Empire Builder Summer Blues Started Early this year

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I have been pretty open with my voucher amount. I received $1,000 for my 30 hour delay on last year's EB. Both my husband and I were in a bedroom from SEA - CHI and then had a second award from CHI - WFD (that is in CT), also in a bedroom. Honestly, I was kind of more upset about the shitty service in the diner in the LSL than a delay that was beyond amtrak's control. So the $1,000 was for the entire trip, which was two, two zone bedrolom awards.
 
amamba said:
I have been pretty open with my voucher amount. I received $1,000 for my 30 hour delay on last year's EB. Both my husband and I were in a bedroom from SEA - CHI and then had a second award from CHI - WFD (that is in CT), also in a bedroom. Honestly, I was kind of more upset about the shitty service in the diner in the LSL than a delay that was beyond amtrak's control. So the $1,000 was for the entire trip, which was two, two zone bedrolom awards.
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WOW! Someone was feeling generous!!!
 
amamba said:
I have been pretty open with my voucher amount. I received $1,000 for my 30 hour delay on last year's EB. Both my husband and I were in a bedroom from SEA - CHI and then had a second award from CHI - WFD (that is in CT), also in a bedroom. Honestly, I was kind of more upset about the shitty service in the diner in the LSL than a delay that was beyond amtrak's control. So the $1,000 was for the entire trip, which was two, two zone bedrolom awards.
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But then ya'll Deserved the Voucher,that was an Expensive Trip, it Wasn't Free or Getting Over, THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH!! ;)
 
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How do the trains in the South and Southwest deal with the heat--they have temps above that threshold a good part of the year?
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The problem is not so much heat as the range of temperatures the track must experience. In the desert southwest that range might be 30-120 degrees, a range of 90 degrees. In Montana that range is -40 to 100 degrees, a range of 140 degrees.

Rails are laid in tension, but since extreme tension in cold weather causes pull-aparts, Montana rails must have less tension at, say, 70 degrees than Arizona rails. This in turn means Montana rails will experience much more compression at 90 degrees, making them vulnerable to heat kinks. To put the same amount of stress on Arizona rails the temperature would have to be 130 or so, which thankfully never happens.
 
anir dendroica said:
How do the trains in the South and Southwest deal with the heat--they have temps above that threshold a good part of the year?
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The problem is not so much heat as the range of temperatures the track must experience. In the desert southwest that range might be 30-120 degrees, a range of 90 degrees. In Montana that range is -40 to 100 degrees, a range of 140 degrees.

Rails are laid in tension, but since extreme tension in cold weather causes pull-aparts, Montana rails must have less tension at, say, 70 degrees than Arizona rails. This in turn means Montana rails will experience much more compression at 90 degrees, making them vulnerable to heat kinks. To put the same amount of stress on Arizona rails the temperature would have to be 130 or so, which thankfully never happens.
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Much appreciated on the explanation. I always wondered why in temps that I considered delightfully pleasant ie. mid 80's, BNSF is telling it's engineers to slooooow down. Now I know the rest of the story
 
Bearing in mind that yesterday's #8 also left Malta on time, but was 4 1/2 hours late by the time it got to MSP.
 
CHamilton said:
8 left Glasgow 40 minutes late.
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I see you are now 1 hour and 15 minutes late leaving MT. Just about the amount of time the BNSF guy said you would lose--rats. BTW-the #8 ahead of you looks like it will pull into CHI just under 5 hours late. Let's hope you don't suffer the same delays.
 
Ryan said:
Here's what last year's looked like:


The heavy line is a 10 day moving average that helps smooth the data out a little bit. The raw data is the fine line in the background.

I think that the general consensus is that last year was a particularly bad year. I have the data for other years laying around, I need to unpack it and check it out.
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Being a data handling type, have to love the graph. But a question: did you have the hand collect the underlying data, or is there a way to automate that? I'd very much like to do the same for the CZ.

Very much thanks for posting the graph/data - hugely useful.
 
montana mike said:
anir dendroica said:
It's not a soft track issue but a construction one. BNSF is bringing the Devils Lake and Hillsboro subdivisions up to modern mainline standards to handle oil traffic. New track after tie replacement is restricted to 20-25 mph for a few days until things get settled and maintains a lesser speed restriction for some time after that. Easy to lose a couple of hours plugging along at 25 mph, especially when you have to wait for freights going the same speed.
Overall the Fargo-Minot improvements should be good for the EB in the longer term. In the very near term that means long construction delays this summer. In the 1-10 year term it means that any gains due to higher track speed could well be offset by delays meeting crude oil trains. In the very long term it means excess capacity once Bakken oil output begins to decline.
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Looks like it is going to be a long and slow summer for the Hi-Line!

Since Bakken is supposed to last for 100-150 years I doubt this will help any of us!! :mellow: I spoke with a friend who works for BNSF and the railroad is anticipating greatly increased tanker train traffic for way more than 5 years-even if the EPA ever approves the pipeline. He says there is so much oil and natural gas being produced or planned for production that both will be needed for decades.

Note on today's Eastbound EB plugging along in Wisconsin--now running about 5 hours late--I think we may have jinxed the train.
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I wonder when it becomes worthwhile to double track a section, especially if they're looking at that many years of (oil) output?
 
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