Eagle Detour

I'm enjoying watching the two Eagles travel their detour route through central Texas. They normaly fuel up 21 and 22 in Fort Worth. By skipping Ft Worth I wonder where they will service the trains?

I notice that 21 is taking a different route than 22 today. Was wondering if that is everyday?

Fuel stop and also crew changing points are relocated, inter sting as to where.

They will take those different routes for the entire detour period. ('Til June24th, I believe.) The host railroad(s) might have directional running in that area. It's interesting that today's northbound made better than usual time from Taylor to Longview. Slow running couldn't beat the shorter route.

I am correct that this detour is suppose to be done by the end of June, correct?

We are boarding in Fort Worth on July 3rd!

printman2000 said:

We are boarding in Fort Worth on July 3rd!

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You're good to go! I was wrong above; last day for the detour will be June 22nd.

It would be interesting to take this detour through Texas, but my departure is after the detour ends. I have done the STL/CHI detour several times.

Lonestar648 said:

It would be interesting to take this detour through Texas, but my departure is after the detour ends. I have done the STL/CHI detour several times.

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I've been on this detour several times on Amtrak, and back when Dinosaurs roamed the earth rode the Mopac Texas Eagle to STL in the Dome Car!

Grandpa D said:

printman2000 said:

We are boarding in Fort Worth on July 3rd!

Click to expand...

You're good to go! I was wrong above; last day for the detour will be June 22nd.

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Let hope!

I'm on the 21 at Longview, TX. I am traveling through to Los Angeles, so I am not making the transfer.

The transfer process is better organized than the disaster I experienced last week in Birmingham on the Crescent. There are 3 buses. One of the buses is express service to Dallas. The others will make intermediate stops. The smart passengers are demanding to take the express bus.

One of the buses has Amtrak Thruway branding. The other 2 buses had Tri-City Charter branding.

Seems like both 21 and 22 are experiencing significant delays each day.

Grandpa D said:

They will take those different routes for the entire detour period. ('Til June24th, I believe.) The host railroad(s) might have directional running in that area. It's interesting that today's northbound made better than usual time from Taylor to Longview. Slow running couldn't beat the shorter route.

Click to expand...

Curious about what those different routes are. I remember our Bob Dylan wrote a couple of years ago about going on 21 through Corsicana but that Amtrak staff had told him the 22 was going through Palestine. These would be the routes they're using? Or are there others?

Chey said:

Grandpa D said:

They will take those different routes for the entire detour period. ('Til June24th, I believe.) The host railroad(s) might have directional running in that area. It's interesting that today's northbound made better than usual time from Taylor to Longview. Slow running couldn't beat the shorter route.

Click to expand...

Curious about what those different routes are. I remember our Bob Dylan wrote a couple of years ago about going on 21 through Corsicana but that Amtrak staff had told him the 22 was going through Palestine. These would be the routes they're using? Or are there others?

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Route 21 went through Corsicana.

Chey said:

Grandpa D said:

They will take those different routes for the entire detour period. ('Til June24th, I believe.) The host railroad(s) might have directional running in that area. It's interesting that today's northbound made better than usual time from Taylor to Longview. Slow running couldn't beat the shorter route.

Click to expand...

Curious about what those different routes are. I remember our Bob Dylan wrote a couple of years ago about going on 21 through Corsicana but that Amtrak staff had told him the 22 was going through Palestine. These would be the routes they're using? Or are there others?

Click to expand...

I think that it was mentioned in the existing thread on this topic....

Any word on whether there will be a detour on the "Amish Route" for the Eagle this summer between Chicago & St Louis?

sechs said:

I think that it was mentioned in the existing thread on this topic....

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You're right - thanks for pointing it out.

I took "detours" both ways on my recent Eagle trip - from St. Louis to Bloomington by bus on the 16th, and then from Longview to Mineola by bus yesterday.

The St. Louis transfer was a cluster. We were sent off the train with handwaving: "Go down the hall and there will be an elevator." Well, there's more than one elevator and I had to run around in the station itself and finally ask at the Amtrak counter for help - there's a "secret elevator" that's hidden that we were supposed to take to the patch of blacktop where the buses were. I made it, and anyway, I guess they called roll so if I hadn't found my way MAYBE they would have held the bus until I did. Also this was right after a freight derailment in Elkhart that led to a roadway being blocked (and wasn't on GPS), so the bus driver had to fiddle around and find a detour.

COMPLETELY different coming back in Longview: the buses were on the platform, there were people directing you to the bus depending on your destination. It worked very efficiently. I can only assume that's because the St. Louis station is bigger (and also, that may have been the first day of the bustitution) and the Longview one, they'd done it before.

Like everything on Amtrak: when it works, it works pretty well, but when it doesn't work, it's kind of a mess.

On May 16, I booked a Roomette from Joliet to Austin train 21 for travel departing Joliet on June 19, hoping to ride on the detour. The original email confirmation said the train would depart JOL at 3:40 PM (regularly scheduled departure is 2:40 PM, but Amtrak said the train would run one hour later at all stations CHI to LVW during the detour) and arrive AUS at 6:22 PM on June 20 (regularly scheduled arrival).

Then sometime last week I get an email and a phone call saying the schedule has changed, and that I will now depart JOL at 3:30 PM and still arrive AUS at 6:22 PM the next day.

Then just a half hour ago, I get an email saying I will still depart JOL at 3:30 PM on 6/19, but will now arrive at AUS at 7:22 PM on 6/20 (one hour later than scheduled). Does this mean that the detour is now expected to have ended by 6/19, but the train will still be running an hour later over its whole route?

I also reserved a coach seat on train 22 leaving AUS on 6/22 at 9:31 AM (regularly scheduled departure) and arriving in St. Louis the next morning at 6:20 AM (one hour earlier than scheduled, as advertised for the detour). This is supposed to be the last day the detour is in effect. I have not received any notification that this schedule has changed.

Any thoughts on what's going on here?

I think the south bound detour, which is a slightly different route through Corsicana, is running longer or has more delays that they had originally thought.

The T&E Crew is changed out in Hearne on #21 and if it arrives into Taylor early (I've been aboard twice when this happened on the reroute) there is a layover at the UP Station/Amshed until the Scheduled time to head for Austin.