Noticed/Questioned Major Delays, Annulments, Reroutes

A fire at the Maibach Propane Rail terminal (about 2 miles east of Mount Joy, PA) on Tuesday, July 2nd resulted in the temporary suspension of all Keystone service on Amtrak's Harrisburg Line.

I'm told that train 43, The Pennsylvanian, got as far west as Lancaster, where it was terminated and passengers heading west were transferred to busses. The consist, with occupied private car New York Central 3 on the rear, was deadheaded back to the coach yard at Philadelphia. I believe NYC 3 finally made it to Pittsburgh on Wednesday's train 43.

Sun the 7th I had the good fortune to be listening to the RF&P radio stream near Elmont. Someone (possible Q439) told the BD DS that #91 had a smoking wheel. The train stopped south of Elmont and the conductor advised there was a wheel on the diner with so much metal buildup that the brakes would not release. #91 stopped at about 5:25 pm and still has not moved as of this writing at 9 pm. #53, #157 and #99 have all overtaken the train on TK 2.

Guess the passengers won't be eating grits for breakfast in FL tomorrow!



Andy

twropr wrote:
Guess the passengers won't be eating grits for breakfast in FL tomorrow!

Andy

No grits??? Now THAT is terrible news!!!

I'm going to be taking the #91 on the 9th, should I be getting prepared for a delay or bussing?

twropr wrote:Sun the 7th I had the good fortune to be listening to the RF&P radio stream near Elmont. Someone (possible Q439) told the BD DS that #91 had a smoking wheel. The train stopped south of Elmont and the conductor advised there was a wheel on the diner with so much metal buildup that the brakes would not release. #91 stopped at about 5:25 pm and still has not moved as of this writing at 9 pm. #53, #157 and #99 have all overtaken the train on TK 2.

Guess the passengers won't be eating grits for breakfast in FL tomorrow!

Andy

Certainly, there is more to this story, and unfortunately I am not at liberty to share that information at this point, but do know this, the end result is not completely Amtrak's fault, there was a plan in place that would have mitigated the situation to some end, but an alternative plan was prescribed.. Sometimes things happen, sometimes you can only do so much. The end result is alternative meal service, delayed passengers, and some persons riding "Deluxe" Motor coach services today. But the key fact that must be remembered, is that everyone is SAFELY moving to their destination .

More on the Train 91 major delay:
http://news.yahoo.com/amtrak-passenger- ... 59161.html
"The unexpected stop about 5:30 p.m. Sunday was the result of an axle problem that disabled the Silver Service train 2 miles north of Richmond. It didn't resume its trip south until shortly after 7 a.m. Monday."

I would simply state a 13 to 14 hour delay is one huge major delay....
How difficult would it had been for Amtrak to accommodate these passengers at the Richmond train station just two miles away?

twropr wrote:Sun the 7th I had the good fortune to be listening to the RF&P radio stream near Elmont. Someone (possible Q439) told the BD DS that #91 had a smoking wheel. The train stopped south of Elmont and the conductor advised there was a wheel on the diner with so much metal buildup that the brakes would not release.

electricron wrote:More on the Train 91 major delay:
http://news.yahoo.com/amtrak-passenger- ... 59161.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"The unexpected stop about 5:30 p.m. Sunday was the result of an axle problem that disabled the Silver Service train 2 miles north of Richmond. It didn't resume its trip south until shortly after 7 a.m. Monday."

Conflicting reports here. What was the actual problem, a wheel defect or an axle defect, inquiring minds would like to know? It sounds like a defect with the tread and/or flange surface of a wheel, or both wheels of one wheelset. Was the problematic Heritage diner a tread brake car or a disc brake car?

electricron wrote: I would simply state a 13 to 14 hour delay is one huge major delay....
How difficult would it had been for Amtrak to accommodate these passengers at the Richmond train station just two miles away?

And how would they accommodate these passengers to Richmond? I'm going to assume, you mean bring them to the nearest station? Walk them back 2 miles to the station on the trap rock and track structure??? When situations like this arise, Conductors and A.C.'s can not just empty a train, and walk psgr's back a mile to a station, it is unsafe and could be very dangerous, especially at dusk. I'm sure the crew didn't think it would be that long to get back underway, but communication sometimes takes a while to get a plan in place in the RR, TM's got to take to Chief TD's and then talk to the next person.......a wise, fatherly figure engineer taught me the greatest piece of knowledge since I have been on the RR..."take it slow, because when you rush, that is when sh*t happens and everything hits the fan"

jhdeasy wrote: Conflicting reports here. What was the actual problem, a wheel defect or an axle defect, inquiring minds would like to know? It sounds like a defect with the tread and/or flange surface of a wheel, or both wheels of one wheelset. Was the problematic Heritage diner a tread brake car or a disc brake car?

I saw the pictures. It is a tread brake car and it had multiple problems involving all wheels.

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:

electricron wrote: I would simply state a 13 to 14 hour delay is one huge major delay....
How difficult would it had been for Amtrak to accommodate these passengers at the Richmond train station just two miles away?

