Passenger Trains > Empire builder from new orleans ?

a trainset  that ran as the city of new orleans to presumbly thaw out arriving chicago today a poster thought he saw on a flossmor  cams @959 am;   in to chi this am judging from the train makeup. he thought it was an EB set, i have not being paying attention

Thar  in  New  Orleans  was  not   a  guarantee  2  days  ago!!  Warner  now.  

For a while, Amtrak based the Empire Builder's equipment in New Orleans.  It ran as both the City of New Orleans and the Empire Builder, but they stopped doing that years ago.

Seems it would be a good idea in bitter cold.  Send the thing south to thaw out.  

NPRocky Wrote:
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> For a while, Amtrak based the Empire Builder's
> equipment in New Orleans.  It ran as both the
> City of New Orleans and the Empire Builder, but
> they stopped doing that years ago.

Same idea as having the Florida trainsets switch in New York to the Lake Shore and Crescent.  Of course, one of those rotations is now the Floridian and can't switch to either train.  Is the Meteor's equipment still changing to/from the Lake Shore or Crescent in New York?  Anyone know?

Yes that was indeed an Empire Builder set. Just looked at the camera. Baggage car and all. It could be an equipment shortage rather than "sending it to New Orleans to thaw".

Well, if they could restore the old Empire Builder-City of New Orleans equipment rotation and send the Builder's base back to New Orleans for now, they might be able to save a set of equipment and take some pressure off Chicago maintenance, which certainly appears to be in chaos right now, even in not-all-that-cold temperatures.

people said it would make the other train late, but during this weather, they are all late...

NPRocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, if they could restore the old Empire
> Builder-City of New Orleans equipment rotation and
> send the Builder's base back to New Orleans for
> now, they might be able to save a set of equipment
> and take some pressure off Chicago maintenance,
> which certainly appears to be in chaos right now,
> even in not-all-that-cold temperatures.

EB consist is much bigger and differing then the CoNOL and would be a waste of car miles. 
Chicago has far more maintenance facilities than either Seattle or New Orleans. 
Chicago Mechanical needs a crackdown and Roger Harris either needs either to stop filing his nails or take a hike, not a lowering of the bar to give them less to do.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/25 11:16 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> NPRocky Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Well, if they could restore the old Empire
> > Builder-City of New Orleans equipment rotation
> and
> > send the Builder's base back to New Orleans for
> > now, they might be able to save a set of
> equipment
> > and take some pressure off Chicago maintenance,
> > which certainly appears to be in chaos right
> now,
> > even in not-all-that-cold temperatures.
>
> EB consist is much bigger and differing then the
> CoNOL and would be a waste of car miles. 
> Chicago has far more maintenance facilities than
> either Seattle or New Orleans. 
> Chicago Mechanical needs a crackdown and Roger
> Harris either needs either to stop filing his
> nails or take a hike, not a lowering of the bar to
> give them less to do.

Can you explain what you mean with Chicago has more maintenance facilities than either Seattle or New Orleans? From what I know, Seattle maintains all the Cascades trains for Amtrak and New Orleans was the maintanance for the P40s.I don't know what work Chicago can do that Seattle or New Orleans cannot?

DutchDragon Wrote:

> Can you explain what you mean with Chicago has
> more maintenance facilities than either Seattle or
> New Orleans? From what I know, Seattle maintains
> all the Cascades trains for Amtrak and New Orleans
> was the maintanance for the P40s.I don't know what
> work Chicago can do that Seattle or New Orleans
> cannot?

Neither do much maintenance on Superliners. Chicago has full service facilities that handles everything (though refuses to do much with Viewliners). All Superliners call Chicago or LA home. There are spare cars around to swap out defective cars overnight. 

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/25 13:40 by joemvcnj.

Does Sanford do any work on SuperLiners outside the dedicated Auto-Train pool?

Posted from Android

Hialeah is home to the Viewliners, overhauls at Beech Grove for them.

Seattle may still be a bit hard-pressed after losing quite a few technicians to Sound Transit's expanding Link light rail program last year, but it's obviously doing better than Chicago at keeping its trains and engines going.  Admittedly Seattle does have a milder climate than Chicago, but these last comple of weeks we've had nighttime temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s and have been mostly surviving it.

I never could understand why Amtrak sent the entire Empire Builder consist on to New Orleans when they had the EB and City of New Orleans consists linked.  I would have detached at least the coaches and sleeper from the Portland section and kept them in Chicago, saving at least two trainsets.