Crescent ATN & TCL
OBS Chief
Today I was at the Tuscaloosa train station to pick up a friend on train 20. It was on-time the entire trip from NOL to TCL, The station attendant announced the train, We all got onto the platform. The train was about 5 mins early as it rolled into sight and to our surprise came to a stop and dimmed the headlights.
We waited for a little while, I stayed fairly close to the attendant so I could listen in on his radio. Turned out to be a signal problem, the train radioed the dispatcher. The dispatcher returned saying they should have a clear through Tuscaloosa. After a few minutes they discovered that someone had stolen about 3 foot of copper wire out of the signal system.
NS sent a crew down to fix it, but they refused to let Amtrak proceed. The dispatcher told Amtrak's crew they'd be there for at least an hour and a half, the engineer and conductor erupted into a fit about how they had been on time all morning, etc.
ow
The train finally rolled in an hour and 33mins late, and delayed train 19 another hour.
Two questions,
Why didn't the dispatchers allow Amtrak to pass through the block at restricted speed, knowing full and well the only other train was at least 15 miles away?
and
How bad of a problem do the railroads have with people stealing copper?
According to the NS employees at the station they've had to replace the wires on that signal about 5 times this month for the same reason.
We waited for a little while, I stayed fairly close to the attendant so I could listen in on his radio. Turned out to be a signal problem, the train radioed the dispatcher. The dispatcher returned saying they should have a clear through Tuscaloosa. After a few minutes they discovered that someone had stolen about 3 foot of copper wire out of the signal system.
NS sent a crew down to fix it, but they refused to let Amtrak proceed. The dispatcher told Amtrak's crew they'd be there for at least an hour and a half, the engineer and conductor erupted into a fit about how they had been on time all morning, etc.
ow
The train finally rolled in an hour and 33mins late, and delayed train 19 another hour.
Two questions,
Why didn't the dispatchers allow Amtrak to pass through the block at restricted speed, knowing full and well the only other train was at least 15 miles away?
and
How bad of a problem do the railroads have with people stealing copper?
According to the NS employees at the station they've had to replace the wires on that signal about 5 times this month for the same reason.