Passenger Trains > Texas Eagle Woes

Texas Eagle Train 22 (14) has just arrived Temple as of 3 pm but with problems. Passengers have boarded busses enroute to Ft. Worth to be transferred to Train 21 (14) which will become a new Train 22. Reason for busses. Train 22 has encountered engine trouble. The BNSF mechanical in Temple will attempt to repair unit. A switch job is currently assisting the train movement from Temple, TX depot to the yard. I am guessing BNSF will try to have the train ready for departure northbound tomorrow, with busses bringing passengers to the train from San Antonio and Ausin. Train may deadhead to San Antonio overnight, who knows. If I hear of anything else, I will post an update.

Update:

Amtrak is sending three busses to Temple to pickup passengers to transfer to other train at Ft. Worth. A new crew is coming from Ft. Worth to take train back to San Antonio. Amtrak currently sitting on mainline at the Temple depot waiting for new crew to take train south.

Eagle 22, so busses will take 21 passengers to SA from Ft. Worth.  Is this a day that 421 runs?  If it is what will  they do about that?

Thanks.

Randy Lundgren

texchief1 Wrote:
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> Eagle 22, so busses will take 21 passengers to SA
> from Ft. Worth.  Is this a day that 421 runs? 
> If it is what will  they do about that?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Randy Lundgren

With a little planning, Amtrak could pull off the switch, but all requires some sort of power restored to trainset as needed so 22 can start out again tomorrow.  

Leave 421's extra sleeper and coach at Ft. Worth today for puckup by tomorrow's northbound Eagle.

If they can get 22's equipment back to San Antonio, a sleeper and coach on it can be forwarded to the Sunset. Those booked in sleeper or needing coach space would have to make do on train till extra sleeper and coach are picked up at Ft. Worth. Don't need sleeper till night time anyway, so it could and has worked before. But different times at Amtrak these days.  

Otherwise, Amtrak can chose to switch no equipment and passengers on 421 west of San Antonio get treated to whatever extra space there is on the Sunset! 

Course at one time. there was a Superliner sleeper kept in reserve at San Antonio!!!! But that was around 2002 or so (the last time I was actually in San Antonio). At that time it was a crap shoot as to whether the Texas Eagle would get a Sightseer Lounge. I recall being booked in a Superliner I that had a partial upgrade of some sort (not the full re-build, but a modified one so that it wasn't 1980 orange and brown either). But the Sightseer Lounge was right out of the 1980s. I think Warrington may have still be at the helm - or it was in between time - because Amtrak was operating anything and everything at this time and short equipment would show up randomly, but then there was still the protect sleeper at San Antonio. Very weird times then. 

Update:

Amtrak 22 (14) that arrived Temple this afternoon with engine trouble was repaired and turned. It is now departing Temple back to San Antonio with the same Amtrak unit (40). Meanwhile, three busess moved people from the arriving Amtrak 21 (13) from Chicago, between Ft. Worth and Temple and vice versa Temple to Ft. Worth. Everything should be running as normal tomorrow.

 

Train #421 departs San Antonio at 2:45 am on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday for Los Angeles. So not an issue southbound/westbound. 
Train #422 departs San Antonio (from LA) at 7:00 am on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday for Chicago. So it was northbound Train #22 today that would have had the extra cars from Sunset Limited (the #422). That train is the one that broke down and is now heading BACK to San Antonio. The trainset turning in Fort Worth to go back east/north to Chicago is the one where it will be a tight squeeze to get all accomodated for coach and sleeper. But there are still roomettes available out of Dallas - no other types of bedrooms though!                                          

This is the second locomotive failure in a week for the Texas Eagle.  Last Sunday, October 7th, the locomotive failed in Illinois resulting in a Union Pacific Road unit being required.  The train ran 7 hours late into south Texas.  This fiasco not only disrupted people's trip, but also delayed the departure of train #1 from San Antonio going west.  That delay required train #2 to wait outside the San Antonio station for an open track,  This transition with # 2 and #22 going north also involved a private car move, which further delayed all operations.  Train #1, train # 2, and train #22 all suffered the effects of the failure with #21 the day before.  Today's failure has disrupted the operating railroad as well as Amtrak operations.  Connections at Chicago Monday will now be missed as #22 will run multiple hours late accross it's route.  Amtrak's failure to provide operational locomotives is an expensive and dangerous proposition.  Mechanical entities will always have breakdowns.  But the Amtrak single locomotive failure situation is way too common.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/18 17:32 by regalstream1516.

