Amtrak and Commuter RR's Encounter Delays
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Viewliner
Engineer
Don't these locomotives have sand to deal with slippery rails?
I'm sure that they do; however they can only carry a limited amount of sand. If you have 40 miles of continuously slippery rail, you are bound to run out of sand before you get to your destination.Viewliner said:
Plus sand is only partially effect at providing traction. In extreme cases like this where the crushed leaves make an oil like substance, sand can only do just so much to help provide traction.
jccollins
Conductor
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Leaves and rain make for slick rail in Northeast
Unusually heavy concentrations of fallen leaves and steady rain have Amtrak and Northeast commuter railroads slip-slidin’ away.
Slippery rail conditions have delayed several Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor since last weekend and made commuters late for work on some New Jersey Transit and Philadelphia SEPTA routes.
Autumn conditions are nothing new to railroads, of course. But a relatively warm October helped keep leaves on trees longer than normal in many areas of the Northeast. And when rains and wind blew across the region over the past week, it sent a deluge of leaves out of the trees and onto the tracks.
“I’ve been here 30 years, and we get this every year, but this year seems worse than it's been in the last decade,” William Knapp, NJ Transit’s vice president for rail operations, told the Star-Ledger of Newark. “This year, it appeared almost out of nowhere. We had a warm fall and then there was a cold snap and then the leaves came down all at once.”
Trains crush the wet leaves, producing a black oily substance. "You've got cold steel rail and steel tracks, and the oil becomes a lubricant that makes the tracks very slippery,” Knapp explained.
Amtrak encountered slippery rail conditions on the Northeast Corridor from Rhode Island to Maryland. Acela Express trains and Amfleet-equipped trains headed by HHP-8 and AEM7 electrics have all succumbed to wet rail.
On Sunday, November 10, the engineer of New York-bound Acela Express 2255 reported overspeed penalty hits due to excessive wheel slippage west of Cranston, R.I. Afterward, the train was able to operate at just 45 mph for a time. The problems delayed the train by 53 minutes. Later in the day, New York-bound Acela Express 2295 was terminated east of Providence, R.I., after experiencing excessive wheel-slip. Passengers were transferred to Regional train 179 and delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes.
Similar problems were encountered on Monday, November 11, even forcing train 173 and its HHP-8 locomotive to make three tries at the grade at Sharon, Mass., after excessive wheel-slip had brought it to a stop.
Commuter trains on NJT’s Morris & Essex lines, as well as its North Jersey Coast Line, have experienced similar problems in recent days.
SEPTA says all of its regional rail routes are affected, although slick rail problems are worse on its tree-lined R3 Media-Elwyn/West Trenton and R5 Paoli-Thorndale/Lansdale-Doylestown lines.
In a news release issued on November 13, SEPTA noted that it was continuing to fight the leaves. Each night, SEPTA crews use a track-scrubbing machine to clear the rails. Crews also apply compressed sand and a traction-enhancing gel to the tracks.
Unusually heavy concentrations of fallen leaves and steady rain have Amtrak and Northeast commuter railroads slip-slidin’ away.
Slippery rail conditions have delayed several Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor since last weekend and made commuters late for work on some New Jersey Transit and Philadelphia SEPTA routes.
Autumn conditions are nothing new to railroads, of course. But a relatively warm October helped keep leaves on trees longer than normal in many areas of the Northeast. And when rains and wind blew across the region over the past week, it sent a deluge of leaves out of the trees and onto the tracks.
“I’ve been here 30 years, and we get this every year, but this year seems worse than it's been in the last decade,” William Knapp, NJ Transit’s vice president for rail operations, told the Star-Ledger of Newark. “This year, it appeared almost out of nowhere. We had a warm fall and then there was a cold snap and then the leaves came down all at once.”
Trains crush the wet leaves, producing a black oily substance. "You've got cold steel rail and steel tracks, and the oil becomes a lubricant that makes the tracks very slippery,” Knapp explained.
Amtrak encountered slippery rail conditions on the Northeast Corridor from Rhode Island to Maryland. Acela Express trains and Amfleet-equipped trains headed by HHP-8 and AEM7 electrics have all succumbed to wet rail.
On Sunday, November 10, the engineer of New York-bound Acela Express 2255 reported overspeed penalty hits due to excessive wheel slippage west of Cranston, R.I. Afterward, the train was able to operate at just 45 mph for a time. The problems delayed the train by 53 minutes. Later in the day, New York-bound Acela Express 2295 was terminated east of Providence, R.I., after experiencing excessive wheel-slip. Passengers were transferred to Regional train 179 and delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes.
Similar problems were encountered on Monday, November 11, even forcing train 173 and its HHP-8 locomotive to make three tries at the grade at Sharon, Mass., after excessive wheel-slip had brought it to a stop.
Commuter trains on NJT’s Morris & Essex lines, as well as its North Jersey Coast Line, have experienced similar problems in recent days.
SEPTA says all of its regional rail routes are affected, although slick rail problems are worse on its tree-lined R3 Media-Elwyn/West Trenton and R5 Paoli-Thorndale/Lansdale-Doylestown lines.
In a news release issued on November 13, SEPTA noted that it was continuing to fight the leaves. Each night, SEPTA crews use a track-scrubbing machine to clear the rails. Crews also apply compressed sand and a traction-enhancing gel to the tracks.
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