yarrow
Engineer
had a pleasant breakfast with an amtrak engineer on the cz who was going to chicago for yearly training a couple weeks ago. he told me a couple things i didn't know. first, i thought all long distance trains had two engineers. not the case, the engineer's run was out of, i believe, lincoln, nebraska on the cz and was 5.5 hours. 6+ hours is the time that 2 persons are required in the cab, he told me, so he is by himself in the cab. we were talking about ptc. he thought it would be helpful but didn't think he would see it before his retirement. so, he told me the second thing i didn't know. part of his run through iowa was governed by track warrant. i didn't realize that system was used anymore on mainlines. these things are, i am sure, common knowledge but were news to me