Passenger Trains > 58 (31)

Per a FB post, the reason 58 (NB City of New Orleans) was about 2¼ hours late this morning was a ditchlight failure.  Which necessitated a CN rescue engine...running long hood forward.  Is that the law, Amtrak policy, or CN policy?

Would it have been faster to just go 10MPH over every crossing?

Per Federal Regulations, and they need ditch lights to be able to cross public highway rail crossings at more then 20 MPH.
49CFR229.125(d).

Hmm...about 96 miles from CHM to Stuenkel Rd which I believe is the last crossing entering Chicagoland.

96 miles @ 79 mph takes 73 min
96 miles @ 20 mph takes 288 min or 215 minutes longer.  Mitigated by acceleration time to get to 79 after stops and to whatever extent it's practical to go faster than 20 between crossings.  And the fact that track speed might be less than 79 in places. 

They were down 2 hrs 17 minutes into KKI.  But only 96 minutes into Chicago due to schedule padding.

So presuming they messed with it for a bit before either arrranging rescue or just going ahead at 20 mph, the latter would have been an additional delay of 3 hrs 35 min (except as noted above).

Thus, yes, the rescue engine was the best course.  I just had to work it out for myself.
 

And now train 59(01) took a several hour delay with the same engine with the same ditch light issue at Carbondale overnight. No freight engine added, but temporary repairs made there. Just another day at America's Railroad!

"A lead locomotive with two failed auxiliary lights may only proceed to the next place where repairs can be made. This movement must be consistent with § 229.9."  (Movement of non-complying locomotives)

Hmm.  Depending on the interpretation of the latter, maybe holding up the train was not federally required but Amtrak not wanting to risk a suit in event of an incident.  Or CN saying don't even think about it.

 

There was an old truism about the difference between steam and diesel locomotives: a steam locomotive took five minutes to find a problem and all day to fix it, while a diesel took all day to find a problem that took five minutes to fix.  The more complex diesels have become, the more little stuff there is that is hard to trace when it goes wrong... like a sticking relay causing ditch lights to quit.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/20 15:38 by MaryMcPherson.

Always a good idea to have a bunch of alligator clip leads in your grip!

No, it sure isn’t. Not an electrician!

Posted from iPhone

2904 Wrote:
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> No, it sure isn’t. Not an electrician!
>
> Posted from iPhone

Could get a good buzz on, though...  Shocking!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions