and 11 hours late departing Seattle. We made pretty good time on the way to Chicago, but every time we would make up 20 minutes we would get stabbed for 25 minutes somewhere else. Overall running time between SEA and CHI was only about 10 or 15 minutes longer than normal.

The Amtrak people were great. Though Amtrak is not the greatest when it comes to keeping passengers informed, the agent at SEA did pretty good. I was chatting with him and he said he was cautious to release any info. If he ays the train should be ready in an about an hour and it's 62 minutes later and no train in sight, people get really mad. He ordered Pizza Hut and KFC for everyone. The on board crew was great also. Along the way they picked up additional food and served everyone a free meal during the last evening. The dining car crew got some healthy tips. They were great. At the Twin Cities, some agents got on and helped everyone make arrangements for further travel and handed out vouchers for hotel, cab, and bus fares.

John

OK - I did not ride this one, but did work it. The Floridian 57/93. Of course, the L&N could not run that train on time - at times. In winter of 1979, it left Chicago 5 times, yes 5 times! I don't remember all the delays, but it kept backing into the station for various reasons. One time it had to refuel. One time to swap engines, one time was for a bridge failure. It was running through Birmingham 24hrs and 8 min late. The next day's train was 20 min behind. People for both trains were getting on the first one, only to get off in Montgomery to get on the following one.

Of course, the worst was probably the winter of 1977 when the Floridian got stuck in the snow in Indiana. L&N sent a set of engines to rescue it and they got stuck in the snow. Bill Vaught, former General Manager of the Monon was the Assistant Supt - Amtrak, for L&N at the time. He was riding the train and told me the story. As the train began to run out of water, engine fuel and heat, people were moving from car to car, finally moving to the baggage dorm, which had it's own generator and heat. Finally, the people of the small town they were stuck in came to the rescue and took the passengers to their homes. It took several days for the train and people to be dug out and on it's way.

in about 98, the wife and i were on #1 that arrived at laupt at approx. 1300 hrs (7 hrs late?) drawbridge issue somewhere in la., crew died h.o.s. out of houston, and an sp frieght stalled in front of us somewhere in w/texas. got a nice daylight trip across the desert and into laupt.

drank a LOT of beer with a great aussie traveler counting snakes and gators outside of new orleans. good times......

66

My all time latest train ride was, I think, in the summer of '50, aboard SP #5, the Argonaut. We had an engine failure at a small town in W Texas. Our relief power came from either San Antonio or El Paso, can't remember which....but it was a long wait in very hot weather.

Because we departed that town over 12 hours late, 13 or 14 I think, we, by rule, had to run as an extra the rest of the way to LA. Old memories are so fragmentary (for me at least), so I have no idea what transpired in LA to get us to San Francisco, our destination.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Forty years ago this month, I boarded the Broadway Limited in Chicago to visit my family in Central Pennsylvania. The train was comprised of steam-heated cars pulled by E-units. After stopping in Fort Wayne, IN, the locomotives could not be restarted. Eventually, the on-board staff directed the passengers to leave the train and gather in the station. Amtrak arranged to have us stay in hotel rooms. Being a single traveler, I was paired with another dude traveling by himself. By the time we got to the hotel and went to sleep, it was really late. I remember him waking me up saying we needed to get back to the station.

We made it back to the station and waited and waited. Finally, the make-up train comprised of an F40 and several Amfleet coaches arrived. Maybe not as glamorous as the Broadway Limited, but at the time, the electrically heated train was a welcome improvement over the old steam-heated cars. It was also be first ride in an Amfleet-equipped train.

Anyway, the train departed Fort Wayne and continued east without further incident. We arrived in Altoona just about 24 hours late.

My latest was a 17 hour late Sunset Limited #2 in July 1998. We had 3 P42s, but the baggage car kept blowing the HEP cable just before Tucson. The entire train was unloaded at the Tucson station, which is very small, early in the morning heat for what was suppose to be a quick fix in the nearby yard. Most people had to wait outside since the waiting room can only hold a few people.

As the noon sun rose in the desert, Pizza Hut and snow cones were delivered for lunch. A few hours later, and still no sign of our train, we were loaded onto charter busses and taken to a nearby Golden Corral for a free dinner. When we returned, our train was back in the station waiting with the baggage car and transition sleeper moved to the rear end.

We continued our journey on to New Orleans where the train was annulled and charter busses called for the remainder of the trip back to FL. We arrived back home in Biloxi 17 hours later than scheduled. It was a memorable trip for sure!

3 or 4 years ago my wife and I were on the Zephyr from Sacramento to Chicago. Up until Glenwood Springs everything was normal (we were an hour or two late by then, no big deal. Then a broken rail west of Glenwood led to about a 14 hour delay (at the station, thank god). Then a heart attack (and death) about the Moffat Tunnel caused a further delay waiting for the coroner at Plainview (name changed since I knew it) of about 3 hours. Waiting a relief crew about North Yard caused another hour or so delay. Further delays on the way to Chicago caused us to arrive just about 23 hours late into the Windy City. Lost my hotel room as a result. The whole reason for the trip was to enjoy Chicago for a couple of days, now we were down to just one day and a couple hours. On top of everything else, not one soul at Amtrak, even on the train, said thank you for giving CPR to the dying (dead) passenger for almost two hours. THAT was the part that astonished me.

I love train travel, but Amtrak sure makes it harder than it used to be.

Ed

Amtrak-P42 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I rode the famed 33 1/2 hour late Zephyr that
> first got stuck on Donner then we get stuck in the
> Rockies behind broken rails; food was loaded at
> certain stations along the route in 2009. You can
> see this thread I wrote here:
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1
> 597291,1597830#msg-1597830
>
> and also:
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1
> 594866,page=1

New Year's Eve California Zephyr train that was destined for Emeryville (arrival was to be Dec 31st). Delayed through Rockies on account of snow; totally snowed in at Truckee from 4 pm till after midnight, as we awaited a UP snow plow. Arrived Emryville on New Year's Day, nearly 20 hours late.