Passenger Trains > Pacific Surtfliner Service Disruption

I am seeing a few Surfliner trains running a little behind schedule today

Train 765 is about 5 hours  41 minutes late
Train 769 is about 3 hours 48 minutes late.
Train 572 is about 2 hours late.
And Train 573 is about 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Does anyone know what happened here?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Unconfirmed reports are there are PTC issues either in North San Diego County or South Orange County. 

Cabcar 6952 had a horrible flat spot going down the night before. The crew on A765 this morning noticed it and as a result, the tracks between San Diego and LA were deemed condemned and a track inspector had to come out which lead to lenghty delays to the other trains. PTC issues didn't help either.

I am guessing there are not too many track detectors between LA and San Diego.
I wonder if one of those detectors went off as that train rolled by?

westcoastrails Wrote:
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> Cabcar 6952 had a horrible flat spot going down
> the night before. The crew on A765 this morning
> noticed it and as a result, the tracks between San
> Diego and LA were deemed condemned and a track
> inspector had to come out which lead to lenghty
> delays to the other trains. PTC issues didn't help
> either.

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

GP25 Wrote:
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> I am guessing there are not too many track detectors between LA and San Diego.
> I wonder if one of those detectors went off as that train rolled by?

Only if it was a Wheel Impact Load (WILD) detector, and those are pretty rare (compared to the number of thermal "hot box" detectors).

I have to wonder how a flat spot that big managed to get out undetected.

NPRocky Wrote:
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> I have to wonder how a flat spot that big managed
> to get out undetected.

You assume it left LA with the flat spot.

How bad does a flatspot have to be to trigger shutting down the railroad?  

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
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> How bad does a flatspot have to be to trigger
> shutting down the railroad?  

A wheel with a flat spot longer then 2-1/2 inches is condemned and can't be used in service. 

PHall Wrote:
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> webmaster Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How bad does a flatspot have to be to trigger
> > shutting down the railroad?  
>
> A wheel with a flat spot longer then 2-1/2 inches
> is condemned and can't be used in service. 

How long of a flat spot to shut down the railroad as alleged?
 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

I'm surprised the train wasn't stopped on it's way down to San Diego if it had that bad of a flat spot.  I remember an NS loco was pulled off of a UP coal train and shoved in a siding near my house years ago, and it sat for days.  Granted that would be hard on passengers, but it sounds like the train should have been stopped enroute.

Nathan

atsf121 Wrote:
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> I'm surprised the train wasn't stopped on it's way
> down to San Diego if it had that bad of a flat
> spot.  I remember an NS loco was pulled off of a
> UP coal train and shoved in a siding near my house
> years ago, and it sat for days.  Granted that
> would be hard on passengers, but it sounds like
> the train should have been stopped enroute.
>
> Nathan

The engine leads going to San Diego and the Cab Car leads going back. On the trip to San Diego the engineer was in the locomotive and no one was in the cab car except the conductor when they went through checking tickets. And the conductor may not know how bad the problem was.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> atsf121 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm surprised the train wasn't stopped on it's
> way
> > down to San Diego if it had that bad of a flat
> > spot.  I remember an NS loco was pulled off of
> a
> > UP coal train and shoved in a siding near my
> house
> > years ago, and it sat for days.  Granted that
> > would be hard on passengers, but it sounds like
> > the train should have been stopped enroute.
> >
> > Nathan
>
> The engine leads going to San Diego and the Cab
> Car leads going back. On the trip to San Diego the
> engineer was in the locomotive and no one was in
> the cab car except the conductor when they went
> through checking tickets. And the conductor may
> not know how bad the problem was.

That makes a ton of sense, thanks PHall.

Nathan

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