#3(2) parked in Kingman 24 hrs and counting?

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
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.
Maybe the engine with the gps transponder was set out there. And 3 continued to LA? Not sure. Just a guess. You could do train status check for 3 into LAX for yesterday’s arrival.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
Steve4031 said:
Maybe the engine with the gps transponder was set out there. And 3 continued to LA? Not sure. Just a guess. You could do train status check for 3 into LAX for yesterday’s arrival.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
Click to expand...
Actually, I should have said it arr. Kingman 24 hrs late and is still sitting there. But OK - JB's Dixieland site archive just takes me back to the same screen I get by clicking on his map, which seems to mean it's not in the archives, i.e. there's no record of it having arrived LAX. No service disruption info about it on Amtrak site (not surprising).
 
jis said:
3(2) arrived in LAX at 7:52am on the 4th. It is right there using train status on the Amtrak web site. Where the heck are you looking?

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
Click to expand...
He's seeing this: http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=3&selmonth=11&selday=02&selyear=2017

Train 3 of 11/02/2017.

* WMJ * * 2 933P * 1008P Departed: 35 minutes late.

KNG 2 1139P 2 1146P 1212A Arrived: 24 hours, 33 minutes late.

NDL * * 3 1249A PT

BAR * * 3 344A PT

VRV * * 3 423A PT

SNB * * 3 542A PT

RIV * * 3 603A PT

FUL * * 3 644A PT

LAX 3 815A * * PT
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wonder if there are come computer glitches going on. Here's 1114(3)' status. Can a train really make up that much time while at a station?

* KFS 2 807A 2 1017A 1133A 1148A Arrived: 3 hours, 26 minutes late. | Departed: 1 hour, 31 minutes late.
* CMO * * 2 1132A * 108P Departed: 1 hour, 36 minutes late.

Edit: Had the wrong CS #
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Amtrak posted the arrival in KNG as 24h 33m late. That throws a monkey wrench into the works. I cleared that time (in ASM). It should finish its trip now.

jb
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Maybe Arizona (which does not use Daylight Savings Time) has a new version — Day Savings Time.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
So, I'm confused. Was it really 24 hours late or was it just a computer glitch?

If it was really that late, what the heck happened???
 
I believe what's happening here is a clerical error. Normally, everything is done by computer. But the fall time change is the kind of thing that affects only four trains: 1, 2, 3, 4. It's a lot of programming effort to deal with those overnight trains which go through Arizona, where time doesn't change. So it's just easier to have someone make the time adjustments instead of the computer. Now if you get someone making the change at best only once a year, they're liable to make a mistake - INCLUDING adjusting the wrong train. Once Amtrak posted those times incorrectly, the rest of the computers picked it up.

The spring time change is more of a challenge. In addition to those same four trains, every overnight long distance train which has a scheduled station stop between 2.01 am and 3.01 a.m. has a problem. The problem is that Arrow, Amtrak's reservation system, "knows" that since that hour doesn't exist, then no trains can make a station stop then either. It's a mess. Usually, they just fudge those times.

jb
 
I had no idea some Amtrak staffer simply entered those times manually. Then again I only recently discovered that SAP advises many customers to simply shut down for an hour during the fall and spring time changes. That kind of blows my mind a little.
 
John Bobinyec said:
I believe what's happening here is a clerical error. Normally, everything is done by computer. But the fall time change is the kind of thing that affects only four trains: 1, 2, 3, 4. It's a lot of programming effort to deal with those overnight trains which go through Arizona, where time doesn't change. So it's just easier to have someone make the time adjustments instead of the computer. Now if you get someone making the change at best only once a year, they're liable to make a mistake - INCLUDING adjusting the wrong train. Once Amtrak posted those times incorrectly, the rest of the computers picked it up.

The spring time change is more of a challenge. In addition to those same four trains, every overnight long distance train which has a scheduled station stop between 2.01 am and 3.01 a.m. has a problem. The problem is that Arrow, Amtrak's reservation system, "knows" that since that hour doesn't exist, then no trains can make a station stop then either. It's a mess. Usually, they just fudge those times.

jb
Click to expand...
Thanks. And IIRC the manual entry of arr/dep times also explains why so often there's no data for an intermediate station. No one got around to it. So does this mean that the gps data aren't used except on the tracking maps, both Amtrak and the "better tracking map"?

Seems like the GPS signal provides enough info (an accurate position and essentially UTC time) to calculate local time.

But a lot of Googling provided no example of an application where this is done. Anyone know if this can be or is being done?
 
Amtrak does use GPS to identify the train's position and speed. That information is used to update the arrivals and departures also. Clerical intervention is only needed occasionally for adjustments or when for whatever reason, the system misses a data point occasionally.

jb
 
Also sometimes clerical error at CNOC causes the wrong locomotive to get associated with a wrong train casing some hilarious outcomes, like train 5 headed to New York e.g.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
Or after an engine swap in DC, the new engine doesn’t have its GPS turned on.

51 sat in WAS until it left CVS when I rode it a few years ago.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was once waiting in Hudson for the southbound Adirondack (which switches from a P42 to a P32AC-DM in Albany) I remembe the train was running a little late I thought I had plenty of time and then for a moment I didn't think so because something had been triggered when they took the old locomotive off before everything reset. I had a good chat with the friendly Hudson agent who called Albany and verified that the train hadn't left yet. The locomotive change and triggered the tracking system strangely.
 
jis said:
Also sometimes clerical error at CNOC causes the wrong locomotive to get associated with a wrong train casing some hilarious outcomes, like train 5 headed to New York e.g.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
Click to expand...
It may not be a clerical error. It is something that I mentioned in the ASMAD update - improvements to connecting trains search thread:

While we're at it, does your status page update itself in real time as corrections are made? I bring this up because recently an initial terminal decided to flip flop the consists for two trains without telling anyone. As such, the first train out had the second trains consist and the second train had the first consist.

As the first train traveled up the line, it OSd everything an hour early for the arrival and on time for the departure. These are the times that are picked up by your train trackers. When the second train utilizing the first consist departed, every arrival time on the first train was overridden and showed an hour late.

It was fixed hours later. Would the adjustment show?
Click to expand...
Once the equipment is tubed, it will follow the consist. In other words, if 98's inbound power is designated for 19's outbound power at WAS, it will be entered as such. If WAS has some sort of issue and reassigns the engines to 97 without notifying CNOC (or they don't enter it in a timely fashion), when 97 arrives at ALX, it will override 19's previous entry and show train 19 as being late.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top