Auto Train Florida Detour

[Richard Howard]

Hello,

One day last week, the Auto Train had to make a major detour after leaving

Sanford. If you recall their was a washout of the track right north of

Deland, so that track was closed. The Auto Train detoured through Orlando,

through Lakeland, and up the old "S" line through Wildwood and Ocala, before

joining its normal route in Jacksonville.

My question is where was the Auto Train turned around at to head into

Orlando after it left it's terminal in Sanford. I have been by there many

times, and have never seen any kind of "y" that it can turn around on.

Thanks in advance, and just very curious how they did this.

Richard

 

[battalion51]

Well in the past when the train has arrived in Lakeland off the S-Line there have been CSX motors waiting to attach to the rear and bring the train on in to Sanford. Now it's entirely possible they did just run the head end out at Lakeland to proceed into Sanford. But they would've had to wye the train at Deland so that the carriers and train were facing the right way. I don't know the exact milepost location of the sinkhole, but I would doubt this is what they did since it would add about an hour on to the trip for an already extremely late train. I would venture to guess there was either CSX or Amtrak power waiting for the train at Lakeland and they just ran backwards to Sanford.

 

[Guest_Amtrak OBS Employee]

In this particualar situation, "Auto Train," #P052 pulled out of SFA as normal and once it cleared out on the mainline, motive power was coupled to the bottom auto rack. The train was then pulled backwards down to LAK through ORL. Once there they continued to pull pass the wye until the rear of the train (actually the head end in this case) were clear of the south leg of the wye. Then after recieving crew who are qualified on the S-line, #P052 headed north on its own power on to its destination (in the same direction the "Palmetto" used to operated out of TPA area) via WWD and OCA to rejoin its normal route at JAX. In this case, however, I am not sure whether CSX provided the power or if Amtrak did so. OBS...

 

[Trogdor]

Train 52(31JUL05) had Amtrak engines 516 and 42 on the south end, and 20 and 8 on the north end.

 

[Steve4031]

Boy . . . I would have loved to have been on that one. How late was it?

 

[AmtrakWPK]

OK, that explains why I saw just those two engines, all by themselves, go by the A783 MP one day, NB. 516 was on the south end of the two, pointing south. I really wondered at tthe time what was happening.....

 

[battalion51]

In this particualar situation, "Auto Train," #P052 pulled out of SFA as normal and once it cleared out on the mainline, motive power was coupled to the bottom auto rack. The train was then pulled backwards down to LAK through ORL. Once there they continued to pull pass the wye until the rear of the train (actually the head end in this case) were clear of the south leg of the wye. Then after recieving crew who are qualified on the S-line, #P052 headed north on its own power on to its destination (in the same direction the "Palmetto" used to operated out of TPA area) via WWD and OCA to rejoin its normal route at JAX. In this case, however, I am not sure whether CSX provided the power or if Amtrak did so. OBS...

The only flaw with that method is that it leaves the passengers without HEP from SFA to LAK, which is a long time without electricity. Looks like light power was the case. I'd also have to believe they tried to use some folks within the crew base that are still qualified on the S-Line and on the A-Line to Lakeland, as there are several guys who bounce between JAX and SFA regularly. But it is possible a JAX Pilot was required to get them over the road on some days. I'd also guess they had to do a bunch of re-crews with this thing.

 

[capltd29]

The only flaw with that method is that it leaves the passengers without HEP from SFA to LAK, which is a long time without electricity.

Wouldnt they just get the HEP from the trailing P42s?

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Why did they have to be without HEP? I guess you could say that they had "BEP" [back-end power] available because there were engines on both ends of the train. Couldn't they have had one or both of the north end engines idling to provide HEP for the part of the trip when the south end power was actually moving the train?

 

[Trogdor]

Boy . . . I would have loved to have been on that one. How late was it?

I can't answer that question specifically, but it passed Orlando, southbound, around midnight.

So...very, very late would be the answer (a Sunset Limitedesque type delay).

 

[battalion51]

What I was saying is if they only had power by the carriers there would be no HEP. Obviously with units on the bottom there was HEP. OBS seemed to be insuating that the engines were next to the carriers, with nothing on the bottom for HEP.

 

[Guest_Amtrak OBS Employee]

Wouldnt they just get the HEP from the trailing P42s?

Yes.

I should have been more clear, however, that is what I get for assuming! I assumed most of us would "know" about the trailing P42s which would be left so the HEP would be up and running! A lot of times as we type, we do so as if we are speaking. And when it is put into text in can be interpreted a little differently than what we meant. I see where bat51 probably read my previous post in that way. OBS...