7(22) Over 4 Hours Late What happened?

[AmtrakFan]

Folks,

What happened to 7(22) that made it over 4 Hours late? MY Mom and Brother are on it, I know that 90 Minutes was lost due a unit in a STATE OF GOOD REPAIR, another 90 Minutes due to Crews Hours of Service expiring at MSP and a little more due to Slow orders. But I can't account for the other 2 Hours. Anyone know what happened?

 

[dan72]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:

Dan

 

[Penn Central]

They seem to be having a lot of problelms with their locomotives lately. When I went(the 6th), we had to wait in Spokane for three hours because the Portland segment's locomotives wasn't working. I've heard more stories about broken locomtives on the EB. Maybe it's just coincidence, or maybe, the EB is getting assigned the more reapir-prone P42's.

 

[john h]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:
Dan

Is that the one that had to stop for a flood in Texas? If it was I am sure that safety was there main concern

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:

Dan

Is that the one that had to stop for a flood in Texas? If it was I am sure that safety was there main concern

Nope, wrong train. #7/#8 runs nowhere near Texas.

 

[john h]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:

Dan

Is that the one that had to stop for a flood in Texas? If it was I am sure that safety was there main concern

Nope, wrong train. #7/#8 runs nowhere near Texas.

I was thinking he was saying (22) but guess that meant the 22nd, my bad

 

[dan72]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:

Dan

Is that the one that had to stop for a flood in Texas? If it was I am sure that safety was there main concern

Nope, wrong train. #7/#8 runs nowhere near Texas.

I was thinking he was saying (22) but guess that meant the 22nd, my bad

Sorry about the confusion. I meant July 21st, 2007. :blink:

Dan

 

[AlanB]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:
Dan

That sounds like that might have been the train that Clearfork was on. He overnighted in Chicago courtesy of Amtrak, and landed on the same Capitol Limited as myself and the other OTOL'ers.

Maybe once he has time and recovers, he'll add some details here in this topic.

 

[clearfork]

It looks like the EB has been having some problems lately. I saw that 7/21/2007, they were over twelve hours late into Chicago. I can't imagine how ugly the mood must have been on that train. :unsure:

Dan

That sounds like that might have been the train that Clearfork was on. He overnighted in Chicago courtesy of Amtrak, and landed on the same Capitol Limited as myself and the other OTOL'ers.

Maybe once he has time and recovers, he'll add some details here in this topic.

Yes indeed.

Our ten minute Havre, MT stop stretched to five hours while they worked on an engine. One of the on-board announcements blamed the heat (around 100), but ultimately that appears to have not been the problem. By Minot, ND we were twelve hours behind. A passenger stated that we were behind a freight with engine problems during the night, though never heard an "official" explanation. At Devils Lake, ND we had a lengthy stop while waiting for another crew. There I noticed that somewhere we had acquired a BNSF engine. The conductor said that one engine was pulling the train, one engine was supplying power for the cars and the third engine was doing nothing and going along for the ride. Seemed we had been losing about 10 minutes for every hour of travel and eventually arrived in Chicago nearly 13 hours late.

Interestingly, the mood of the passengers was pretty positive. There were at least three groups of teenagers (two boy scout, one church) on the train and they seemed to be having a pretty good time with the experience. Really didn't hear much complaining. The entire train was fed (beef stew and rice), toilets were functioning and the lounge car ran out of some products but stayed open 'till 11 on our extra night.

Amtrak customer service rep boarded south of St. Paul and provided money and hotel vouchers for passengers that had missed connections. Swiss Otel near Navy Pier. Pretty swanky place.

(And, it was great to meet some posters on the CL the next day!)

 

[stlouielady]

I read something about this on a Yahoo group. I can't remember all the details, but, it said that both locomotives had some engine problems, and BNSF ended up sending a locomotive to rescue them. Mainly because of that, they were limited to only 70 MPH, rather than the 79 MPH that they normally can do. It also stated that normally when it runs this far behind they stop in (I think it said) Spokane and bus everyone, but, there were over 400 passengers and that wasn't possible. I wish I had the article in front of me, but, I don't. It was on one of the Amtrak passenger boards at Yahoo. I'll see if I can get to it again, and correct anything I've got wrong in here. I know there's more details to the story than what I've got in here, but, that's the 'highlights' that I remember.

