Cursed Lake Shore

[P40Power]

Big problems for the Lake Shore Limited (and Capitol Limited) yesterday and today. There was a NS freight derailment near Waterloo which delayed yesterday's inbound 49/449 for about 9 hours.

This had a ripple effect, the westbound arrived so late that the consist for that nights eastbound was delayed for 3 and a half hours. After getting hammered with delays on the NS trying to recover service from the derailment. the train ended up by being about 10 hours late.

The final blow to the train was that it struck a vehicle at a grade crossing just before Rensslear, killing the driver, and the train was delayed even more because they had to cut a part of the plow and pilot off of the lead locomotive.

Amtrak finally called it quits for this Lake Shore from hell at Rensslear, the train was terminated there and whatever passengers remained on board that stuck it out through the ordeal were bussed to their final destinations.

I was tracking the progress of the train during the day, and the info about the train's final termination came from a post by Gene Poon over on Trainorders.com. Just thought I would just give the credit.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Any idea what the Engine # was of the unit that was damaged?

 

[Guest]

We should probably know the paint scheme, too.

 

[P40Power]

P42 83 was on the lead. Heres a picture of the train earlier that day before the collision.

P42 83 on lead of Lake Shore

 

[P40Power]

A futher update, checking Amtrak's arrival status webpage, it seems that 48 did run to NYP, arriving there at 4 AM, 14 hours 10 minutes late.

448 was terminated at ALB, the equipment was probably deadheaded to BOS sometime early this morning.

Notice in the picture of the train that it has one of those 1700 series ex-Heritage Coach baggage cars with the full Phase IV stripes, they are quite rare.

 

[battalion51]

There are two of them, 1762 and 1763. When Amtrak converted some the 1700 series to "Mail only" service (and a renumber into the 1750-1760 series) two additional coaches were converted, the 1762 and 1763. These two were not original to the 1700 series, but went straight to the number they wear today. This is how the cars got their high striping. (As an FYI the doors on those two are the biggest pain in the butt.)

 

[P40Power]

Why are the doors the biggest pain on these two cars?

Dont the other 1700 cars have roll up doors like the Cabbage units?

 

[battalion51]

Yes they do have roll up doors (those are an even larger pain when they get stuck) on the rest of the 1700 series. 1762 and 1763 are a pain because the doors are really heavy and dont slide well. It almost takes two people to close the doors sometimes.

 

[P40Power]

Ohh I see, well they may be a pain to operate but 1762 and 1763 sure look much better then the other 1700 cars because of the larger striping I think.

 

[battalion51]

Without a doubt they look the best of all the baggage cars. Now if they would've just done the striping right on all of the dorms (2523 was done right), and paint the rest of the fleet into IV or VI.

 

[Amfleet]

Without a doubt they look the best of all the baggage cars. Now if they would've just done the striping right on all of the dorms (2523 was done right), and paint the rest of the fleet into IV or VI.

My guess that won't be done because part of the 5-year plan is to buy heritage replacements. So there really is no use painting the heritage cars into Phase IVb.

 

[AlanB]

Frank Mamroe, 31, drove onto the tracks Tuesday night a short time before he was killed by a train traveling about 75 mph through western New York, Wayne County sheriff's Lt. Richard Tack said. The circumstances of the crash remained under investigation, but he said Mamroe's death appeared to be a suicide.
"The driver was just sitting there waiting for the train to come," Tack said.

Here's a small story on the accident from CNN.