Todays Capital Limited #29

[gaspeamtrak]

I noticed it was 10:06 min. late into Chicago today 18/6/09. It arrived at 6:46pm!!! Does anybody have any info why it was so late? It apparently didn't leave Pittsburg till 07:45 this morning. Those poor people waiting all night!!! I wonder how quickly they ran out of food?

Thanks for any info! :huh:

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Yesterday there were tornado warnings all around this part of Ohio. I didn't hear anything, but its quite possible there was track damage.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

CL #30 east bound was equally late. While I'm sitting here in California under sunny skies and 90 degree temps, the upper mid-east has experienced some very exciting weather today. Rain, hail, high winds, flooding, tornados, etc. (All this per weather.com today). Can't control Mother Nature!!

 

[Rafi]

There were serious mudslides and track damage just east of Pittsburgh. Both trains were held until CSX and Amtrak decided to detour those trains around PGH on the New Castle sub; between New Castle, Youngstown, McKeesport, and Ashtabula to connect to Cleveland.

Rafi

 

[printman2000]

There were serious mudslides and track damage just east of Pittsburgh. Both trains were held until CSX and Amtrak decided to detour those trains around PGH on the New Castle sub; between New Castle, Youngstown, McKeesport, and Ashtabula to connect to Cleveland.
Rafi

Any idea if this will continue or if the normal lines have been reopened?

 

[Rafi]

There were serious mudslides and track damage just east of Pittsburgh. Both trains were held until CSX and Amtrak decided to detour those trains around PGH on the New Castle sub; between New Castle, Youngstown, McKeesport, and Ashtabula to connect to Cleveland.
Rafi

Any idea if this will continue or if the normal lines have been reopened?

One day thing only. Both 29(18) and 30(18) are back on the normal routing.

Rafi

 

[gaspeamtrak]

There were serious mudslides and track damage just east of Pittsburgh. Both trains were held until CSX and Amtrak decided to detour those trains around PGH on the New Castle sub; between New Castle, Youngstown, McKeesport, and Ashtabula to connect to Cleveland.
Rafi

Thanks Rafi!

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

They skipped ALC! They probably didn't have anybody on board for ALC... that's not uncommon.

 

[jkm024]

I'm scheduled to take 29 today from WAS all the way to CHI. I notice that today's 29 is about 3.5 hours late.. not nearly as bad as yesterday, but I'm still worried about delays. The on-time performance of this train looked great for the past several weeks so I felt pretty confident when I booked it, but I am a bit nervous now. Any thoughts on continued delays on this route?

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Whoops, accidentally entered a blank post above. In any event, I'm scheduled to take 29 today from WAS all the way to CHI. I notice that today's 29 is about 3.5 hours late.. not nearly as bad as yesterday, but I'm still worried about delays. The on-time performance of this train looked great for the past several weeks so I felt pretty confident when I booked it, but I am a bit nervous now. Any thoughts on continued delays on this route?

"Today's" 29 hasn't left yet! The 29 you're looking at is the one that left WAS yesterday at 4:05PM and was delayed, if you checked the status of 29 last night then you would have been checking the same train as you did this morning. The 29 you're taking is going to be cleaned and set up for an on time 4:05PM departure-- as mentioned above, the delay was a one-time disruption. The track West of PGH, owned by NS, is clear. And now, apparently, the track West owned by CSX is also declared clear. You will probably be on time into CHI tomorrow.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[jkm024]

"Today's" 29 hasn't left yet! The 29 you're looking at is the one that left WAS yesterday at 4:05PM and was delayed, if you checked the status of 29 last night then you would have been checking the same train as you did this morning.

Thanks, ALC -- I guess what I meant to say was, the train scheduled to arrive today is about 3.5 hours late, and the train scheduled to arrive yesterday was about 10 hours late as discussed above. So since it appeared that the delay also affected Thursday's train, in addition to Wednesday's train, I was curious as to whether or not it would also affect Friday's train.

But, thanks for the prompt reply.. I am Select Plus on Amtrak but usually just hang out on the Northeast Corridor, so I'm not too familiar with the long distance trains. I usually post on Flyertalk (I recognize a few names over here from FT, such as AlanB) but knew that I would get a much faster response here.. so thanks again!

 

[Rafi]

Without promising anything, obviously, I wouldn't worry too much, jkm. The delay to today's arrival in Chicago was due to the lead engine striking debris placed alongside the track by vandals last night just east of Pittsburgh. The engine was seriously banged up (fireman's-side ladder completely ripped off and air hoses broken), so a Norfolk Southern freight engine had to come tow the train to Pittsburgh where a spare Amtrak engine was switched onto the train. Two freak happenings in two days, completely unrelated.

Track conditions around Pittsburgh have been cleared up.

Rafi

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

"Today's" 29 hasn't left yet! The 29 you're looking at is the one that left WAS yesterday at 4:05PM and was delayed, if you checked the status of 29 last night then you would have been checking the same train as you did this morning.