 

[Trogdor]

Folks,What happened to 7(22) that made it over 4 Hours late? MY Mom and Brother are on it, I know that 90 Minutes was lost due a unit in a STATE OF GOOD REPAIR, another 90 Minutes due to Crews Hours of Service expiring at MSP and a little more due to Slow orders. But I can't account for the other 2 Hours. Anyone know what happened?

Well, if 90 minutes was lost due to mechanical problems, and 90 minutes due to the crew dying, that's 3 hours right there. "A little more" due to slow orders could add up to another hour, or it could add up to half an hour, with another half hour lost due to slow loading/longer than scheduled station stops.

 

[stlouielady]

I found the Yahoo group article, and it appears that the stuff that I spoke about earlier all happened last week, and not this week; my mistake with the dates. However, I'm surprised not more was mentioned on here about the major delay (unless I missed the posts--I've been traveling with work).

Sorry, guess I don't have anything to help answer the original question from AmtrakFan!

 

[frj1983]

Did anyone note that in a recent issue of Trains magazine (may have been May or June), it was reported that Amtrak's genesis engines were failing at an alarming rate and that some engines had been sent back to GE for analysis? Seeing some of the previous posters talking about engine problems reminded me of this.

Oh for a howling, but let me pull some more cars, F40PH!!

 

[dan72]

Between this forum, a couple of others, and what I have been reading in Trains magazine, Amtrak (and GE) may possibly have a serious problem on their hands with the P42's. Hopefully, we won't see a system-wide meltdown.

Dan

 

[PRR 60]

Between this forum, a couple of others, and what I have been reading in Trains magazine, Amtrak (and GE) may possibly have a serious problem on their hands with the P42's. Hopefully, we won't see a system-wide meltdown.
Dan

That was a problem involving bearing seizures with the traction motors that became acute last winter and early spring. As far as I know, that problem has been resolved or at least is no longer an issue with P42 reliability. There was some thought that snow clogging filters was a contributing factor, so that might explain the absence of problems lately.

 

[frj1983]

I can't wait until this Man's Lawyer starts the Lawsuit and then finds out that there's little money to be had!! I would imagine if the lawsuit does get far enough into the system, that Amtrak's insurer will offer a small sum for it to go away. And the man will probably end up with $10.00 after the Lawyer takes his/her cut.

 

[MrFSS]

I can't wait until this Man's Lawyer starts the Lawsuit and then finds out that there's little money to be had!! I would imagine if the lawsuit does get far enough into the system, that Amtrak's insurer will offer a small sum for it to go away. And the man will probably end up with $10.00 after the Lawyer takes his/her cut.

You've got that right. We have a case in a federal court in Central Kentucky where several attorneys are being sued for taking too much fee, about $60 million too much, in one of those class action suits against a drug manufacturer.

 

[Trogdor]

Whose lawyer?

 

[MrFSS]

Whose lawyer?

Plaintiff lawyers

 

[PRR 60]

Maybe these last few posting were intended for another thread?

 

[had8ley]

Between this forum, a couple of others, and what I have been reading in Trains magazine, Amtrak (and GE) may possibly have a serious problem on their hands with the P42's. Hopefully, we won't see a system-wide meltdown.
Dan

How many ole heads remember the SD45P's that kept derailing in curves? Most of the Class 1's put a 45 mph speed restriction on them in curves.

 

[frj1983]

Maybe these last few posting were intended for another thread?

You are right PRR60,

I tried to post this at "Lawsuit Eyed In Kids Tossed Off Train" and it ended up here.

I'm not quite sure how that happened! Althought I must admit that my browser has been acting very strange for the last few days...have to run some some security scans.