what happened tp the Empire builder

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Last night's eastbound Empire Builder arrived 1 hour late to Minot, ND, but did not depart Minot until 8 hours late. What happened?
 
guest said:
Last night's eastbound Empire Builder arrived 1 hour late to Minot, ND, but did not depart Minot until 8 hours late. What happened?
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I'm going to assume it had something to do with the extreme cold last night. The air temperature (without wind) was over 30 below zero in many places along its route. I know the EB has had issues in the past when it gets that incredibly cold.

It's warmed up to a whole 0 degrees now in Minot...
 
Reported to be a problem with the power. The P42 fleet is not behaving well in cold weather this year.

The train, which arrived last night (1/1) at about 11pm, is still in Minot as this is written. Ouch.
 
The P42 fleet is not behaving well in cold weather this year.
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How have P42s performed in the past in cold weather? How about other Amtrak (or other passenger rail) locomotives, such as the F40PH or F59PH?
 
PRR 60 said:
Reported to be a problem with the power. The P42 fleet is not behaving well in cold weather this year.
The train, which arrived last night (1/1) at about 11pm, is still in Minot as this is written. Ouch.
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Shown as departing Minot 17 hours and 48 minutes late. The sooner you lot let the Swiss run your railways the better!
 
Neil_M said:
PRR 60 said:
Reported to be a problem with the power. The P42 fleet is not behaving well in cold weather this year.
The train, which arrived last night (1/1) at about 11pm, is still in Minot as this is written. Ouch.
Click to expand...
Shown as departing Minot 17 hours and 48 minutes late. The sooner you lot let the Swiss run your railways the better!
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...or Congress decides to properly fund a railroad. My goodness, some of the equipment that is running on Amtrak is older than the stuff they inherited from the original RRs in the early 1970s. After 35 years, stuff wears out.
 
DET63 said:
...How have P42s performed in the past in cold weather? How about other Amtrak (or other passenger rail) locomotives, such as the F40PH or F59PH?
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It sure seems like the P42's are having a much tougher time of it this year than in the past. I have no idea why. Winter tends to be cold, so the temperature alone would not seem to the the problem.
 
acelafan said:
...or Congress decides to properly fund a railroad. My goodness, some of the equipment that is running on Amtrak is older than the stuff they inherited from the original RRs in the early 1970s. After 35 years, stuff wears out.
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Except that the equipment with the problems is not that old. The P42's are not nearly as old as the F40's were when they were retired. Funding cannot be blamed for all, or even most of Amtrak's ills.
 
What do they do with passengers if a train sits in a station for 16 hours? Is there food available? Wouldn't this be the equivalent of an airplane on the tarmac for four hours and the passengers unable to get off? Did Amtrak at least let passengers go into the station? I can't imagine how dirty the train must be at this point!

The point perhaps is that you should avoid all travel when its below zero, no matter by train, plane or car.
 
I heard Fargo hit record lows, -35 degrees... I can't imagine Minot was much better.

Generally passengers are not allowed in to the station (if they are even at the station) because stations like Minot can't handle 400 people walking in at once. Maybe a couple dozen, not a full manifest of pax. It is also for their own safety. I remember last year about a guy who "jumped ship" and walked in to waist-high snow drifts... had something happened to him, wonder who gets sued? I think its law too-- the Conductors are responsible for having an accurate manifest. If some people wander off, find other transportation, or stay in hotels the Conductors would have to make a note of that. In addition they can't have them walking across the tracks or going where they shouldn't be... you can't expect a crew of two Conductors, and about a half-dozen OBS to control between 200-400 people unless they are in the train and not allowed to leave.

Food is available as long as one of the two engines can supply HEP (head-end power). This means they can have lights, toilets, heat, water (until supplies are exhausted), as well as air conditioning and microwaves/freezers for food. In addition all trains carry emergency rations of food and water in worst-case scenarios. I have also heard stories of very delayed trains comping any purchase in the café and burning through those supplies.
 
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Neil_M said:
PRR 60 said:
Reported to be a problem with the power. The P42 fleet is not behaving well in cold weather this year.
The train, which arrived last night (1/1) at about 11pm, is still in Minot as this is written. Ouch.
Click to expand...
Shown as departing Minot 17 hours and 48 minutes late. The sooner you lot let the Swiss run your railways the better!
Click to expand...
Switzerland is so different from North Dakota it might as well be on another planet. Come to think of it, isn't North Dakota bigger in area than Switzerland? I would be very interested to see how they performed after playing for a year with the same deck that has been handed to BNSF and Amtrak. I have a sneaky feeling that it would be unlikley to be better, and could well be much worse, given the distances, available resources, and climate.
 
Poor #8 finally limped out of Minot at 3:30pm MST CST: nearly 18 hours late. Minot is a real station with a waiting room and restrooms, so assuming you are up for a dash from the train to the station in sub-zero weather, you can escape. However, a walk around town might have been a bit uncomfortable. Today's high temperature in Minot was 5 degrees (that's F for our friends from the rest of the world).

Travel always has challenges. Every mode has it's day in the dog house. It's a gamble. That's what makes it fun.

Imagine this scenario. You just finished dinner as you were sitting at Minot. Your room is made-up, and you turn in for the night. You sleep soundly on what you assume is the smoothest rail in the country. You wake up, peak out the window, and what do you see? Minot. Now, that would be funny.

*** EDIT: I put Minot into the Mountain time zone. Not good.
 
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curious said:
What do they do with passengers if a train sits in a station for 16 hours? ... Did Amtrak at least let passengers go into the station?
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Even if they did let the passengers go into the station, what would you chose of these 2 choices:

  1. Walk from the train down the platform into the PACKED station in -30º weather, or
  2. Stay aboard the train where it is 68-70º!
I myself would chose #2! :rolleyes:
 
PRR 60 said:
acelafan said:
...or Congress decides to properly fund a railroad. My goodness, some of the equipment that is running on Amtrak is older than the stuff they inherited from the original RRs in the early 1970s. After 35 years, stuff wears out.
Click to expand...
Except that the equipment with the problems is not that old. The P42's are not nearly as old as the F40's were when they were retired. Funding cannot be blamed for all, or even most of Amtrak's ills.
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Oh sure, Amtrak's ills are mixture of things, but was this particular problem with the locomotive itself? The posts just said "power problems" - that could mean HEP somewhere along the entire train, unless "power" meant locomotive traction issues. Regardless, Amtrak is in need of new equipment.
 
PRR 60 said:
Imagine this scenario. You just finished dinner as you were sitting at Minot. Your room is made-up, and you turn in for the night. You sleep soundly on what you assume is the smoothest rail in the country. You wake up, peak out the window, and what do you see? Minot. Now, that would be funny.
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Although it wasn't overnight, that almost happened to my about 10 years ago.

I was on the LSL, and due to an engine breakdown, we limped into a freight yard west of Erie, PA about 5 AM. While there, the crew died (exceeded the hours of service law) and they had to bring in a new crew. It was mid afternoon before we got going again. Thus I could have had breakfast and lunch while at the same freight yard! (This was in my cheap, cheap days when I went coach, so I didn't buy lunch.)
 
if the train was 17 hours late into chicago, did amtrak had bring in representatives from chicago to work with passengers with missed connections?
 

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