I had an interesting experience on the westbound California Zephyr in February or March of, I think, 2010. I wonder if any railfans with much more operational and technical knowledge than I have can provide more detail on what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how it was fixed. I can only describe my personal experience and what I remember I learned from my SCA. My memory has faded in the past twelve years, so if anything I have described sounds unrealistic, please correct me or provide your opinions on what probably was going on.
So, here goes:
We were somewhere east of Omaha. It was dark, or at least it was getting dark, when the lights in my sleeping car went out. I can't remember if the train stopped immediately, but if not, it did eventually come to a halt. If I remember correctly, my roomette was in the trans dorm, but I can't be sure of that. In any event, the conductor and several staff headed forward through my car, and I could hear muffled discussion amongst them.
My SCA came through and told me that power in all the passenger cars was out and that the conductor was reporting the condition to dispatch. He said that the power failure affected the passenger cars only and that the engines could still function properly. He said that the power generator was located in a car right behind the engines. The crew went through the train notifying passengers and leaving at least one fairly strong portable lantern in each car. I don't remember hearing anything over the PA system, so I think it must have been affected by the power failure.
A short time later, the train started backing up slowly. My SCA told me that we had passed a siding several miles back and would be returning there to fix the problem. I can’t remember how long we were in reverse, but it was quite a length of time before we came to a stop. I didn’t know if we were still on the main line or on the siding. A number of service crew, including my SCA, came through wearing parkas, gloves, and snow boots. I can't remember if it was snowing outside, but it was certainly cold there in the middle of the dark Nebraska nowhere. They were carrying lanterns, sledgehammers, peevee-type bars, and some other tools.
After a while, the train backed up a little further and came to a stop again. My SCA later told me that the crew had thrown the switch so that we could back up onto the siding.
After a while during which I could hear muffled voices and the sound of tools against metal coming from outside, there was a slight jerk, a toot of the horn, and the engine headed off down the siding, leaving the passenger cars sitting. Some of the SCAs returned to our cars, while the others stayed aboard the locomotives and utility car. After quite a long wait, we heard the engine horn again and felt the jolt of it recoupling to our cars. We then proceeded down the siding and came to a stop, which I presumed meant we were back on the main line. After a brief pause while, presumably, the crew threw the switch again, we backed up and felt another coupling jolt.
The outside crew came back on board and we then resumed our journey. Shortly thereafter, some low energy power came back to certain parts of our cars.
My SCA explained that a new generator car might be waiting for us in Omaha and that we would drop off the out-of-service one which was now attached to the back of the train.
I asked him why they didn't just leave the disabled power car where it was until we got to Omaha, and he explained that they wanted to provide as much power as possible to the passenger cars in the meantime, especially because of the cold weather. That could only be done with a direct connection to the locomotive.
I don't know much about what they did when we got to Omaha because I had been sleeping soundly and was only vaguely aware of lights and voices coming from outside and a couple of shunting jolts. I became aware that things had been fixed when the overhead light in my roomette came on, and I had to reach to shut it off.
The rest of the trip went without a hitch. We pulled into EMY about five hours late.
I don't know if onboard customer service staff are trained to handle the kinds of situations like what happened that night, but to me, they certainly went above and beyond the call of duty to get the train running and keep passengers comfortable in very adverse conditions.
I would welcome any clarifications and corrections of my account as well as operational and technical explanations of equipment and procedures. I apologize for the length of this post.
And wouldn’t it be great if someone reading this post was also on that train that night?
So, here goes:
We were somewhere east of Omaha. It was dark, or at least it was getting dark, when the lights in my sleeping car went out. I can't remember if the train stopped immediately, but if not, it did eventually come to a halt. If I remember correctly, my roomette was in the trans dorm, but I can't be sure of that. In any event, the conductor and several staff headed forward through my car, and I could hear muffled discussion amongst them.
My SCA came through and told me that power in all the passenger cars was out and that the conductor was reporting the condition to dispatch. He said that the power failure affected the passenger cars only and that the engines could still function properly. He said that the power generator was located in a car right behind the engines. The crew went through the train notifying passengers and leaving at least one fairly strong portable lantern in each car. I don't remember hearing anything over the PA system, so I think it must have been affected by the power failure.
A short time later, the train started backing up slowly. My SCA told me that we had passed a siding several miles back and would be returning there to fix the problem. I can’t remember how long we were in reverse, but it was quite a length of time before we came to a stop. I didn’t know if we were still on the main line or on the siding. A number of service crew, including my SCA, came through wearing parkas, gloves, and snow boots. I can't remember if it was snowing outside, but it was certainly cold there in the middle of the dark Nebraska nowhere. They were carrying lanterns, sledgehammers, peevee-type bars, and some other tools.
After a while, the train backed up a little further and came to a stop again. My SCA later told me that the crew had thrown the switch so that we could back up onto the siding.
After a while during which I could hear muffled voices and the sound of tools against metal coming from outside, there was a slight jerk, a toot of the horn, and the engine headed off down the siding, leaving the passenger cars sitting. Some of the SCAs returned to our cars, while the others stayed aboard the locomotives and utility car. After quite a long wait, we heard the engine horn again and felt the jolt of it recoupling to our cars. We then proceeded down the siding and came to a stop, which I presumed meant we were back on the main line. After a brief pause while, presumably, the crew threw the switch again, we backed up and felt another coupling jolt.
The outside crew came back on board and we then resumed our journey. Shortly thereafter, some low energy power came back to certain parts of our cars.
My SCA explained that a new generator car might be waiting for us in Omaha and that we would drop off the out-of-service one which was now attached to the back of the train.
I asked him why they didn't just leave the disabled power car where it was until we got to Omaha, and he explained that they wanted to provide as much power as possible to the passenger cars in the meantime, especially because of the cold weather. That could only be done with a direct connection to the locomotive.
I don't know much about what they did when we got to Omaha because I had been sleeping soundly and was only vaguely aware of lights and voices coming from outside and a couple of shunting jolts. I became aware that things had been fixed when the overhead light in my roomette came on, and I had to reach to shut it off.
The rest of the trip went without a hitch. We pulled into EMY about five hours late.
I don't know if onboard customer service staff are trained to handle the kinds of situations like what happened that night, but to me, they certainly went above and beyond the call of duty to get the train running and keep passengers comfortable in very adverse conditions.
I would welcome any clarifications and corrections of my account as well as operational and technical explanations of equipment and procedures. I apologize for the length of this post.
And wouldn’t it be great if someone reading this post was also on that train that night?