Passenger Trains > Needless delay to yesterday's Pennsylvanian

On Jan. 24 Pennsylvanian 42 was held for 2hrs 2 min due to NS Conway-Enola symbol freight 12G stopped ahead with a broken drawbar at Altoona. With two main tracks and a signaled siding between Alto and Works along with a lead to Rose Yard located south of the siding, there is no reason why a drag freight should have been on TK 2, which the Pennsylvanian uses to access the Amtrak station, shortly before 42's scheduled stop.  12G, which changes crews in Altoona, had at least three other paths through town.
I'm sure Altoonafan will stick up for NS; however, I hope most of this forum's readers will agree that this is a delay that should not have affected #42.
Andy

Sigh.  It is worse than listing to sports talk radio on Monday morning.

It would be interesting if the following scenario ever happened on the NS. On the UP's former SP line the northbound Coast Starlight was constantly side-tracked for freights, delaying the train. A friend of mine was a UP engineer on vacation and noted the division superintendent in the area was his former boss in the LA area. So he called him and gave him heck after a courtesy greeting for delaying Amtrak. His former boss asked "Are you on board?" He replied affirmative- "the wife and I are riding and some of my fellow passengers may miss their connection thanks to your dispatcher". The phone call ended with green lights the rest of the way to Portland. The crew was so impressed the Parlour Car attendant said the conductor agreed that for him and his bride all drinks were on the house. When the conductor stopped by to personally thank my engineer friend he said "I don't know what you did but we all thank you so much!" Nothing like a little personal interaction with the old boss...

What time did 12G pass Alto?  What time did Amtrak arrive at Alto?

At what point should a freight railroad cease using the track that operates by a platform prior to Amtrak arriving?

All you've posted is that Amtrak was delayed, and that you think NS is doing it on purpose. From my experience, riding 42 a few years ago, NS usually shifts traffic flows to left hand running early ahead of Amtrak and then right hand running before 43 leaves Harrisburg. So, I would imagine that the freight on Main 2 was in the flow of traffic because of westbounds on Main 1.  This is done because just about all of the platforms are on the Main 2 side between Latrobe and Lewistown, with the exception of Main 3 access at Johnstown. 

A broken drawbar is one of those things that happens from time to time. It's no different than Amtrak mechanical failures, which seems to get a pass here. 

Amtrak NEC alerts also listed Amtrak 42's delay as "mechanical issues", not disabled freight train as they usually do for such a situation. 

I think supply chain logistics are more important than retired tourists riding trains in our current situation. I'am 72and still working on moving food for people and not riding trains right now. Just my opinion.

 

Andy,

I hope you are aware that the broken drawbar issue occured at 8:15AM. At this time, 42 was between its scheduled stops at Greensburg and Latrobe. Expecting a railroad to not run trains on a track 105 mintues before a passenger train is scheduled to use that track is just rediculous.

For advice, I'd implore you to do a little research to verify the facts of the situation before making conclusions.

It took me about 5 minutes to determine the true situation:
1) I checked PT242 (https://pt242.com/index.html) to find out that 12G just passed the Horseshoe Curve cam at 8:56AM. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YghZcdke78).
2) Then I loaded the broadcastify archives of the "Norfolk Southern Altoona Area Rail" feed to determine when this actually happened (https://m.broadcastify.com/archives/feed/18962). Per the archives, 12G was not held at the bottom of the hill and was routed directly to 2 track at ALTOONA. My best estimation was that 12G had their issue at 8:15AM.
3) Another 15 seconds to find the location of 42 at that same timestamp (https://asm.transitdocs.com/train/2022/1/25/42).

Regards,
twropr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On Jan. 24 Pennsylvanian 42 was held for 2hrs 2
> min due to NS Conway-Enola symbol freight 12G
> stopped ahead with a broken drawbar at Altoona.
> With two main tracks and a signaled siding between
> Alto and Works along with a lead to Rose Yard
> located south of the siding, there is no reason
> why a drag freight should have been on TK 2, which
> the Pennsylvanian uses to access the Amtrak
> station, shortly before 42's scheduled stop. 
> 12G, which changes crews in Altoona, had at least
> three other paths through town.
> I'm sure Altoonafan will stick up for NS; however,
> I hope most of this forum's readers will agree
> that this is a delay that should not have affected
> #42.
> Andy

Typhoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sigh.  It is worse than listing to sports talk
> radio on Monday morning.

Now that is funny!

Where are the pieces of broken drawbar recovered? Seems like we could use a piece of it to give some of these Amtrak cheerleaders a much needed hit in the head.

Posted from iPhone

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

4489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Typhoon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sigh.  It is worse than listing to sports talk
> > radio on Monday morning.
>
> Now that is funny!

I agree, but anything major like a broken drawbar (which usually is smack dab in the middle or close to the rear of the train) always screws up the railroad, I learned after reading Gary Karg's Article in March 1990 issue of Trains is there's always a reason for a train to get delayed, don't just say it lost time without giving out the reason for why it lost time!

romanamor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Andy,
>
> I hope you are aware that the broken drawbar issue
> occured at 8:15AM. At this time, 42 was between
> its scheduled stops at Greensburg and Latrobe.
> Expecting a railroad to not run trains on a track
> 105 mintues before a passenger train is scheduled
> to use that track is just rediculous.

Thank you for providing the facts.

>
> For advice, I'd implore you to do a little
> research to verify the facts of the situation
> before making conclusions.

Many of us have asked him the same thing over his Porter posts.