Passenger Trains > 7/21st

I see that 7/21had a large delay leaving Portage. Now 2 hours late.  Any information?

Ed Burns
 

NPEDDIE Wrote:
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> I see that 7/21had a large delay leaving Portage.
> Now 2 hours late.  Any information?
>
> Ed Burns
>  

Broken down freight on the single track mainline west of Portage. 7 was held in the Wisconsin Dells depot for two hours while the stalled freight was pushed out of the way. 

I happened to be in the area and monitoring CP radio traffic (no photos unfortunately).  I can add a few more details about the freight breakdown.

• CP 853 with UP power (Columbia coal train) ran out of fuel at Mile Creek Siding (MP 210-213).
• CP 149's power cut-off their train at Lewiston Siding (MP 187-190) to run west to rescue CP 853.
• CP 149's power pulled down CP 853 to Lewiston Siding.

I suspect #7 was held in Kibourn Siding which is just west of the Wisconsin Dells, waiting for things to clear (but did not hear those particular radio transmissions).

ADB





 

I don't even understand how locomotives are even able to reach the level of running out of fuel. How does that even happen?

westcoastrails Wrote:
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> I don't even understand how locomotives are even
> able to reach the level of running out of fuel.
> How does that even happen?

Everyone is so demoralized that no one bothers checking the fuel guage

Well, this train left Minot about 2 hours late - didn't make up any time since Wisconsin Dells. But now running nearly 4 hours late into Malta. So it's lost another two hours in a relatively short amount of period after leaving Minot. Between Twin Cities and Minot, there's a LOT of padding whereby the Empire Builders could make up time. I've also seen a lot of issues happen with the single track running between Fargo, ND and Devils Lake, ND though! It's give or take as to whether time can be made up between Malta and Spokane......There's padding in the schedule, but the most is between Sandpoint and Spokane. We'll see! The concern of course is trying to get into the Western terminals 3 hours late or less so the trains can make a relatively on-time departure back east! Hopefully they have a lot of "greens" out there on the Hi Line and can makeup some time. Presume it's all freight train interference that caused the delay since Minot.......