Bye Bye Roadrailers for Amtrak

[Amfleet]

This is quoted by Gene Poon from Trainorders.

Amtrak Roadrailers will be gone by Oct. 1. They are reportedly going to TripleCrown (NS) for their own use.
Cost of maintaining them for passenger train speeds with mandatory yearly overhauls has been too much, and they don't seem to last even THAT long. A lot of them have failed mileage inspections on #3 at Albuquerque lately; the whole block needs to be set out even if only one bogie has a fault; then the problem needs to be fixed, usually with parts trucked in from LAX, and then the block gets picked up by a subsequent train; IF it can handle the added cars and the overall size of the train does not exceed what is allowed in the Amtrak contract with BNSF.

The use of Express Boxcars and Baggage Cars will continue, and this puts more of a demand on the dwinding and deteriorating Heritage baggage car fleet.

-GP

 

[engine999]

Overall I think it is a ghood idea for amtrak to dump the roadrailers. It seems like a lucrative idea, but it has unseen costs. Extra employees and equipment are needed to run the cars, and its more things to go wrong on a consist. Plus it dose have added gas cost. It will be odd thought to see Jax without any strings of roadrailers.

 

[battalion51]

Yeah it'll be a little strange not having them around anymore, I hate to see jobs get liquidated, but that's the way it goes. Any idea if Triple Crown will haul mail for the USPS?

 

[engine999]

Its never good to see jobs liquadated. Presumably the switching crews will just run road jobs like they do normaly. The crews that assemlbe the roadrailers might be transfered to other departments where employees are needed.

As for USPS they might switch over to shipping mail via triple crown. I dont know if there are terms in the ups contract that prohibit NS from shipping a competitors pacages on the railroad.

 

[battalion51]

Presumably the switching crews will just run road jobs like they do normaly.

Umm, a Yard Job is a Yard Job. They might switch over to Road jobs, be furloughed, or transferred to another base, but unless you have a relief job that works both yard and road, if you have a yard job, you're in the yard that's it.

 

[engine999]

From what I understood when I talked with one of the Engineers there, they only work the yard jobs a few days a week on a rotating basis. So they crews would probably be switched to the extra board those days or qualified for different runs.

 

[battalion51]

In JAX it's extra board fill. Those guys work anywhere and everywhere. If the Extra Boards are dead they'll call in a Road Guy on his day off to do it, or Mechanical usually has a Certified Engineer, or worse comes to worse the Road Foreman can do it. In Sanford there are three regular yard jobs, on Engineer works straight up AT Yard Saturday-Wednesday, another works AT Yard Thursday and Friday, with a Trip on 52 outbound Saturday and inbound on 53 Monday, and then there's a Sunset Night job that works Monday and Wednesday nights, with a road trip on 52 outbound Saturday and inbound on 53 Monday. For the Sunset Saturday night is a must-fill position for the Extra Board.