Passenger Trains > Late 7 of the 8th

Number 7 arrives into Glenview just over 3 hours and 30 minutes late. I was downtown catching train 49 with engines 842 and 843 and swung by the coach yards to see what was what. I observed 7 next to the S&I building where it usually parks. Yard crew boards around 12:30 or so. I figured they were going to the depot early, but nope. It was pulling into the inspection building. Around 1:50pm the yard crew gets on then gets back off and walks away. At that point I figured 7 was toast. Turns out they found a bad order sleeper that had to be chopped and replaced. Then the rear sleeper only had one marker so a FRED was added. Then outside of CUS after the 3 hour late departure, PTC would not allow the train to proceed beyond 16mph. Amtrak & Metra gave them permission to cut out and run to Rondout without PTC. By the time PTC was resolved and they got across Mayfair, another 25 minutes was lost. Out of Glenview 3 hours and 30 mins down. At Rondout they tried to reboot PTC on CP trackage but they got permission from the CP help desk to go ahead without. At the Glenview station, one much older woman was traveling to Portage for a memorial service and she ended up going home upset. Amtrak never again. Another passenger was going to St. Paul. Amtrak again maybe. A student just wanted to get back to campus. Amtrak again maybe. Some other woman walked off upset when she waited 30 minutes and the train was a no show. Amtrak never again. I think I got all the passengers. The Hiawatha is now back to 5 cars (4 coaches and a dinette). A fair amount of passengers got on 337 and 339. A decent amount got off 8 too. One passenger noted that it was interesting to see the same train twice but not his train. He saw 338 and then the same train going back north as 339 but no number 7 until 6:10pm in Glenview. 

You would think and hope a train that arrived Monday evening would've been inspected before lunch time the day of departure. I suppose they thought a bad order would not be found?

Not to worry, Amtrak estimates the train to be on-time by Shelby. 

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I wonder how long it took to get the engines in proper numerical order?

$500 Billion would not fix the s--- show that is Amtrak.

I wonder how long that marker light had been dark?
How many foremen had walked or driven by it all day?

Anyone know how much effort is needed to change a bulb
if that is the problem? 

Whether it is legal or not to leave with only one red light
if I was the conductor I would not leave with it.  The train
is departing from a major maintenance facility after a two
day layover.  If the remaining light goes out there will be delay
and cost to the  company somewhere down line when the
freight railroad provides a working marker.

The nonsense of bad orders being found at departure time has been
going on since I started working there in 1983.  If NARP or any of
these Midwest High Speed Rail coalitions had any balls they would 
swamp Amtrak with FOIA requests for maintenance reports, morning
reports, etc.

I see only two solutions for 14th / 16th St.

1. Wipe it off the face of the earth and salt the ground that
it stood on.  Just like the Roman empire did to Carthage.
(My preferred solution)

2. Do something similar to what the freight roads did during
the power by the hour fad. Include a maintenance contract with
all new equipment purchases.  Perhaps then there would be 
supervision that will hold workers accountable.

Otherwise you can take your off-corridor billions and toss them
out the open dutch door at 90mph.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/21 06:52 by Englewood.

Interesting when watching the video to see the useless
"brake lights" on the third car showing "released" when the 
other cars show "applied".

Is that dent damage on the side of the fifth car above the side ladder?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/21 06:48 by Englewood.

Four hours and six minutes late at Stanley, ND

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting when watching the video to see the
> useless
> "brake lights" on the third car showing "released"
> when the 
> other cars show "applied".
>
> Is that dent damage on the side of the fifth car
> above the side ladder?
>

Believe it or not, every other car was a different color. Alternating between green and amber. And yes, it was quite a signifigant dent by the step ladder. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/21 12:00 by sethamtrak.

Going away shot

---

I do not see any airline to the EOT. This one is not a battery EOT

What is the purpose??

Posted from Android

The Amtrak EOTs I have handled are rechargable battery powered. Come with their own 120vac plug-in stashed inside a door.

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> $500 Billion would not fix the s--- show that is
> Amtrak.
>
> I wonder how long that marker light had been
> dark?
> How many foremen had walked or driven by it all
> day?
>
> Anyone know how much effort is needed to change a
> bulb
> if that is the problem? 
>
> Whether it is legal or not to leave with only one
> red light
> if I was the conductor I would not leave with
> it.  The train
> is departing from a major maintenance facility
> after a two
> day layover.  If the remaining light goes out
> there will be delay
> and cost to the  company somewhere down line when
> the
> freight railroad provides a working marker.
>
> The nonsense of bad orders being found at
> departure time has been
> going on since I started working there in 1983. 
> If NARP or any of
> these Midwest High Speed Rail coalitions had any
> balls they would 
> swamp Amtrak with FOIA requests for maintenance
> reports, morning
> reports, etc.
>
> I see only two solutions for 14th / 16th St.
>
> 1. Wipe it off the face of the earth and salt the
> ground that
> it stood on.  Just like the Roman empire did to
> Carthage.
> (My preferred solution)
>
> 2. Do something similar to what the freight roads
> did during
> the power by the hour fad. Include a maintenance
> contract with
> all new equipment purchases.  Perhaps then there
> would be 
> supervision that will hold workers accountable.
>
> Otherwise you can take your off-corridor billions
> and toss them
> out the open dutch door at 90mph.

Trust me when I tell you it isn't just Amtrak. I've been a Conductor at New Jersey Transit for over 23 years, and stuff like this happens all the time there. No one wants to make a decision, and in order to swap out a sleeper, they probably needed permission from 3 different departments and 5 supervisors, all after attempting to fix the problem first. Sounds like a comedy, but sadly, it isn't..