July 20th EB 9 hr 37 mins. late?

[PennCentralFan]

Anyone who reads this board ride on that horror story? I'd be interested in knowing what happened?

If you've checked the EB this week has been late. Anyone know the details? Man you have to wonder sometimes why Amtrak gets treated so badly by the freight lines.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Yes, from Gene:

Status of the train: approximately ten hours late in North Dakota at last report.

"Mundo" reported that it was delayed at initial terminal due to car being repaired. What happened that made the repair necessary: it derailed in the Seattle yard. During the process of moving the train to the car washer, the Amtrak crew shoved the consist over a BNSF switch which had been lined and locked by a BNSF MofW gang. During the move, Coach 34024 derailed. Amtrak had no replacement equipment available in Seattle and the loss of the coach would have meant inadequate passenger capacity over the train's entire route, so Train 8(18) was held while the car was removed from consist, rerailed, and rewheeled. It departed nine hours late. Passengers who planned to use the train to points up to Spokane were bustituted.

The cause was determined to be the BNSF switch, which was defective after having been run through previously, leaving a gap at the switch point which was enough to put the car on the ground.

-GP

 

[saxman]

Usually if its the Builder being significantly late, its due to a freak incident like this one. Its almost never BNSF that would cause this. I've been delayed by couple of freight derailments, and have also heard avalanches can cause havoc. Not that an avalanche will come this time of year.