Thanks, ALC -- I guess what I meant to say was, the train scheduled to arrive today is about 3.5 hours late, and the train scheduled to arrive yesterday was about 10 hours late as discussed above. So since it appeared that the delay also affected Thursday's train, in addition to Wednesday's train, I was curious as to whether or not it would also affect Friday's train.

But, thanks for the prompt reply.. I am Select Plus on Amtrak but usually just hang out on the Northeast Corridor, so I'm not too familiar with the long distance trains. I usually post on Flyertalk (I recognize a few names over here from FT, such as AlanB) but knew that I would get a much faster response here.. so thanks again!

On the many dozens of times I have taken the CL-- I can tell you that there is a lot of padding in its schedule. One time, coming 2.5 hours late out of CLE we arrived on time in CHI. There's padding around CHI, TOL, CLE, and East of PGH. The CL will be close to on time if not totally on time.

Even if it is late, just be happy and enjoy the trip. Board, sit back, and relax. It sounds like you're a busy person. Late or on time, the train is a great way to decompress.

 

[Rafi]

They skipped ALC! They probably didn't have anybody on board for ALC... that's not uncommon.

Not sure if they had passengers at ALC or not, but they had busses ready to go to ALC and PGH to keep those connections. In fact, the Pennsylvanian due out yesterday morning was held waiting for the bus bringing people from Cleveland and possibly ALC.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

They skipped ALC! They probably didn't have anybody on board for ALC... that's not uncommon.

Not sure if they had passengers at ALC or not, but they had busses ready to go to ALC and PGH to keep those connections. In fact, the Pennsylvanian due out yesterday morning was held waiting for the bus bringing people from Cleveland and possibly ALC.

They would have had to call ahead because ALC is just a platform. It also isn't very bus conducive. The Greyhound "depot" (also just a platform) is in Canton proper, about 30-40 minutes away. In fact, going to PGH from CLE by road bypasses Canton and ALC entirely. In fact, diverting to Canton requires a driver to go through Canton-- drive to ALC and back to Canton, and then back on to the Interstate.

I would hope that there were no pax on either train... again, this is not an unheard of thing. From what I have seen on manifests, ALC only sees pax (on or off, either direction) only five days of the week during peak.

 

[Hawkeye]

I was on the #30 with my husband and son. It was indeed very late. I woke up in Cleveland at about 5 am (we had already gone past around 2 am and had to come back). They had folks waiting to be bussed to Pittsburgh. We had to wait in CLV for more than 4 hours for freight pilots to show up to drive the CSX reroute. The we waited two more times at additional spots for freight pilots to arrive to drive other portions of the route. It was a bit annoying, but the staff did an EXCELLENT job keeping us informed and fed. We finally got in to DC about 10:45 pm, IIRC. We would have been later, too, b/c there was a shooting on a commuter train between Martinsville and Harpers Ferry. We got lucky in that there was a free track to pass the scene and we didn't have to sit.

I'm hoping our trip back next week will be uneventful ;-)

 

[Ryan]

We would have been later, too, b/c there was a shooting on a commuter train between Martinsville and Harpers Ferry. We got lucky in that there was a free track to pass the scene and we didn't have to sit.

A shooting on the MARC?????? Somehow that managed to not make the news around here, which is surprising.

 

[Rafi]

It wasn't a shooting as far as I know--from all accounts I've been able to find, a trespasser was hit on the tracks.

 

[Guest_CREW-DORM#2524_*]

We would have been later, too, b/c there was a shooting on a commuter train between Martinsville and Harpers Ferry. We got lucky in that there was a free track to pass the scene and we didn't have to sit.

A shooting on the MARC?????? Somehow that managed to not make the news around here, which is surprising.

No no no. There was no shooting. MARC train en route to Martinsburg struck and killed a child at VanCleevesville Rd crossing about 4 miles east of MRB and 30 was held untill the all clear was given.

 

[Guest_CREW-DORM#2524_*]

Without promising anything, obviously, I wouldn't worry too much, jkm. The delay to today's arrival in Chicago was due to the lead engine striking debris placed alongside the track by vandals last night just east of Pittsburgh. The engine was seriously banged up (fireman's-side ladder completely ripped off and air hoses broken), so a Norfolk Southern freight engine had to come tow the train to Pittsburgh where a spare Amtrak engine was switched onto the train. Two freak happenings in two days, completely unrelated.
Track conditions around Pittsburgh have been cleared up.

Rafi

29 set the lead locomotive out and continued with only 1 locomotive. NS picked up #153 and set it off in the station where it is sitting as we speak. Its waiting for repairs to move it to CHI. There is no spare Amtrak locomotive in PGH.

 

[Hawkeye]

No no no. There was no shooting. MARC train en route to Martinsburg struck and killed a child at VanCleevesville Rd crossing about 4 miles east of MRB and 30 was held untill the all clear was given.

That's sad. Our sleeping car attendant had told us it was a shooting - but I wasn't able to find anything on it, or any other incident. I was able to Google now and find a little bit of info. Oh, and my husband recalls seeing a bike by the tracks. Poor kid - and family.