And how would they accommodate these passengers to Richmond? I'm going to assume, you mean bring them to the nearest station? Walk them back 2 miles to the station on the trap rock and track structure??? When situations like this arise, Conductors and A.C.'s can not just empty a train, and walk psgr's back a mile to a station, it is unsafe and could be very dangerous, especially at dusk. I'm sure the crew didn't think it would be that long to get back underway, but communication sometimes takes a while to get a plan in place in the RR, TM's got to take to Chief TD's and then talk to the next person.......a wise, fatherly figure engineer taught me the greatest piece of knowledge since I have been on the RR..."take it slow, because when you rush, that is when sh*t happens and everything hits the fan"

They could have uncoupled the car with the brake problems from the front half of the train and taken those passengers in those cars to the station and come back using track 2 and coupled onto the cars in the last half of the train and taken them to the station, leaving the problem car at the scene. I'm not suggesting that's the only thing they could do, but it is one they could have done without placing passengers at risk. Per the news article I linked, deputy sheriffs had no problems reaching the train, so passengers shouldn't have had more problems reaching the same road or street where they parked their patrol cars, and could have risen a bus to the station. I'll admit that alternate may have placed passengers at risk, but not more so than the deputy sheriffs.

What the news article failed at was describing what Amtrak did to fix the damaged brakes and wheels for the problem car? Did Amtrak repair it where it was, replace the brakes, replace the car, etc?

http://www.Amtrak.com reports that Maple Leaf 64 of 7/9/13 will be 1 hour late leaving Toronto, Ont. http://www.cbc.ca quotes a commuter

that shuttle buses were being used on the Lakeshore West GO Train line between Port Credit and Long Branch to move passengers past a flooded area.

Also,

About 1,000 people were caught by the flooding aboard a northbound GO Transit train, and it took police and firefighters about seven hours to ferry everyone to dry ground aboard small inflatable boats.The operation ended at about 12:30 a.m.

Maybe this is why Norfolk Southern has Amtrak delays when flash floods are forecast?

The busing mentioned in the previous post is on the normal route of the Maple Leaf.
TAN: This link http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/s ... video.html says the trapped train was going to Richmond Hill with 1,400 passengers and includes a video of the snake swimming inside one of the flooded cars.

electricron wrote:

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:

electricron wrote: I would simply state a 13 to 14 hour delay is one huge major delay....
How difficult would it had been for Amtrak to accommodate these passengers at the Richmond train station just two miles away?

And how would they accommodate these passengers to Richmond? I'm going to assume, you mean bring them to the nearest station? Walk them back 2 miles to the station on the trap rock and track structure??? When situations like this arise, Conductors and A.C.'s can not just empty a train, and walk psgr's back a mile to a station, it is unsafe and could be very dangerous, especially at dusk. I'm sure the crew didn't think it would be that long to get back underway, but communication sometimes takes a while to get a plan in place in the RR, TM's got to take to Chief TD's and then talk to the next person.......a wise, fatherly figure engineer taught me the greatest piece of knowledge since I have been on the RR..."take it slow, because when you rush, that is when sh*t happens and everything hits the fan"

They could have uncoupled the car with the brake problems from the front half of the train and taken those passengers in those cars to the station and come back using track 2 and coupled onto the cars in the last half of the train and taken them to the station, leaving the problem car at the scene. I'm not suggesting that's the only thing they could do, but it is one they could have done without placing passengers at risk. Per the news article I linked, deputy sheriffs had no problems reaching the train, so passengers shouldn't have had more problems reaching the same road or street where they parked their patrol cars, and could have risen a bus to the station. I'll admit that alternate may have placed passengers at risk, but not more so than the deputy sheriffs.

What the news article failed at was describing what Amtrak did to fix the damaged brakes and wheels for the problem car? Did Amtrak repair it where it was, replace the brakes, replace the car, etc?

But that is the job of local law enforcement and rescue crews, check up/rescue on situations in any kind of terrain. Got to remember that there are passengers of all ages on this train. MBTA has had to save/transfer Amtrak psgr's to our equipment and visa versa up here in MA/RI, and those kind of transfers can take almost 2 hours to complete depending on what the exact situation is, and is a last resort if rescue power can't be readied quickly enough. I don't know the territory down there, 1 or 2 main trks, but sounds like there was no rescue engine, or possibly no rescue crew available to man the rescue unit. I agree with your idea to uncouple and drag back the good half of the train, but obviously there was a variable that forced Amtrak not able to do that move. I'm assuming as well that this is CSX dispatched territory?? A rescue train can not just be summoned, and travel over CSX without proper paperwork and release forms, that takes time. Railroading is tough sometimes, it is easy to say "well why didn't they do this??" Most of the time, the easiest solution can't be done

Did something happen to 55 southbound Vermonter
Or was there speed restrictions because of track work

fl9m2004 wrote:Did something happen to 55 southbound Vermonter
Or was there speed restrictions because of track work

It was waiting for the completion of track work.