Shawn
Service Attendant
So, I took the CS south from Tacoma to Portland and return tonight....
Southbound- It was about 15 mins late into Tacoma, as the headlight on the lead unit (150) died on the way, and the supervisor at Amtrak had them doing restricted speed over every grade crossing. BNSF showed up at Tacoma, but they could figure out anything...so we continued on, restricted speed over the crossings. Finally around Steilacoom, they must have "read" the rule and figured out that was only at night...and the sup's allowed us to continue at track speed...granted the ditch lights continued to work. We were about 30 mins late into Portland, and maintenance surrounded the locomotive. Not sure if they got it working...or if they swapped 117 to the front.
Northbound- CS was about an hour late getting in, believe it was still left over drama from a broken rail near Salem in the morning...The EB's locomotive died just prior to them boarding, the decision was made to take the lead unit off #14 and put it on #28. So, that delayed us a little. The take-off's were a bit slow and the engineer was a little worried about getting over the hill in Vader, since we crossed over and lost speed. But I was happy to say, a single P42 did good with 11 cars.
So, apparently the P42's are back to failing some more....I seem to be a magnet for locomotive problems... hehe
Southbound- It was about 15 mins late into Tacoma, as the headlight on the lead unit (150) died on the way, and the supervisor at Amtrak had them doing restricted speed over every grade crossing. BNSF showed up at Tacoma, but they could figure out anything...so we continued on, restricted speed over the crossings. Finally around Steilacoom, they must have "read" the rule and figured out that was only at night...and the sup's allowed us to continue at track speed...granted the ditch lights continued to work. We were about 30 mins late into Portland, and maintenance surrounded the locomotive. Not sure if they got it working...or if they swapped 117 to the front.
Northbound- CS was about an hour late getting in, believe it was still left over drama from a broken rail near Salem in the morning...The EB's locomotive died just prior to them boarding, the decision was made to take the lead unit off #14 and put it on #28. So, that delayed us a little. The take-off's were a bit slow and the engineer was a little worried about getting over the hill in Vader, since we crossed over and lost speed. But I was happy to say, a single P42 did good with 11 cars.
So, apparently the P42's are back to failing some more....I seem to be a magnet for locomotive problems... hehe