Passenger Trains > Amtrak 11 1/6/25 - variety is the spice of life

UP 5894 is leading #11; by Shedd at 4:42, about 20 minutes late and just minutes ahead of sunset here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/25 16:56 by roustabout.

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But, where is the DPU.............

See they have lost a car. 9 to 8
Steve

The Coast Starlight should have three coaches year-round.  Oh, and I believe the Empire Builder left Seattle without a coach yesterday.  And I was joking the other day that "Amtrak could take coaches from the Seattle section of the Empire Builder for the Denver ski train, but then the daily Seattle section would only be able to offer tri-weekly coach service.  I suppose what actually happened was that the coach went bad-order, and of course there were no spares in Seattle.  But there seem to be plenty of coaches for the Denver ski train.  I'm afraid Amtrak's enemies in Congress are going to have a field day with stuff like this.

Interesting that it's running coaches up front again. When did they switch it around? I checked the SLO railcam playback from 1/6 and the #11 the day before this one was also coaches first. But #14 of the 6th looked normal with sleepers first.

Posted from Android

NPRocky Wrote:
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> The Coast Starlight should have three coaches
> year-round.  Oh, and I believe the Empire Builder
> left Seattle without a coach yesterday.  And I
> was joking the other day that "Amtrak could take
> coaches from the Seattle section of the Empire
> Builder for the Denver ski train, but then the
> daily Seattle section would only be able to offer
> tri-weekly coach service.  I suppose what
> actually happened was that the coach went
> bad-order, and of course there were no spares in
> Seattle.  But there seem to be plenty of coaches
> for the Denver ski train.  I'm afraid Amtrak's
> enemies in Congress are going to have a field day
> with stuff like this.

The Empire Builder's Seattle section has been down to ONE coach for quite a while - and it needs two year-round. Forget giving the Ski Train any more Superliner coaches at $19 per seat. It's supposed to get two more coaches, I know. So if the coach was bad-ordered, it had no place to put coach passengers on this trip! Nobody couldn't come up with a creative solution in Seattle? You "borrow" a Horizon coach from the Seattle pool and put it up in front of the Superliner Trans-Dorm Sleeper and at LEAST get the coach passengers accommodated there between Seattle and Spokane, for the Empire Builder. The Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans - in summer - used to run "shorts" with a Horizon ahead of the Superliner Trans-Dorm Sleeper in this fashion for at least three to four seasons in early 2000's! If train ops in Seattle had done that, then those coach passengers accommodated in the Horizon "could" switch to the Superliner Coach (Portland section) in Spokane. There should have been an extra Superliner coach, sleeper, and diner in Seattle. Guess Amtrak decided to run that thin yet again. 

I think Amtrak needs to run another calculation - how many ALC42s do they have in operation, as opposed to how many are sidelined and not working. There's a LOT of freight locomotives subbing for ALC42s between last week and today!!! I'm watching Empire Builder Train #7/27 (6) that left Chicago yesterday cause that has a freight loco in the lead right off the bat from Chicago and so far it's only running about 30 minutes late and will likely leave Minot, ND close to on-time. Whether it can sustain over the Hi-Line and further west - we'll see. 

Here's the train passing the Santa Clara railcam today, about 2 hours late.  Seems unusual for that UP AC4400 to have both 'Union Pacific' lettering and a flag on the long hood.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/25 12:23 by PasadenaSub.

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Unfortunately this train struck a trespasser near Richmond, CA so is running even later now.

According to my reckoning, there are around 43 ALC42s in service out of 70 delivered.There are 5 which haven't been commissioned yet and there are 8 out of service due to vehicle or tree damage. 

That leaves 14 which are out of traffic awaiting new rubber bands and fencing wire or someone to reset the complex computer equipment. 

SPbird Wrote:
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> Interesting that it's running coaches up front
> again. When did they switch it around? I checked
> the SLO railcam playback from 1/6 and the #11 the
> day before this one was also coaches first. But
> #14 of the 6th looked normal with sleepers first.
>
> Posted from Android

Should all be back to normal now.

RU412 Wrote:
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> According to my reckoning, there are around 43
> ALC42s in service out of 70 delivered.There are 5
> which haven't been commissioned yet and there are
> 8 out of service due to vehicle or tree damage. 
>
> That leaves 14 which are out of traffic awaiting
> new rubber bands and fencing wire or someone to
> reset the complex computer equipment. 

I think that's close, but I think there's more than 22 ALC42s out of service. And in general, many ALC42s are failing enroute, and then there's trouble shooting that often works 50% of the time. Lately with colder weather it's not been working (a reset). I'm led to believe the number is in the 30s of ALC42s that can NOT be put into service - not counting the 5 unaccepted. Respectfully, though, trying to get more details. 

jp1822 Wrote:
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> RU412 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > According to my reckoning, there are around 43
> > ALC42s in service out of 70 delivered.There are
> 5
> > which haven't been commissioned yet and there
> are
> > 8 out of service due to vehicle or tree
> damage. 
> >
> > That leaves 14 which are out of traffic
> awaiting
> > new rubber bands and fencing wire or someone to
> > reset the complex computer equipment. 
>
> I think that's close, but I think there's more
> than 22 ALC42s out of service. And in general,
> many ALC42s are failing enroute, and then there's
> trouble shooting that often works 50% of the time.
> Lately with colder weather it's not been working
> (a reset). I'm led to believe the number is in the
> 30s of ALC42s that can NOT be put into service -
> not counting the 5 unaccepted. Respectfully,
> though, trying to get more details. 
>
>and i doubt about a guaranteed performance percentage per locomotive clause in the contract!