SW Chief #3 Running 12 Hours late

[Tennessee Traveler]

Anyone know why the Southwest Chief #4 which departed LAUS Feb 4 on time began losing time by Fullerton and is now 12 hours late near Dodge City, KS?

 

[MAW66]

I've read elsewhere that this #4 had at least one of its P42s fail. Don't know where, nor do I know how long it took them to either fix the Amtrak unit, or get a BNSF unit. If they got a BNSF unit, they'll lose some time because of freight-unit speeds.

EDIT: ETA Topeka 5:35PM. (Train was due in at 5:18 this morning.) I'm hearing they've got one BNSF unit (7557) and one Amtrak P42.

 

[printman2000]

I read elsewhere they did get a BNSF unit. The original plan was to swap it for the protect unit in Albuquerque, but for some reason that did not happen.

 

[MAW66]

I wonder if BNSF is going to make Amtrak start running 3 units on that train again, even WITH a protect unit in Albuquerque. Is it my imagination, or are we getting into another rash of P42 failures? :help:

 

[Trogdor]

Probably just your imagination (or rather, just taking anecdotes as an indication of a pattern).

Would have to see data, such as MDBF, to determine if there is actual an increase in the failure rate.

 

[Steve4031]

Wish I had been on it. Some people have all the luck . . .

 

[MAW66]

Probably just your imagination (or rather, just taking anecdotes as an indication of a pattern).
Would have to see data, such as MDBF, to determine if there is actual an increase in the failure rate.

One of these days, I'll remember not to ask questions like "Is it my imagination."

 

[Anderson]

Well, remember: It's always possible that failures could incidentally "move around" within the fleet due to either luck or maintenance cycles. It's not like Amtrak's locomotive fleet is large enough to expect subsections of the fleet to usually behave the same as one another within a modest margin of error.