late trains

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Easy, you can have signal problems, equipment problems, hit a tree, hit a car, a train in front of you can have any of those problems, the list is only limited by your imagination.

Also, since the Auto Train only runs with two equipment sets and a limited turnaround time at each end, once that happens, it can take days to slowly crawl back to "on time".
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ryan, I think your streching it a little, with hitting a tree, car etc. Then explain to me how the same train on this past Sunday departed Lor almost 7 hours late...
 
Trains hit downed trees all the time... And the reason it's late today is -because- of how late it became the other day. And like Ryan said, there are only two sets of equipment running the Auto Train, so there's only so much opportunity to make up lost time.

The Auto Train will alternate directions it is late until it makes up the lateness and becomes on time again. So this week southbound 53 will be late Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and northbound 52 will be late Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
b0m5jgr said:
Ryan, I think your streching it a little, with hitting a tree, car etc. Then explain to me how the same train on this past Sunday departed Lor almost 7 hours late...
Click to expand...
Quite easily. 52 (19) sat for almost 5 hours and waited out the same signal outage/track project that caused 92's schedule to change and the cancellation of train 79,89,80 and 90 for a couple of days. That means 52(19) arrived in Lorton an hour prior to 53(20) scheduled departure. It still needed to get unloaded, serviced, tested, crewed and loaded before it could depart. Once it left late, it can continue as described below:

Triley said:
Trains hit downed trains all the time... And the reason it's late today is -because- of how late it became the other day. And like Ryan said, there are only two sets of equipment running the Auto Train, so there's only so much opportunity to make up lost time.

The Auto Train will alternate directions it is late until it makes up the lateness and becomes on time again. So this week southbound 53 will be late Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and northbound 52 will be late Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Click to expand...
 
b0m5jgr said:
Ryan, I think your streching it a little, with hitting a tree, car etc. Then explain to me how the same train on this past Sunday departed Lor almost 7 hours late...
Click to expand...
If you hit a car and kill someone, you're going to sit there until the local officials have checked everything they want to and cleared the train to continue. Easily can set you back 5 or 6 hours.

If you hit a tree and the lead locomotive is unable to move, you're potentially sitting there until a replacement can be delivered and the tracks cleared. Again, 5-6 hours isn't out of the question, especially if you're out in the middle of nowhere on a piece of single track not accessibly by road.
 
And if signals fail due to electrical outages, trains can only move after dispatcher approval, and then only at restricted speed, which is never more than 20 mph and often much less.

From what I've noticed in the past, Auto Train can make up -- at most -- 2.5 to 3 hours at either end. So, a 7-hour late train will require at least 3 days to get back on schedule. And if the train is packed with snowbirds heading to Florida for the winter, it may take even more days to get back to on-time departures.
 
Ryan said:
b0m5jgr said:
Ryan, I think your streching it a little, with hitting a tree, car etc. Then explain to me how the same train on this past Sunday departed Lor almost 7 hours late...
Click to expand...
If you hit a car and kill someone, you're going to sit there until the local officials have checked everything they want to and cleared the train to continue. Easily can set you back 5 or 6 hours.
Click to expand...
Right! Local officials spend 5:50 trying to figure out why the trespasser was on the track, and the last 10 minutes questioning the engineer as to why he didn't swerve to miss the trespasser.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top