Passenger Trains > Amtrak misrouted today out of Philadelphia

Report today:

"This afternoon my son texted me that he was taking Amtrak from Philly down to Delaware, when the train suddenly stopped - on SEPTA’s Airport line. It had to sit there awhile until the airport train passed it, when it backed up back onto its own track again and was on its way. Just a bit scary... "

History repeats itself - Remember the time a Harrisburg train
was misrouted to SEPTA's Bala-Cynwyd branch? 

CPMorris Wrote:
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> History repeats itself - Remember the time a
> Harrisburg train
> was misrouted to SEPTA's Bala-Cynwyd branch? 


A little better this time, as the Amtrak crew on the Cynwyd Branch didn't realize they were off route until they spotted the bumping post at the end of track!!!

Hasn't this airport "diversion" happened a few times in the past?

Posted from Android

I don't see why it's scary. The signaling system was still working so it's not like there could be a collision.

MattW Wrote:
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> I don't see why it's scary. The signaling system
> was still working so it's not like there could be
> a collision.

Isn't there a significant drop in speed, once on the branch?

Posted from Android

The SEPTA Airport Line must have been using the "escape track" for access to and from Amtrak because the Airport branch flyover track that is used 99.9% of the time is not accessible from any tracks that come from the Amtrak lower level at 30th Street Station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/24 07:33 by prr60.

My father told a story about the Bell Street interlocking in Montgomery, Ala. The tower was staffed by GM&O, which was the last RR to build through the Bell St plant. An inebriated towerman lined L&N's crack Humming Bird off of the L&N main and onto the GM&O. Hilarity ensued. 

MattW Wrote:
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> I don't see why it's scary. The signaling system
> was still working so it's not like there could be
> a collision.

The engioneer is not qualified on the territory - curves, grades, speed limits, landmarks are all essential knowledge.Lack of that knowledge can lead to overspeed derailment, missing a signal that is hard to see, and other such. Trains are given the movement instrucitons (special changes to the timetable, slow orders, MofW work) by route. A train moving on the unintended route will not have that informationb.

It's not trivial.

TAW

Harold Interlocking in Long Island City has systems in place, along with PTC, to prevent overheight or LIRR trains that are not M-7 and M-9 MU's trains from entering the LIRR 63rd Street tunnel. I don't understand the technology, but perhaps something should be set up in the North Philly and Philly areas to prevent misrouted Amtrak trains from entering SEPTA branches or even the NJT Atlantic City line. 
 

Shouldn’t the engine crew have realized they were lined the wrong way by the signal indication they had?

Posted from iPhone

Ive been on #19 when coming out of Alexandria where the CSX and NS split and been routed mistakenly onto the CSX toward Richmond. The engineer put the breaks on fairly quickly and then we made a reverse move. 

CPCoyote Wrote:
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> Shouldn’t the engine crew have realized they
> were lined the wrong way by the signal indication
> they had?
>

Not necessarily. Back East railroads generally use speed signaling. The signal doesn't necessarily tell where you are going, just how fast to go. It's entirely possible to start through a plant and only find out it's the wrong route when you start going the wrong way. I don't know how far they got or if the interlocking contained the possibilities described, but it is sounds like they didn't get far on the wrong route, so maybe.

TAW

1.  Generally, you can get a clear medium along  any of the interlockings south of 30th st,  and be routed on any of a number of diverging routes.
OTOH, if you were routed on the escape track to the airport line, you'd probably get a slow clear or slow approach, as the escape track has a sharp uphill curve.
Also, i think u can get from 30th st Lower level to the airport line using crossovers just outside the station or at arsenal.    Ballast trains need to be able to get from the Media line to 30th lower level, and if u can get to the media line, you ca get to the airport line, i believe.  OTOH, its been a while since ive been there, and who knows what switches have been changed around.

2. My dad, years ago, was on a Media Local in to Phila (in the MP54 days) , and they accidently got misrouted on to the high line!!

In  March 1987, there was a culvert collapse on the NYC main near North East, PA.  Conrail's main line Buffalo-Chicago, all tracks lost.  Pre-internet, so no news flash on the forums.

I was driving back from church alongside the ex-Erie-Lackawanna main line and passed a westbound coal train - empties - on a Sunday morning.   The EL main was dead after Saturday morning when the last westbound OIEL passed, wouldnt' restart unti Monday.  Still had a manned tower at Falconer, NY, they would leave the home signals set for the next EASTBOUND on Monday, lock up, and leave.  Tower was a complete vintage holdover, one of the last manned ones left.
So I about faced and chased as that was the first coal train I'd even seen on the EL in four years, let alone a move on Sunday, so what's going on?
They ground to a halt at the Falconer tower, as I did about the same time, facing a red westbound home signal.  "Hey, are you the operator?"  Can you clear us out?
WHAT???   And the next question was even worse.
"Where are we?"  "We've never been here before..."
So this was an emergency detour from the NYC washout that had been diverted  over the EL at Hornell, and managed to make it all the way here, and apparently, somehow, the crew made it about another 100 miles until they finally hit a red light.   At that time it was also still relayed train orders, too that would get hooped up.
I couldn't help them, tower was locked, they weren't going anywhere until Monday.  Secured the train, and played taxi driver to get them to a motel.  They really had no idea where they were.   That started a flood of detours over EL but I'll never forget the first Lost Dutchman train that got sent west into the wilderness of NY over the EL.
Every time I see the old Warner Brothers cartoon of Bugs Bunny popping up saying 'I think I should have made a left at Albuquerque' staring at a map I think of this.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/24 12:03 by randgust.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CPMorris Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > History repeats itself - Remember the time a
> > Harrisburg train
> > was misrouted to SEPTA's Bala-Cynwyd branch? 
>
>
> A little better this time, as the Amtrak crew on
> the Cynwyd Branch didn't realize they were off
> route until they spotted the bumping post at the
> end of track!!!

The Amtrak crew of the Cynwyd Keystone was not misrouted byt he dispatcher.

They were authorized to make a back-up move on the Zoo Wye to turn the train, but the crew was inexperienced and did not have any idea where to stop backing up. So they kept on backing up until they ran out of track at Cynwyd.

A shameful day for all involved, both the conductor who couldn't figure out that 6 miles of backing up was excessive and the engineer, who continued moving the train up the branch despite obviously being in the wrong place.