EB - Lateness Problems This Summer

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I wonder if the gravel truck tried to beat the train?

:-(

PRR 60 said:
montana mike said:
Good Grief is right--another intermodal. I went by the mess still sitting besides the tracks in eastern MT yesterday and now another one on the other side of the border. They certainly can't blame the heat--the temps are actually slightly below normal in ND today.

:-(((

EB_OBS said:
Just when you thought things were looking better;

BNSF derailment
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It was a grade crossing incident. The BNSF train struck a loaded gravel truck at a crossing.
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fairviewroad said:
Some up-close footage from the most recent derailment. No mention of Amtrak in this report:

http://www.kxnet.com/story/19267541/tioga-train-derailment
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Note that this was not track or railroad equipment caused. Quote from the news article:

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train derailed this morning east of Tioga after hitting a fully loaded gravel truck that was crossing the tracks.. . . .

Roughly 30 rail cars, all carrying intermodal containers, were spread out and piled up along the tracks, some had ruptured spilling their contents throughout the wreckage. The crossing where the accident occurred was on a rural gravel road. It was marked but did not have signal lights or crossing gates. The derailment has shut down the main BNSF line track through the area.

Officials with the railroad said it will take more than a day and a half to clean up the wreckage and repair the damaged track and won't likely reopen the line until late tomorrow evening.

. . . .

No one on the BNSF train was injured in the accident. The Highway Patrol and Burlington Northern is investigating the derailment.
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Sixth trainset now in use?

Yesterday's train #7 didn't arrive in SEA until 6:47 p.m.

Meanwhile, yesterday's train #8 left SEA at 6:08 p.m. -- BEFORE the inbound train arrived. Normally the #7 is turned in SEA to become the same-day's #8.

So you would have had the rare case of two EB's passing each other along the Puget Sound somewhere between SEA and Everett.

Of course, if there was a trainset in SEA, the question then becomes why didn't it leave on time?

Second question: Is there not a spare set in PDX for the PDX leg? Yesterday, train #27 arrived in PDX at 6:27 p.m. But yesterday's train #28 departed

at 8:05 p.m. While that would have been a relatively quick turnaround, that still suggests there was not a spare in PDX. If that's the case, then what's

the point of having a spare in SEA and not in PDX? Because the SEA section still has to wait in Spokane for the PDX section. Consequently the combined

#8 is running 4 hours late heading into Whitefish this morning. I kind of thought having a spare EB set would reduce the chance of train being that late

so early in its run.
 
It was reported on the EB Yahoo Group that #7(12), the first train impacted by the derailment and bus-bridged, ended up running around 24 hours late. Thus it would appear that this train arrived in PDX/SEA just a few hours before #7(13), forcing the #8 departure to be late.

With regard to #28, it appears that #27(13) arrived at 6:51 pm and #28(15) departed at 8:05 pm. Perhaps they did a quick-turn with #27(13) instead of using #27(12), which missed its prior servicing in Chicago due to the bus bridge and probably needed more time to clean.

Just my guesses. Maybe EB_OBS will confirm or clarify. The sixth trainset sure makes things easier - I wonder how long it will stay around...

Mark

fairviewroad said:
Sixth trainset now in use?

Yesterday's train #7 didn't arrive in SEA until 6:47 p.m.

Meanwhile, yesterday's train #8 left SEA at 6:08 p.m. -- BEFORE the inbound train arrived. Normally the #7 is turned in SEA to become the same-day's #8.

So you would have had the rare case of two EB's passing each other along the Puget Sound somewhere between SEA and Everett.

Of course, if there was a trainset in SEA, the question then becomes why didn't it leave on time?

Second question: Is there not a spare set in PDX for the PDX leg? Yesterday, train #27 arrived in PDX at 6:27 p.m. But yesterday's train #28 departed

at 8:05 p.m. While that would have been a relatively quick turnaround, that still suggests there was not a spare in PDX. If that's the case, then what's

the point of having a spare in SEA and not in PDX? Because the SEA section still has to wait in Spokane for the PDX section. Consequently the combined

#8 is running 4 hours late heading into Whitefish this morning. I kind of thought having a spare EB set would reduce the chance of train being that late

so early in its run.
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What happened to #28(15) yesterday was that the very late #27(12)which arrived more than 24 hours late, ended up with a Bad/Ordered sleeper car.

Train #27(13) arrived at 6:27pm and we used the sleeper off that train set for #28(15) That is what caused the big delay in Portland. Portland does not have the mechanical facilities to replace a broken bolster spring, which was the reason for the B/O sleeper off 27(12) so they had to wait for the next train set to arrive.

There is a full train set in both Seattle and Portland now to protect against a very late arriving #7/27. It is expected I heard that we will have it 'til mid September.
 
Fearlessly predict that after Labor Day the EB will run mostly on time or at worst 2 hours late.

Been watching and riding that train since 1988.

Unfortunately -- the summer runs have the best daylight + scenery but the worst delays from trackwork, crowding, floods, heat spells, etc.

One delay that can happen year around is slow orders for high winds in the lee of the Rockies - Western Montana east of Marias Pass.

In winter- which will soon start in Montana and west Dakota - blizzards may also happen.

But OTP gets better in the less desirable months for passengers when track work stops and most freight traffic also shrinks.
 
NW cannonball said:
Fearlessly predict that after Labor Day the EB will run mostly on time or at worst 2 hours late.

Been watching and riding that train since 1988.

Unfortunately -- the summer runs have the best daylight + scenery but the worst delays from trackwork, crowding, floods, heat spells, etc.

