Passenger Trains > 301 on 29 (30)

301 spent months in Chicago for purposes of testing the shunt enhancer but mostly just stayed parked.  More recently they sent her east on the Cap where, among other things, she went to Pittsburgh and did a couple of roundtrips to Miami.  Today she returned to Chicago on the Cap, seen here Saturday morning at Hammond - Whiting (HMI).

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Nice capture! Good to see this unit still roaming the system!

From what I heard, the "shunt system" didn't test well, and hence axle cars remain on many of the Midwestern routes!!! UGH!

I had not heard that. Interesting.

I had thought it worked fine but in either case everything is on hold as the union is questioning Amtrak’s asking for a waiver for the close to the rail antennas. I don’t know if they present a physical danger but I think the union is totally correct to wonder why they don’t prioritize fixing the track circuits. As previously discussed ad nauseum it seems related to the new fangled predictor circuits.

My unanswered question remains: If in the days of simple track circuit relays the crossings were activated as soon as a train entered an approach track circuit block which was sufficiently long for 90 mph trains (pre 1947) or 79 mph (modern times) but led to a long wait for crossing occupancy on a slow freight, why was that okay then but no longer? Does this tie to modern society that people used to be willing to be patient but no longer and will start driving around the gates?

Predictors are a good idea but only if they are reliable. Did they look at raising the voltage? Surely they must have.

I've wondered for some time if retired P42s bracketing Horizon or Venture cars could provide the needed weight on the Carbondale trains.  There's got to be a way to avoid having as many as ten Superliner coaches tied up in that service.  The consist might be something like three P42s on each end of, say, six Horizon cars.  Two of the six P42s would power the train.  An odd train, but.....

That doesn’t sound safe.

I believe 14 Superliners cover the 39X train.

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice capture! Good to see this unit still roaming
> the system!
>
> From what I heard, the "shunt system" didn't test
> well, and hence axle cars remain on many of the
> Midwestern routes!!! UGH!

If it didn’t test well then Amtrak wouldn’t have requested the FRA allow them to install the antennas on their locomotives.

A very logical point.

The shunt enhancer induces an EMF on each rail which is shunted by the axles and along the way helps the track circuit get shunted as well. Seems like you could accomplish as much with a bit higher voltage. But I don’t get the big money for this kind of advanced thinking.