Preferential treatment for California Zephyr w/American View (10004)?

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AAARGH!

AAARGH!

Conductor
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
1,065
Location
Cleveland, OH
First let me preface this by saying it's been close to 10 years since I took a long distance train.

I'm on #5, The California Zephyr right now. Since leaving Chicago, other than being put in the hole for other Amtrak trains, we haven't been delayed on sidings waiting for freight trains to pass. Actually we have passed several freight trains as they waited in sidings.

We have as part of our consist the Amtrak American View inspection car (10004) with what I was told are Amtrak executives.

So are the freight lines doing what they're supposed to and giving Amtrak the right-of-way or are we getting preferential treatment because the dispatchers know we have VIPs on board and are behaving?
 
AAARGH! said:
First let me preface this by saying it's been close to 10 years since I took a long distance train.

I'm on #5, The California Zephyr right now. Since leaving Chicago, other than being put in the hole for other Amtrak trains, we haven't been delayed on sidings waiting for freight trains to pass. Actually we have passed several freight trains as they waited in sidings.

We have as part of our consist the Amtrak American View inspection car (10004) with what I was told are Amtrak executives.

So are the freight lines doing what they're supposed to and giving Amtrak the right-of-way or are we getting preferential treatment because the dispatchers know we have VIPs on board and are behaving?
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If you are told they are out of AmSteak for dinner tonight, then you know who got first dibs on it.
 
MARC Rider said:
Doesn't "American View" have its own chef and food supply?
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On the railcams yesterday, someone mentioned the American View was attached to the consist with transdorm so they could get food from the dining car. They also said supposedly the president of Amtrak was onboard, though can't confirm.
 
It's traditional to show off dispatching when VIP's are on board. When I rode SP Train 12 from Oakland to Portland in 1967, business car "Sunset" was on the tail end and we arrived early at every division point. At Dunsmuir, men in suits just happened to be standing around the station in the middle of the night.
 
Fenu S said:
On the railcams yesterday, someone mentioned the American View was attached to the consist with transdorm so they could get food from the dining car. They also said supposedly the president of Amtrak was onboard, though can't confirm.
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Watched the CZ on the Arvada/Big Ten Curve camera this morning. There was indeed a transistion sleeper between the American View and the rest of the consist. I figured (besides dining car access) roomettes were used to accomodate those who could not have accomodations in the American View.
 
AAARGH! said:
First let me preface this by saying it's been close to 10 years since I took a long distance train.

I'm on #5, The California Zephyr right now. Since leaving Chicago, other than being put in the hole for other Amtrak trains, we haven't been delayed on sidings waiting for freight trains to pass. Actually we have passed several freight trains as they waited in sidings.

We have as part of our consist the Amtrak American View inspection car (10004) with what I was told are Amtrak executives.

So are the freight lines doing what they're supposed to and giving Amtrak the right-of-way or are we getting preferential treatment because the dispatchers know we have VIPs on board and are behaving?
Click to expand...
As of this posting (0908 PST Tuesday 2/27) #5 has been running pretty good the entire route. Three minutes early into Reno; one minute late departing.
https://asm.transitdocs.com/train/2024/2/25/A/5
 
AAARGH! said:
I'm on #5, The California Zephyr right now. Since leaving Chicago, other than being put in the hole for other Amtrak trains, we haven't been delayed on sidings waiting for freight trains to pass. Actually we have passed several freight trains as they waited in sidings.
Click to expand...
While it's possible your train is getting VIP treatment - this is not unusual. I've been on plenty of Amtrak trains where this is the case.
 
crescent-zephyr said:
While it's possible your train is getting VIP treatment - this is not unusual. I've been on plenty of Amtrak trains where this is the case.
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Indeed though I cannot speak of what happens out west as I have not been out west in a while, but on Silver Service the last six times I traveled on one of the Silvers we either arrived ahead of schedule at the destination or within 5-10 mins of the scheduled arrival. And we passed plenty of freight trains waiting for us to go by. So it happens even when there is no muckety-muck on board.
 
jis said:
Indeed though I cannot speak of what happens out west as I have not been out west in a while, but on Silver Service the last six times I traveled on one of the Silvers we either arrived ahead of schedule at the destination or within 5-10 mins of the scheduled arrival. And we passed plenty of freight trains waiting for us to go by. So it happens even when there is no muckety-muck on board.
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Yes. I'm guessing that your Silvers started on time. In fairness to railroad dispatchers, when Amtrak trains start late or break down en route, freight-caused delays are bound to result. At RTD in Denver we did a study that found that if a bus or light rail train started late, it was likely to stay late, even if on padded schedules and with a stressed out operator trying to safely make up time.

I notice that this Zephyr started out on time and made every operating crew change but one on time and got refueled on time.
 
Indeed, leaving aside freight interference, running in slot is critical. Hitting the SunRail Territory majorly out of slot almost guarantees that you will come out worse at the other end as you run behind a SunRail local instead of ahead of it. Since there is a lot of single track you will also likely get dinged for crossings with SunRail Locals headed in the opposite direction which are running in their slot.
 
Willbridge said:
Yes. I'm guessing that your Silvers started on time. In fairness to railroad dispatchers, when Amtrak trains start late or break down en route, freight-caused delays are bound to result.
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That is very true, running in slot is important, and you have to give dispatchers some leeway- though not a huge amount of leeway. Sometimes there's going to be a departure delay of an Amtrak train that's their fault - just as sometimes freight trains break down. A delayed Amtrak train coming into your territory out of slot does not remove Amtrak's preference right or excuse a dispatcher treating the train however they please - some delays are bound to happen with an out of slot train but that doesn't excuse not even trying - for example sticking an Amtrak behind a 30 MPH freight for 60+ miles. And sure there are Amtrak responsible delays, but there are also plenty of times when broken down freights, infrastructure problems, etc. delay or cancel passenger trains - so Amtrak responsible incidents in my opinion do not give the dispatcher free reign to do whatever they want.
 

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