One delay that can happen year around is slow orders for high winds in the lee of the Rockies - Western Montana east of Marias Pass.

In winter- which will soon start in Montana and west Dakota - blizzards may also happen.

But OTP gets better in the less desirable months for passengers when track work stops and most freight traffic also shrinks.
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hopefully. we still will have freight congestion, equipment failures, derailments..... but i agree it should improve to at least as good as it has been the past few days (2 hours late into chi)
 
The current east bound Builder (train 8) which left Seattle on April 15th Wednesday is running 9 hours and 55 minutes late. That's ridiculous.
 
railpost said:
The current east bound Builder (train 8) which left Seattle on April 15th Wednesday is running 9 hours and 55 minutes late. That's ridiculous.
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I must have gotten all jumbled around in Cambridge. I think A LOT more time would have passed between April and now to make the train only 10 hours late, so I think that's about the best we could hope for!
 
railpost said:
The current east bound Builder (train 8) which left Seattle on April 15th Wednesday is running 9 hours and 55 minutes late. That's ridiculous.
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This is a correction. The correct date was August 15th not April 15th and I just learned that buses will be meeting the eastbound Builder in St. Paul to take the people who are running late to all of the local stops between St. Paul and Chicago.

Train number 8 itself Is being rerouted out of St. Paul and is now expected to arrive Chicago sometime after 3am.

Just received this information from a close friend who is aboard the Builder (8) headed for Glenview Illinois.

 

As to the exact reroute that the Builder (8) is taking , I don't have that information but I would assume that most likely it would use the ex Burlington Quincy (Burlington Northern), which used to be the Builders route into Chicago before Amtrak.

According to Amtraks website the Builder is due in to CHicago at 12;28am however this friend aboard the train just gave me the information that the Builder is allegedly being rerouted into CHicago and will be arriving after 3am.

My friend however will not be on board as he will be aboard a "makeup bus".
 
What usually happens is that on-time buses run for passengers boarding between MSP and CHI, and the train runs drop-off only east of MSP.

Are you sure it's being rerouted (not doubting you, just making sure)?
 
NY Penn said:
railpost said:
The current east bound Builder (train 8) which left Seattle on April 15th Wednesday is running 9 hours and 55 minutes late. That's ridiculous.
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By Empire Builder standards, that's not all that bad.

Now that's ridiculous.
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That really is ridiculous and I thought that a few years ago that the Empire Builder was supposed to be Amtrak's comeback kid. You probably recall when the were supposedly up grading the service. I can't help but wonder if the ex Northern Pacific line would be a viable reroute for the Builder west of St. Paul as a number of time over the years there has been proposals to at least look into restoring service on at least part of the ex Northern Pacific route though Southern Montana.

They eliminated that route in October of 1979 as part of the "Jimmy Carter"cutbacks.

It would have been much smarter to run the route to Seattle and Porland having the train run on the ex Great Northern Route (current route) four days a week and the southern route (ex Northern Pacific route) three days a week which is the way that they were running that train anyway for the last few months before the Jimmy Carter cutbacks of 1979.
 
I'm also surprised by a reroute east of St. Paul. We haven't had flooding recently, which is usually what causes reroutes. Also, #7 seems to be going on its usual route west.
 
NY Penn said:
What usually happens is that on-time buses run for passengers boarding between MSP and CHI, and the train runs drop-off only east of MSP.

Are you sure it's being rerouted (not doubting you, just making sure)?
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NY Penn, as I am not on board the train and my friend really isn't a train historian and Amtrak afficionado as I am I would have to or suggest that It be double checked as my friend could have misheard the information or gotten it confused. I did get my friend and his wife to take out a family membership for NARP during the past year and thanks to his wife they are coming back from a long journey out west with their teenage daughter for the first time, so I do have a little bit of a doubt also. Until I get better information or some kind of confirmation I will have to assume that he gave me the correct information ,even though it does sound unusual.
 
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As a further up date on the progress of the Eastbound Empire Builder (8) which as scheduled to arrive Chicago on August 17 2012 at 3;55pm but was running 10 hours and 24 minutes late and was last predicted to arrive St.Paul Minnesota as 4;50pm Central Daylight time, it was taken off of Amtrak's status list.

It was also taken off of Dixieland Softwares Amtrak status Map site as well.

This confirms that people traveling east of St. Paul are being put on "make up time buses", but it doesn't confirm if the train is being rerouted or using the conventional route into Chicago.
 
railpost said:
As a further up date on the progress of the Eastbound Empire Builder (8) which as scheduled to arrive Chicago on August 17 2012 at 3;55pm but was running 10 hours and 24 minutes late and was last predicted to arrive St.Paul Minnesota as 4;50pm Central Daylight time, it was taken off of Amtrak's status list.

It was also taken off of Dixieland Softwares Amtrak status Map site as well.

This confirms that people traveling east of St. Paul are being put on "make up time buses", but it doesn't confirm if the train is being rerouted or using the conventional route into Chicago.
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I saw this train approaching the station MSP at 16:59 today. First saw only the engines, moving so slowly they seemed to be standing still from my moving automobile. I wondered for a brief moment why Amtrak would leave 2 engines in St Paul, then saw more of the train moving very slowly up to the platform. Oof-da. Not good timekeeping at all.
 
What a disaster and the train has been running quite late all summer according to this thread. I hope that hasn't turned off too many first time Amtrak travelers.
 
Train had to detour because the late arrival would put it through during a CP track work window.
 
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