Heads up on train 95 - 1/15

I heard on the radio that train 95 from Boston had engine problems with the hhp8. They just added a diesel to the headend at new haven and when the train arrives at Harold, another electric will be added and the entire train will head to DC. Get your cameras ready.

The HHP8 is 656? (definitely x56). I was on 95 this morning, and it sat outside of NHV for about 25 minutes before proceeding in.

Funny because yesterday 656 was working just fine, shows how things can change fast.

http://kaback9.rrpicturearchives.net/sh ... id=1455972

I was wondering if anyone happened to get pics of the train?3 locomtives and 7 cars between NYC and DC with an Electric, diesel , Electric Combo would be interesting. I heard part of th eproblem was cab signal related and propolusion problems. Ohhh well. I passed 95 outside New Haven as I had to go to New Haven for something company related. It was cold and snowy this am so anything was possible

95 had 8 cars this morning.

BuddSilverliner269 wrote:I was wondering if anyone happened to get pics of the train?3 locomtives and 7 cars between NYC and DC with an Electric, diesel , Electric Combo would be interesting. I heard part of th eproblem was cab signal related and propolusion problems. Ohhh well. I passed 95 outside New Haven as I had to go to New Haven for something company related. It was cold and snowy this am so anything was possible

Are you sure the disabled HHP-8 and (presumably) P42 ever went past the Sunnyside Yard?

MudLake wrote:

BuddSilverliner269 wrote:I was wondering if anyone happened to get pics of the train?3 locomtives and 7 cars between NYC and DC with an Electric, diesel , Electric Combo would be interesting. I heard part of th eproblem was cab signal related and propolusion problems. Ohhh well. I passed 95 outside New Haven as I had to go to New Haven for something company related. It was cold and snowy this am so anything was possible

Are you sure the disabled HHP-8 and (presumably) P42 ever went past the Sunnyside Yard?

Ok it couldve had 8 cars, I counted 7 when it went by and yes the entire train went to DC. That was the plan since the train was already late. I heard it as I was riding up to New Haven on the radio. Diesel got tacked onto the front in New Haven and then another electric was getting tacked onto the front of that train at Harold.

I was on the train and missed my connection to Florida as a result of the delay. The train was 8 cars when we left Boston and things ran smoothly until New Haven. We paused for 10-15 minutes just before State Street station in New Haven, then proceeded slowly into New Haven. We waited about 10 minutes before the conductor announced that we had engine problems and that a diesel would be hooked up to take us to just outside NYP where an electic would be hooked up to take us the rest of the way.

We made good time between NHV and Sunnyside where we stopped to get the rescue engine hooked up. While we waited, the temperature in my car easily got to the mid-80's so it was a relief about 30 minutes later when the HEP was disconnected and the diesel left the train (I heard it accelerating away). About 5 minutes after that HEP was restored but ice in the brake line on the relief locomotive meant that it took at least another 60 minutes to actually get the brake lines hooked up and the train underway.

We ended up pulling into Penn Station around 1:15pm, about 2h45m late. People on the train handled the situation surprisingly well and there was very little grumbling, even though it sounded like nearly everyone was missing appointments or connections. To Amtrak's credit, they made announcements letting everyone know what to do for the cases of missed connections.

Since I was meeting friends in Florida for a 3-day weekend, I couldn't wait for the next day's train, so I booked a Delta flight from JFK....which was delayed on the runway for over three hours but eventually got me to Florida.

The consequence of having one train a day is Amtrak doesn't have much capability to deal with people who have appointments at the other end.

For a transportation mode to be truly usable, it has to be reliable. When you hear stories like this, when you see the OT statistics folk furnish our Forum, Amtrak has a problem with reliability.

With the Silver Service from New York to Orlando, the issue isn't so much with multiple frequencies but that the two trains that travel to Orlando depart NYP within an hour or two of each other. That said, Mr. Perkowski

To give credit where credit is due, the train I was supposed to be on arrived in Orlando 8 minutes late. On my return trip, the Silver Meteor got to DC (on Inaguration Day) 10 minutes ahead of schedule and the Acela Express I connected with got to Boston 5 minutes ahead.

FatNoah wrote:With the Silver Service from New York to Orlando, the issue isn't so much with multiple frequencies but that the two trains that travel to Orlando depart NYP within an hour or two of each other. That said, Mr. Perkowski

To give credit where credit is due, the train I was supposed to be on arrived in Orlando 8 minutes late. On my return trip, the Silver Meteor got to DC (on Inaguration Day) 10 minutes ahead of schedule and the Acela Express I connected with got to Boston 5 minutes ahead.

I was on #98 last year and we arrived into WAS nearly 20 minutes early, after arriving into RVR nearly 30 min. late. Talk about padding. I wonder if they run #97&#91 so close together for dispatching purposes over the freight rr's? These trains run right behind eachother south of Winter Park.

FatNoah wrote:With the Silver Service from New York to Orlando, the issue isn't so much with multiple frequencies but that the two trains that travel to Orlando depart NYP within an hour or two of each other. That said, Mr. Perkowski

To give credit where credit is due, the train I was supposed to be on arrived in Orlando 8 minutes late. On my return trip, the Silver Meteor got to DC (on Inaguration Day) 10 minutes ahead of schedule and the Acela Express I connected with got to Boston 5 minutes ahead.

The two Silver trains don't depart within two hours, they depart within 4 and a half hours (estimated). So with your arrival, you could have tried to refund your tickets from the Star to the Meteor (since you arrived at 1:15, and the Meteor leaves at 3:15). So you might not have needed to spend the extra money (saying if the fare you bought the tickets for was the same as the Meteor) on the plane, fare to get there, etc. This is just my thought.

Now, back on topic. That must have been a cool looking train (especially if it was an AEM7 added to the front at Sunnyside).

lirr415-Peter

Unfortunately a booking on the Meteor was not presented as an option. The reason I had a ticket for the Star to begin with was that the Meteor did not show any available seats. My options were to gamble with the train or book one of the few remaining available flights.

In any case, it would have been pretty cool to get a shot of the train heading over the Hellgate. Not too many diesel-led regionals on that bridge...