My worst trip on the Empire Builder began on January 1st, 2008. After a nice New Years Eve dinner at Volare in Chicago, we departed on #7 on-time. It was a freezing cold day and the train was packed. For the most part it was sold-out.
By the time we arrived in MSP we were running a few hours late. This was mostly due to severe ice build-up under the train. By the time we awoke in the morning there was so much ice, 1000s lbs., under the train and on the trucks that the brakes were sticking and now our dining car had flat spots so bad that one end of the diner wad bouncing up and down and you couldn't keep anything on the tables. Somewhere between Minot, ND and Williston the brakes locked up again so the conductors had to spend some time in three feet deep snow and below zero temperatures cutting out the brakes on the diner. This helped for a while but just after we started lunch the BNSF dispatcher ordered the crew to set out the dining car.
The dining car crew moved some of the stock, stuff we could take to the lounge car, while the conductors were positioning the train to set it out. Once they made the first cut we had to be out though as they were then gonna shove the diner into a nearby siding. Well three and one half hours later we were under way again leaving our dining car behind in Eastern Montana.
Amtrak had arranged for boxed dinners to be put on in Havre, MT along with some stock for breakfast the next day. Unfortunately we didn't arrive into Havre until after 8pm. Needless to say everyone was pretty hungry by then. We loaded onto the train almost 400 boxed dinners and many many cases of fruit, soda, juice, pastries and granola bars. I think it took about an hour to get everything on board then away we went.
Very late the next morning arriving into Spokane, WA, we were passing out fruit, pastries and juice when all of a sudden the 480 volt panel in the dorm-car exploded into flames and smoke. I happened to be standing next to a conductor and I heard the engineer call out that turning off the HEP from the lead locomotive didn't work. He had to climb down and run back to the second locomotive to kill the HEP. So the dorm-car 480 volt panel fried for a while and burnt the lower level vestibule area pretty good and filled the entire car with putrid electrical fire smoke.
Now with the HEP fried in the dorm-car, the HEP could not go thru to the rest of the train so the dorm had to be removed. It was decided to cut it out and tack it onto the rear of the train to continue on to Seattle. With it positioned on the rear it was no longer accessible from the rest of the train. We, the OBS crew, had to grab what we needed and find somewhere else to ride, sit, the rest of the way to Seattle. The train was completely sold-out at this point though. There wasn't a single room or coach seat anywhere. Unusually, #7 had a coach-bag car in it's consist this day. So, we had to ride the rest of the trip in there. It was cold and drafty, the baggage doors didn't close fully and had really bad seals too and the floor was wet and icy.
Now, as we are running about seven hours late, we realized we didn't know what we were supposed to do to feed passengers lunch. We only had leftover fruit, granola and juice from breakfast and no managers or anyone else had been in contact with us since the previous day. Again, needless to say, the passengers were pretty upset with the available options for lunch.
We finally arrived into Seattle around 4pm. Certainly not the latest of trips but a pretty rough one nonetheless. My chef on that trip worked one more trip and then quit Amtrak for good.
So far, nothing I've experienced has topped that one.
