Hurrican Rita Evac Train?

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daveyb99

OBS Chief
Joined
Mar 10, 2005
Messages
910
Location
Grapevine, TX
Todays SB Texas Eagle (#21) had 6 single-level cars along for the ride. (sorry, was too far away to get car numbers).

These should be enroute to Houston to help evacuate those interested.

Yesterday, several TRE (Trinity Rail Express), a local DAL-FTW commuter train, sent 6 cars to Houston to evacuate.

david
 
-_- The opportunity will be wasted just like it was with the NOL evacuation trains that were sent to help.
 
I think the Texas evacuation situation is totally different from New Orleans, in that it is actually organized and the leaders have obtained the equipment and have the ability to make it happen.

Lessons learned..........
 
Sam Damon said:
Then I suppose the Star-Telegram article is in error?
(Free registration required to view article)
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If there is it was not mentioned today at Amtrak because there trying to get Natl Guards back home on the east coast and nothing was said about any evac train running don't belive evrything you read in the paper or hear on the news it sometimes is the wrong information.There going to add a bunch of cars put on a certon train to get these Natl Guards home.
 
I don't believe everything I read in the papers; for cryin' out loud, I make a living of sorts in the news business!

I trust you're saying there is *no* evacuation train -- or to put it another way, some lazy reporter retyped a press release?

If the S-T article is in error, I may ring up the city editor in the morning on the company line. It might be good for his soul...
 
Yeah the TRE has already left Fort Worth for Houston from my understanding.

TRE site

Plus that ST writer, Gordon Dickson has written several pro-rail articles, many of which are about Amtrak and the Texas Eagle, as well as other transportation projects around the state.

So I'm going to say, a TRE train has already left for Houston.
 
Sam Damon said:
I don't believe everything I read in the papers; for cryin' out loud, I make a living of sorts in the news business!
I trust you're saying there is *no* evacuation train -- or to put it another way, some lazy reporter retyped a press release?

If the S-T article is in error, I may ring up the city editor in the morning on the company line. It might be good for his soul...
Click to expand...
Yea like i said Amtrak had no special movements yesterday i can find out today but right now it would be a little to late to run an Evac train since they take all the power offline and take the gates down so you have no signals or crossing protection.
 
Shuttle Train is coming.........

Baton Rouge to New Orleans - two trains in each direction per day.....details to follow.
 
Amtrak did run an Evacuation Train organized by BNSF, Greyhound and Amtrak. BNSF CEO/PRESIDENT Matt Rose wouldn't let the train leave until every seat was full which they were. From BNSF.com

Hurricane Rita Evacuees Ride Train on BNSF Railway

Thursday September 22, 8:05 pm ET

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A special Trinity Railway Express (TRE) passenger train with about 450 evacuees from the Houston area is operating over BNSF Railway trackage from Houston via Teague to Dallas Union Station.

The train, consisting of two TRE locomotives and six passenger cars, is being operated by a TRE crew provided by Herzog Transit Services Inc. The train left Houston at about 3 p.m. today. It is expected to stop at about 8 p.m. at 208 S. Third Street in Teague, where passengers will be provided with meals and water.

The train will then continue to Dallas Union Station, 401 S. Houston St., where it is expected to arrive about midnight. Amtrak will keep Union Station open until the train arrives and will provide personnel to direct passengers upon their arrival.
 
That makes little to no sense. The Herzog boys aren't qualified to run that train. They had to have pilots. I mean I could see having a Conductor there as a liason to passengers, but I'd be willing to guess BNSF guys were actually running the train.
 
battalion51 said:
That makes little to no sense. The Herzog boys aren't qualified to run that train. They had to have pilots. I mean I could see having a Conductor there as a liason to passengers, but I'd be willing to guess BNSF guys were actually running the train.
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Per BNSF: Herzog crew with a BNSF pilot.
 
I am glad to hear that the TRE train, with BNSF pilot(s), was able to evacuate 450 people from Houston towards Dallas. At least, this evacuation train was not wasted.

What about the Amtrak evacuation train that was supposed to operate from Houston to San Antonio?

It would be interesting to see what happens with the evacuation trains from New Orleans to Baton Rouge/Lafayette.
 
Allen Dee said:
I am glad to hear that the TRE train, with BNSF pilot(s), was able to evacuate 450 people from Houston towards Dallas.  At least, this evacuation train was not wasted.
What about the Amtrak evacuation train that was supposed to operate from Houston to San Antonio?

It would be interesting to see what happens with the evacuation trains from New Orleans to Baton Rouge/Lafayette.
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It is refrshing to see that People did use it.
 
I am assuming that the term "pilot" is being used to mean engineer. In traditional railroad usage, a pilot is relative to a cowcatcher.

The increasing desire by some to equate or even meld rail with air transport is ultimately impossible and unnecessary. Rail is its own mode and is quite superior in its own right. Its long developed traditions have been formed by hard experience by generations of railroaders and are very sufficient and quite necessary for the interchangeable, continuous operation of rail by successive generations of railroaders.

For sure, it may be pointed out that rail developed in large part as an amalgamation of stagecoach (equestrianism) and nautical usages. It therefore has a close kinship with buses on the equestrian side. Aviation, of course, owes much of its heritage to navigation as well with very much less if anything inherited from equestrianism except that, aviation does inherit some railroad culture, especially in passenger service. If anything, air pilots could be called “engineers”! Let's keep rail integral and free from unnecessary alienations to itself or attempts to incorporate it into other, arguably unsuited modes and exposing it to possibly further alienation from its own nature by their very potentially unsympathetic constituencies.
 
Oh please, the term pilot is part of modern railroad terminology. I'm sorry these aren't the old days, things change, as does terminology. The fact that the word pilot has come into being accepted wasn't set down by some board, it was has just come to be accepted this way. In the old days the term Fireman meant someone who tended to the fire on a steam engine. These days it means Assistant Engineer. A long time ago a Brakeman physically turned the brakes on for the train to brake. These days he's an Assistant Conductor. Railroading changes as does the terminology, it just happens, this happens in the real world too, even based on what part of the world you're in.
 

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