tahoejeff
Train Attendant
the wife and i rode the cal zephyr from chicago to reno. arrived last night over 9 hours late. we were actually within an hour of scheduled stops around salt lake city. when crossing over the nevada border at 70mph, we possibly hit a homeless person on the tracks near wendover NV. i woke up at 3am wondering why we weren't moving. there were people shining floodlights and flashlights under the train looking for something. next, a fireman using an infrared thermal imaging device normally used to find hotspots in buildings was searching under the train for "hot spots". trucks were driving all over the desert looking for the guy (they never did find anyone while we were there). while we waited we went downstairs and talked with the conductor. he said the engineer saw the guy on the tracks walking. as the train approached, the guy turned around and looked up at the engine, then began stepping off the tracks. the engineer is pretty sure he must have clipped the guy. apparently there is a homeless camp made up of tents near the area we may have hit him. there are bottles everywhere around the tracks.
the conductor shared some of his past stories. he has been onboard for 18 "kills". i'll spare you the gruesome stories he shared.
they had to drive a new engineer out to us from salt lake city, as ours was pretty shook up. all in all around a 5 hour delay.
the rest of the trip, had very many low speed zones where i'd guess we were going 30mph on flat desert land. another conductor told us there were bad spots in the track requiring the lower speeds. what is required to fix these and why isn't it happening? i'm guessing they have to replace some of the gravel and possibly the ties. can this work be done in winter?
although i always love my time on the train, it was frustrating. many unhappy people. near the end of the trip, the car attendant came around telling everyone to come to the dining car for free dinner. it was some pretty good stew. i'm guessing they did this as damage control, to keep the complaints down.
off to the craps tables, and ski slopes for now. hopefully i won't have anything to report from the ride back next weekend.
the conductor shared some of his past stories. he has been onboard for 18 "kills". i'll spare you the gruesome stories he shared.
they had to drive a new engineer out to us from salt lake city, as ours was pretty shook up. all in all around a 5 hour delay.
the rest of the trip, had very many low speed zones where i'd guess we were going 30mph on flat desert land. another conductor told us there were bad spots in the track requiring the lower speeds. what is required to fix these and why isn't it happening? i'm guessing they have to replace some of the gravel and possibly the ties. can this work be done in winter?
although i always love my time on the train, it was frustrating. many unhappy people. near the end of the trip, the car attendant came around telling everyone to come to the dining car for free dinner. it was some pretty good stew. i'm guessing they did this as damage control, to keep the complaints down.
off to the craps tables, and ski slopes for now. hopefully i won't have anything to report from the ride back next weekend.