NS Aberdeen Derailment 3/5/2022

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I’m so sorry—hope everything will be ok with your family.

Your travel contingency plan sounds a lot better than mine. Good luck with everything.
Thank you 💜

As seen above, my train was canceled, so I went ahead with the Greyhound ticket. Seems it'll work out.

Not looking forward to calling AGR to wrestle back the 10% coupon I used 🥴🙄 I'll wait til Monday, hopefully they'll have things running by then.
 
92 is scheduled to arrive at WAS at exactly the same time as 91 is scheduled to depart. Maybe they're turning at JAX so they have time to service 92 and send it back to MIA as 91 reasonably close to schedule. And they can get it back to MIA in time to go out as 92 2 days from now, which I think wouldn't happen if they'd turned at WAS.

I'm having trouble fitting all the logistics into my brain, but I think this way they will have the proper number of trainsets at each terminal when they're needed.
Amtrak, actually thinking ahead? Can't be.
 
Thank you 💜

As seen above, my train was canceled, so I went ahead with the Greyhound ticket. Seems it'll work out.

Not looking forward to calling AGR to wrestle back the 10% coupon I used 🥴🙄 I'll wait til Monday, hopefully they'll have things running by then.
You and all Amtrak customers deserve the highest level of service... after all... Amtrak is a national transit service supposedly rising to the occasion of servicing the American public.

What does that mean???

Although I would expect some kind of a responsible answer... I do have absolutely no idea of what is actually real for today, here, and now!
 
I know we all like to rag on Amtrak and their inconsistent customer service, but I'd like to know more about Norfolk Southern's role in this mess. Just like that CSX caused delay on the NEC I dealt with last year, it seems that mot only do the freight Claas 1s mess with Amttak trains running on their tracks, they mess with Amtrak trains running on Amtrak's tracks!

I'm taking an Acela home from Boston on Tuesday. I hope they get the trains running by then.
 
92 is scheduled to arrive at WAS at exactly the same time as 91 is scheduled to depart. Maybe they're turning at JAX so they have time to service 92 and send it back to MIA as 91 reasonably close to schedule. And they can get it back to MIA in time to go out as 92 2 days from now, which I think wouldn't happen if they'd turned at WAS.

I'm having trouble fitting all the logistics into my brain, but I think this way they will have the proper number of trainsets at each terminal when they're needed.
I think your conjecture is correct. In general if you need overnight to turn a consist at both ends you require four consists to run the service daily. If you have only three consists you have to find one intermediate point where you can short turn at least a few days a week, close enough to the other end to run a daily service. That is the case with one consist stuck north of the derailment, hence the short turn at JAX Theoretically they could have done it at RGH, but it is not clear that RGH has the facilities to turn the Star, and in addition Amtrak is insanely risk averse these days to attempt such a thing. The fact that a Star consist cannot be turned same day at WAS plays into this.

For the Crescent you can do a same day turn of a consist at WAS hence it is running to WAS. I have not worked out the details of the Card.
 
The Cardinal has terminated in DC in the past, either by design, or as a one-off. I don't know what the excuse is this time.
Maybe because then it was the only other train than the CL that had to turn at WAS? Currently they can't handle the Crescent, Silver, Cardinal, and CL. 🤷‍♂️
 
Well, we could count ourselves lucky that it did not happen on the Susquehanna River Bridge. 🤷‍♂️

The actual location of the derailment is not in Aberdeen, but in Perryman MD south/west of Aberdeen, between Aberdeen and Bush River Bridge
Ah, Perryman. When I first read this my mind said Perryville, but the rest of the description did not make sense for that. I thought surely jis didn't mess up his directions, as Perryville is northeast of Aberdeen. Perryman is little more than a wide spot in the road that is very close to Aberdeen, and as was said, southeast thereof. And then Bush River broke through the brain. I would suspect the NS train came on the Corridor at Perryville Wye, which is where the line paralleling the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg begins. (This line was used by the Washington section of Amtrak's National Limited when it was running. Was on it once, two cars pulled by a GG1. Aside from the train being gone, the overhead wire is now gone.)

To answer another question: No, there is no practical alternative route. There is the parallel CSX former B&O route, but it is single track and not electrified, so at best, a few diesel powered trains could be operated, and they would be at speed of probably 50 mph or less, and where would they tie back in? I can't answer that one at all.

Perryville is the location of one of the Northeast Corridor Maintenance of Way bases, which is why that name stuck in the brain. It seems after Amtrak bought the NEC as part of the Penn Central collapse, they did not realize that by excluding all freight facilities they no longer had locations to stash their MOW equipment and materials, so there was a quick study to locate potential sites for track maintenance facilities. Perryville became one of the ones that was built. In fact, as an employee of the company involved, I did the initial track layout for this one. Whether what got built is what I designed, I do not know. There was quite a bit of corporate drama going on at the time, between Amtrak, various government agencies, and internal turf wars in Amtrak itself. I say that last now, because since this was in 1978 all involved that were in any form of position of responsibility are either retired or dead.
 
Yesterday, Amtrak's advisories said 92(06) would terminate at JAX, but today, Train Status shows ETA at NYP as 10:19p, and Track Your Train map shows it now arriving at RGH. Guess they changed their mind.
The terminate at JAX was day before yesterday's (3/5) departure from MIA. Did they actually say that for 3/6 departure? I had not seen that. That would not make much sense since they would have an abundance of consists down in Miami yesterday due to the short turn in JAX the day before. They could minimally run it up to WAS even if tracks were closed today.
 
The terminate at JAX was day before yesterday's (3/5) departure from MIA. Did they actually say that for 3/6 departure? I had not seen that. That would not make much sense since they would have an abundance of consists down in Miami yesterday due to the short turn in JAX the day before. They could minimally run it up to WAS even if tracks were closed today.
They had announced it for yesterday as well. Didn't make sense to me either, but that's what they had said:
1646678245370.png
Maybe just a sloppy cut & paste job.
 
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