Trip report on 8 departing Seattle on 12/29/19

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Steve4031

Engineer
AU Supporting Member
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My experiences on my outbound trip on 7 were covered in the detour thread in the other forum. That detour never happened. I misunderstood what the agent was telling me, assuming she was talking about the outbound leg of my trip rather than the return.

We watched the weather channel dramatize the oncoming winter storm Gage which will impact my trip Monday night and Tuesday morning. According to agent 8 will detour and skip rugby, devils, lake and Grand Forks. BNSF implements directional running in this area when there are snow storms and blizzards. This eliminates unnecessary switching for meets between oncoming trains and this hopefully prevents delays caused by frozen switches.

The name Gage conjures images of a Blond snow flake child reared by free range parent who been benignly watch there darling wander and reach havoc as they noisily explore.

Fargo is experiencing blizzard conditions with about 10 inches of snow expected. Devils lake is expecting 1-4 inches. Minot is not expecting any snow. Barring any BNSF issues or Amtrak issues 8 should do ok into Minot. After Minot it will be interesting. That’s where we will detour. Will there be a pilot crew ready? Will there the storm have impacted the tail infrastructure? We shall see.

After Fargo we regain the regular route. Detroit lakes is also under winter storm warning with 4-8 inches of snow expected. St. Cloud is is expecting 3-5 inches. And Minneapolis St. Paul 3-6 inches. The winter advisory continues to Tomah with the area getting 3-5 inches of snow.

The equipment for today’s 8 is currently in Seattle so we should have an onTime departure today.
 
We arrived into Spokane 30 minutes early. I woke up because I have a cpap machine and knew the power would cut off. I have a surge protector but unplugged it any. Not sure how else to explain the waking up. But that’s what happened.

I’ve had the crap machine since November and have taken it on two trips in sleepers. The chord to my machine is long enough to reach the outlet. But I use the surge protector to protect it. It works well on the train. I have asthma and it helps with that too.

while awake I checked on 8 that arrived Minot earlier this evening. It’s been sitting for a couple of hours and still has not left. Assuming there is no crew for it to take the detour to Fargo.
 
We are on time Whitefish. Breakfast ended up being a bit of a mess. Dad ordered eggs and the people sitting with us asked about the eggs. Dad started talking about powdered eggs from his days in the merchant marine during WII. The lsa got into the middle of it and told my dad the eggs on the train were not powdered. He explained that he was talking about service eggs and and told her not to but in. Her tone was not friendly.

she told him he had to be polite or we would be asked to leave. I told her that we were not rude. We had not raised our voices and not used profanity or anything. She eventually backed off when I told her I would write a report.

By the end of breakfast things had settled down.
 
Steve4031 said:
We are on time Whitefish. Breakfast ended up being a bit of a mess. Dad ordered eggs and the people sitting with us asked about the eggs. Dad started talking about powdered eggs from his days in the merchant marine during WII. The lsa got into the middle of it and told my dad the eggs on the train were not powdered. He explained that he was talking about service eggs and and told her not to but in. Her tone was not friendly.

she told him he had to be polite or we would be asked to leave. I told her that we were not rude. We had not raised our voices and not used profanity or anything. She eventually backed off when I told her I would write a report.

By the end of breakfast things had settled down.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you got one of those "Chicago 'tude" OBS LSAs Steve!:rolleyes:
 
Steve4031 said:
We arrived into Spokane 30 minutes early. I woke up because I have a cpap machine and knew the power would cut off. I have a surge protector but unplugged it any. Not sure how else to explain the waking up. But that’s what happened.

I’ve had the crap machine since November and have taken it on two trips in sleepers. The chord to my machine is long enough to reach the outlet. But I use the surge protector to protect it. It works well on the train. I have asthma and it helps with that too.

while awake I checked on 8 that arrived Minot earlier this evening. It’s been sitting for a couple of hours and still has not left. Assuming there is no crew for it to take the detour to Fargo.
Click to expand...

So there is another thread in the main forum about the temperature in the sleeper, most likely on the train ahead of you. How is it on your train?
 
Steve4031 said:
We are on time Whitefish. Breakfast ended up being a bit of a mess. Dad ordered eggs and the people sitting with us asked about the eggs. Dad started talking about powdered eggs from his days in the merchant marine during WII. The lsa got into the middle of it and told my dad the eggs on the train were not powdered. He explained that he was talking about service eggs and and told her not to but in. Her tone was not friendly.

she told him he had to be polite or we would be asked to leave. I told her that we were not rude. We had not raised our voices and not used profanity or anything. She eventually backed off when I told her I would write a report.

By the end of breakfast things had settled down.
Click to expand...

He explained that he was talking about service eggs and and told her not to but in. That's hilarious!
 
Lunch was better. We sat in the part of the diner where Roggie waited on us. He truly enjoys his job. He waited in the s for dinner last night. He has a unique way of pronouncing words to make people laugh. We will try to sit in his section the rest of the trip.
 
8 made great time across the high line. We did not stop once for freight traffic until approaching Minot. Even so we we will on time.

I have heard no announcements regarding the detour. I asked the sca and he said he thought we would go on it. He stated it was shorter and faster. Since we are on time into Minot I could see us staying on time into Fargo and beyond.

The bed is down. If I’m awake when we leave I’ll keep you updated.
 
We pulled into Fargo area at 2:40 am. When taking the Surrey cutoff the r Ed noire builder must back into the Amtrak station. This was done with little delay.

Fell asleep. Woke up and we were going forward at 3:10. So running less than an hour late. V
 
We are now approaching Red Wing Minnesota. About 20 minutes late.

Breakfast was good. We’ve made a point of asking to sit in section of the diner that that grumpy woman is not serving. The lsa and waiter have worked with us And subsequent meals since yesterday’s battle of the eggs have been pleasant.
 
Steve4031 said:
When taking the Surrey cutoff the r Ed noire builder must back into the Amtrak station.
Click to expand...

It looks like auto-correct gave you an assist there.

There is (or was) a little-used line that would allow train 8 to get to the station without a backing move. I understand that when 7 used the Surrey Cutoff in 2014, it occasionally used this line, departing without a backup move. I never saw it myself, and when I rode 7 to Minot during that time, the train backed out of the station to get to the old NP tracks.
 

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