Passenger Trains > A Little Help from BNSF

Today’s Empire Builder #8 (05-04-26) running 4 hours late in the last light of the day at Sturtevant, WI  (MP 62 on CP's C & M Sub) with a little help from BNSF ES44C4 #6851.  I’m not sure which Amtrak Charger was not pulling its weight or where the BNSF engine joined the consist. 

ADB

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The original problem was with the engine of the Seattle section as it approached Wenatchee, WA.  It appears the BNSF leader was attached there during a 1 hr 35 min station stop (scheduled stop time is 6 minutes).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/26 20:11 by illini73.

Charger 302, which pulled the Seattle section of this train alone between Seattle and Spokane, ran into some kind of trouble between Leavenworth and Wenatchee that put the train into service disruption. The crew apparently made some repairs and got the train into Wenatchee. It looks like more work was done there and the train left Wenatchee about 1 1/2 hours late, as I remember from Dixieland at the time. I don't know if they added the BNSF leader in Wenatchee, Spokane or later, but apparently there was more trouble in Spokane or farther down the line because the train pictured here was four hours late and had a BNSF leader. The Charger behind the BNSF leader was almost undoubtedly the regular Portland section leader into Spokane.

OK, lets go with the theory that this Empire Builder train set #8/28 (5/2) at LEAST left Spokane with a BNSF freight locomotive leader.

- Train left Spokane 2 hours and 50 minutes down (western end of the Hi Line).
- Train arrived Minot, ND (eastern leg of the Hi Line) 2 hours and 55 minutes down.

Not bad - only lost five minutes in totality.

- Train departed Minneapolis, MN 3.5 hours late. Lateness from Minot to Minneapolis was not related to passenger versus freight locomotive speed, but rather congestion......
- Then it was a corridor train - no speed demon - from Grand Forks into Chicago with stop and go, arriving into Chicago 3 hours and 47 minutes late.

From Spokane to Chicago, in total, this train only lost 5 minutes across the Hi Line where it can stretch its legs and is the majority of the route length. Then an additional 52 minutes lost along what I would call the "corridor" portion from Grand Forks on down to Chicago. Not bad for the BNSF locomotive leading a passenger train and trying to keep to the schedule............

I will have specifics in two reports from now.