Rough Couple of Days on the Shoreline (late trains)

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Acela150

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In keeping an eye of Amtrak Status Maps the Regionals that have traversed the shoreline to and from Boston the past few days have taken an absolute beating. 

Monday night Train 169 left almost 3 and a Half hours late. 169 spins from 162. To give you an idea on how things are. 67 left about 30 minutes before 169 a mere 5 minutes late, and arrived into NHV almost 5 minutes early. 3 and a Half hours late puts 169 into DC around 5am. 

I believe that trains running the shoreline were run by diesels. Trains consistently lost time all around the board coming or going to Beantown. 

Possibly the good thing is that the storm hit on a weekend where Amtrak runs a Sunday schedule on Monday due to MLK Day. Which means Acela service is dramatically down to begin with. But people will use it for an extended weekend somewhere. 
 
They ran with diesels to NHV.  The Shore Line and the rest of the northern route were hit hard and equipment suffered from late turns as well.  It is usually not the day of the storm that is problematic...it is the few days after.
 
No, they ran on the NEC, but diesel locomotives were used instead of electrics. I would imagine the catenary was de-energized due to concern about icing and possible damage. 
 
While I have no actual proof they ran diesels under the wire NHV-BOS yesterday, I can make a reasonable guess.

I rode #157 from Windsor Locks CT to NYP and was absolutely AMAZED to see the results of freezing rain the night before SOUTH of Hartford. In the Springfield area, we had sleet and more sleet, but there was no evidence of freezing rain when I drove to WNL about 7:45. Obviously, the rain/freezing rain/sleet/snow line was about Hartford.

Everything south of Hartford was a giant fairyland! There was a half inch of ice on everything! Many trees were bent over, but the vast majority were 'magically' glistening in the sunlight. I wanted to take a photo or two as it has to be a once in 20 years or so situation where ice from freezing rain lasts past 7-8 AM on a clear sunny morning. The best views were into the low sun causing all the trees to be back lit and the ice 'lit up' dramatically. Unfortunately, there's only very brief 'open land' on the east side of the train to get a decent composition without being obstructed by buildings and junk. So I never got a shot.

At NHV, the usual power change to electric went smoothly. The ice and snow were gone by the time we reached Bridgeport 20 minutes latet.

I strongly suspect that the 30 mile wide band of freezing rain clobbered the Shore Line route in the vicinity of Providence, roughly straight east of Hartford. The overhead wire at New Haven was ice caked, but everything appeared to be running OK.

I got off at NYP to wait for #97 to take me to FTL. While watching the monitors in the lounge, 95% of ALL Amtrak trains were running15-180 minutes late in both directions. #97 'left' 3.25 hrs late at 6:30. In actuality, we moved 10 feet and stopped for 15 minutes, but the official departure was 6:30. I heard the reason was frozen doors.

Why was everything from WAS to BOS delayed? After almost 48 years, Amtrak STILL hasn't figured out how to handle winter! Enough of my editorializing.
 
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They ran with diesels to NHV.  The Shore Line and the rest of the northern route were hit hard and equipment suffered from late turns as well.  It is usually not the day of the storm that is problematic...it is the few days after.
Looking at things I could tell that late spins were happening. I hadn't really thought of the aftermath as problematic. But it does makes sense. 
 
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