It's west of Harrisburg. No one at Amtrak HQ cares.

Actually it's the 3rd. Train 22(13) had a failure between Little Rock and Walnut Ridge resulting in a 3 hour delay supposedly from a blown fuse for the radiator fan. Luckily it had 2 engines.

regalstream1516 Wrote:
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> This is the second locomotive failure in a week
> for the Texas Eagle.  Last Sunday, October 7th,
> the locomotive failed in Illinois resulting in a
> Union Pacific Road unit being required.  The
> train ran 7 hours late into south Texas.  This
> fiasco not only disrupted people's trip, but also
> delayed the departure of train #1 from San Antonio
> going west.  That delay required train #2 to wait
> outside the San Antonio station for an open
> track,  This transition with # 2 and #22 going
> north also involved a private car move, which
> further delayed all operations.  Train #1, train
> # 2, and train #22 all suffered the effects of the
> failure with #21 the day before.  Today's failure
> has disrupted the operating railroad as well as
> Amtrak operations.  Connections at Chicago Monday
> will now be missed as #22 will run multiple hours
> late accross it's route.  Amtrak's failure to
> provide operational locomotives is an expensive
> and dangerous proposition.  Mechanical entities
> will always have breakdowns.  But the Amtrak
> single locomotive failure situation is way too
> common.

Actually since it's the full sleeper that's interchagned in San Antonio (Eagle only carries one plus the few roomettes in the dorm car), everyone would simply reboard the new trainset in their same spots. So sleeping car space should be fine, Coach space however could possibly be an issue depending on how booked it is. They've been running 2 Coaches south of St. Louis since just after Labor Day. On days there's #421/422 in play there's 3 coaches in use. So essentially the set that arrived Fort Worth would be missing a Coach. But if they're quick thinking, there is a spare coach held in Fort Worth for use on Flyer as a spare. The Flyer alternates between 2-3 coaches depending on the load, so stealing the protect Coach would fill the empty space in the event there's not enough room. 


jp1822 Wrote:
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> Train #421 departs San Antonio at 2:45 am on
> Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday for Los Angeles. So
> not an issue southbound/westbound. 
> Train #422 departs San Antonio (from LA) at 7:00
> am on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday for Chicago. So
> it was northbound Train #22 today that would have
> had the extra cars from Sunset Limited (the #422).
> That train is the one that broke down and is now
> heading BACK to San Antonio. The trainset turning
> in Fort Worth to go back east/north to Chicago is
> the one where it will be a tight squeeze to get
> all accomodated for coach and sleeper. But there
> are still roomettes available out of Dallas - no
> other types of bedrooms though!           
>                               

Not engine problems, BNSF bridge curfew north of Temple.

tracklight Wrote:
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> Not engine problems, BNSF bridge curfew north of
> Temple.

Don't confuse them with facts. They're on their bash Amtrak roll.

tracklight Wrote:
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> Not engine problems, BNSF bridge curfew north of
> Temple.

Well, if that was the case, and they were running late, they should have had the detour option on the table to use the UP-ex-Katy.
It would have been cheaper to rent a bus or van for just the Temple and McGregor passengers. 

As a railfan on board 21, no one would have liked to detour on the MKT more. But being on board with family members, I appreciated the bus bridge that brought us to Austin only 90 minutes late, instead of the 4 hour or more delay that the 40 MPH UP detour would have resulted in.
Amtrak made the right move. BSB

Posted from iPhone

With all of the new Chargers on board for the regional service out of Chicago, doesn't Amtrak have a surplus of P42's in Chicago now so that they could run 2 engines all the time on the Texas Eagle and the CONO?