1400 and 1500 Restrictions

[battalion51]

Hot off the wire from Jacksonville, FL. CSX Transportation has imposed a 60 MPH speed restriction on all 1400 and 1500 series Mail Cars. The information comes from an Engineer who had the restriction placed on his train this afternoon at approx 1500 near Satsuma, FL. Amtrak has unofficially said that it will keep the cars in service on all trains, and will fight the restriction that CSX has imposed. I will try to confirm this with Sanford as soon as possible.

 

[Amfleet]

Norfolk and Southern did this too, except to the 1400 series only. This will certainly hurt on-time performance.

 

[Superliner Diner]

Norfolk and Southern did this too, except to the 1400 series only. This will certainly hurt on-time performance.

...and they did it in reaction to the derailment in Lyons, NY on CSX of an Amtrak test train. That derailment was quickly determined to be a problem with the tracks; no fault was placed on the MHC cars or any other equipment on the train. NS reacted the wrong way to CSX's ineptitude, and now CSX is doing the same for their own inability to properly maintain the tracks.

 

[battalion51]

Norfolk and Southern did this too, except to the 1400 series only.

Amfleet, I am 99% sure the restrictions were placed on both 1400 and 1500 series. CSX has had long standing orders against the 1400 series, I think they date 9 months now. The NS restrictions happened I believe sometime around Thanksgiving.

 

[Steve4031]

I thought that Amtrak was stopping its express services. Are they still running large amounts of these cars on there trains?

 

[tubaallen]

My understanding is that these are the mail cars. They have not stopped mail service. Therefore, this could still be a problem.

 

[Amfleet]

Well if they organized the baggage cars a bit more carefully with shelves instead of a big empty space, then maybe the mail could fit in with the luggage? I think Gunn decided to keep some mail service, but some routes will either cut back or drop it.

 

[AlanB]

No, all mail service will be retained. It's one of Amtrak's most lucrative contracts, they actually do make money off the mail. In fact Amtrak just renewed a contract with the USPS.

Only express freight will be dropped, and that will be gradually phased out during the next 2 years I think (maybe 1 year). Bottom line here is the freight cars on the rear of the trains will go away. The boxcars behind the engines will remain, as that's usually where the mail is placed.

 

[Amfleet]

What about the RoadRailers, do they carry mail or express?

 

[Viewliner]

I thought 1700's were for Baggage, Mail and Express, so I guess that and the 1500's MHC's do the mail.

 

[Amfleet]

I have seen the 1700's used as Express on the rear or mail and baggage up front. Once all the Express is dropped they'll just be addaded to the pool of baggage cars.

 

[tubaallen]

Roadrailers are purely for express. That's why they have the roadrailers, they were very easily transferred from the train to the business (which may not be right on the tracks).

 

[Amfleet]

Thank god they are going then. Put aside the express box cars, the roadrailers really made a passenger train look like a freight train.

 

[battalion51]

Well RoadRailers are not going completely away. The USPS owns some RoadRailers which will be retained, I believe these are the ones painted in Phase IV. The cars say "US MAIL CONTRACTOR" on them. As for the 1700 series they were originally designed for Mail Service only. Due to the shortage of Baggage cars some have trickled into Baggage service, which is not a good thing. We are hoping down here that Amtrak will pool about 20 of the 1700's for mail service, and then an additional 20 1000 series, 1100 series, and 1200 series or so for Baggage service. The main advantage to the 1000-1200's are that the space between the doors allows a staging area where you can put bags getting off at the next stop, and a place to load those oncoming and then sort from there once you're out of the station. While the idea of adding shelves for baggage and then keeping the mail on the other side is a good one it presents two problems, first some bags are too heavy/bulky to get up onto shelves. Second many times the mail can take up an entire car. Usually a train will carry 40-50 bogies of mail, with 10-20 getting off at different stops. This is especially maginified on the Saturday 97 when 2 MHC's are required to unload the post office of all its mail.

 

[Amfleet]

This is kind of on the subject, but how come the freight railroads, like CSX, don't make an 'express' mail train that runs up and down the East Coast?

 

[battalion51]

Well they do in a way. CSX has a very lucritive TOFC contract with UPS for express from New York to JAX/Chicago/LAX (to LA via BNSF).

 

[battalion51]

One additional note on these restrictions. An Amtrak official told me "The [sB] Palmetto will now likely bypass Tampa Union Station to help make up lost time due to these restrictions [slowing the train to the point where 2-3 hours are lost en route]." Talk around the area down here is that Amtrak may try to negotiate with the USPS to put all MHC's on one train (likely the Palmetto since it's the least patronized) so that only one train is slowed rather than three.