bratkinson
Conductor
I just LOVE getting clobbered by PTC while riding Amtrak...
Back in January, when I took the Silver Meteor to Fort Lauderdale, after a 3 hr late departure from NYP due to frozen doors (ice storm the night before), at WAS, after the train was all ready to go (after waiting 10 mins for a passenger that had gotten off to get some food at WAS), the engineer radioed the conductor he couldn't sign on to PTC. After about 10 minutes of calls to the tower and the CSX dispatcher, we finally got permission to run without PTC. I heard one other reference to PTC problems after we left JAX, but other than that, everything seemed OK.
Spin forward to this past Wednesday on the Cardinal WAS-CHI. I forget which small station west of Thurmond we stopped at, but the engineer had to cold-start/reboot PTC to get it working. About 10 minutes lost.
Last night, waiting to leave CHI on #48, the Capitol Ltd was delayed 40-50 minutes account a car problem. The City of New Orleans, an hour. This was per the announcements in the Metropolitan lounge. I figured, 'Oh goodie...what new excuse will she have for the Lakeshore Ltd?' More car trouble. We boarded at 9:35 and left at 9:55. I didn't have my scanner on, so I don't know what the delays were really about. But, surprisingly, the lounge stayed open until we were told to go board at 9:3or5. That's a first for me!
Somewhere in the night, we lost 2+ hours before Elkhart, but made some of that up by Cleveland. But just 2-3 minutes out of Cleveland, the train stopped at the point it becomes CSX and the engineer reported he can't connect to PTC. 15 minutes later, after restarting PTC, it still didn't work, so he got permission from the dispatcher to run without it. That is, until, Syracuse, where the dispatcher change occurs. That dispatcher refused to allow the train to run without PTC! Lose another 50 minutes contacting CSX and Amtrak and get them to agree to let us go...oh, and an extra reboot there, too!
Then, miracles of miracles, about 15 minutes out of Syracuse, PTC STARTS WORKING all by itself! We had just crossed a grade crossing where the highway signals weren't working, according to the engineer. Also, I spotted a signal maintainer at the interlocking about 1/2 mile after the crossing. The engineer had called out 'clear', but the train slowed to 10mph or so for 3-4 minutes and then it was off to the races!!
So now, we're running 3+ hours down, thanks to NS congestion in Indiana and PTC. I wonder how many passengers will get off this train saying 'Never again!'?
Back in January, when I took the Silver Meteor to Fort Lauderdale, after a 3 hr late departure from NYP due to frozen doors (ice storm the night before), at WAS, after the train was all ready to go (after waiting 10 mins for a passenger that had gotten off to get some food at WAS), the engineer radioed the conductor he couldn't sign on to PTC. After about 10 minutes of calls to the tower and the CSX dispatcher, we finally got permission to run without PTC. I heard one other reference to PTC problems after we left JAX, but other than that, everything seemed OK.
Spin forward to this past Wednesday on the Cardinal WAS-CHI. I forget which small station west of Thurmond we stopped at, but the engineer had to cold-start/reboot PTC to get it working. About 10 minutes lost.
Last night, waiting to leave CHI on #48, the Capitol Ltd was delayed 40-50 minutes account a car problem. The City of New Orleans, an hour. This was per the announcements in the Metropolitan lounge. I figured, 'Oh goodie...what new excuse will she have for the Lakeshore Ltd?' More car trouble. We boarded at 9:35 and left at 9:55. I didn't have my scanner on, so I don't know what the delays were really about. But, surprisingly, the lounge stayed open until we were told to go board at 9:3or5. That's a first for me!
Somewhere in the night, we lost 2+ hours before Elkhart, but made some of that up by Cleveland. But just 2-3 minutes out of Cleveland, the train stopped at the point it becomes CSX and the engineer reported he can't connect to PTC. 15 minutes later, after restarting PTC, it still didn't work, so he got permission from the dispatcher to run without it. That is, until, Syracuse, where the dispatcher change occurs. That dispatcher refused to allow the train to run without PTC! Lose another 50 minutes contacting CSX and Amtrak and get them to agree to let us go...oh, and an extra reboot there, too!
Then, miracles of miracles, about 15 minutes out of Syracuse, PTC STARTS WORKING all by itself! We had just crossed a grade crossing where the highway signals weren't working, according to the engineer. Also, I spotted a signal maintainer at the interlocking about 1/2 mile after the crossing. The engineer had called out 'clear', but the train slowed to 10mph or so for 3-4 minutes and then it was off to the races!!
So now, we're running 3+ hours down, thanks to NS congestion in Indiana and PTC. I wonder how many passengers will get off this train saying 'Never again!'?
