AMTRAK-P42
Conductor
(had this posted on TO for a couple days, thought id put it up here to!)
Just another full Saturday day trip. I had checked #11 and since she was only about 1 hour late out of SAC, I knew she **normally** does not lose more then an hour in the central valley, so I figured we would still make the tunnel work. Wow was it close.
January 20th, 2007. Amtrak train #799.
Unit P42#: 122
Consist: 28 total axels
1 P42 (#122)
1 Baggage
1 Lounge/Business Class
3 Coaches
1 Cab-baggage F40
Arrived at LAUPT at exactly 650am and proceeded to find a good parking spot in the "maze" that is the MTA parking garage.
Picked up my tickets and was train-side on track 10 by 710am. We had a UP crew deadheading with us today back up to SLO and I overheard the engineer telling them of numerous Form B's (slow orders) north of Santa Barbara so we would "eventually" get to SLO, she said jokingly...or so she thought. I should mention that we would be the first northbound Surfliner through the trackwork that had caused all the Surfliners to cancel at Goleta for the past week, so one could easily assume we would be a bit delayed. Departed 1 minute late and stayed on-time almost all the way, almost.
Los Angeles, CA Depart Late: 0:01 Notes:
Glendale, CA Depart Late: 0:01 Notes:
Burbank Airport Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Van Nuys, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Chatsworth, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Simi Valley, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Moorpark, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Camarillo, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Oxnard, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Ventura, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Carpinteria, CA Depart Late: 0:09 late Notes: 6 min stop for UP at Cliff siding.
Santa Barbara CA Depart Late: 0:06 late Notes:
Goleta, CA Depart Late: 0:11 late Notes: Long stop for Bikes to be loaded
Lompoc-Surf, CA Depart Late: 0:11 Notes:
After Lompoc is where things started to get interesting. We started to come up on numerous slow orders, showing in a 52 minute late arrival.
Guad.Santa Mar Depart Late: 0:52 Notes:
And now comes the most fun. As we neared Grover Beach, we had to stop for track work once again. We continued slowly for sometime until finally coming to a stop for 45 minutes, 1/10th of a mile from the Grover Beach station. Our track warrant expired directly before the platform. #799 radioed DS73 in an attempt to get permission to proceed the 1/10th of a mile into the station. She refused for 45 minutes. 35 passengers on the train were getting off here, and they were extremely frustrated, and reasonably so. Finally, 45 minutes later, DS73 let us move the 1/10th of a mile into the platform...where we sat for another 40 minutes. UP was telling DS73 that they had a MOW vehicle broken down on the tracks about a mile ahead. Whether this actually happened remains to be seen (or if it was really just the work train/crew finishing its work), as finally, 1 hour and 30 minutes later, we began to move, but we had to follow the work train all the up to SLO, which resulted in almost every signal being a stop and go, or an approach.
Grover Beach CA Depart Late: 2 hours 1 minute
Finally, we arrived into SLO at 2:46pm, exactly 2 hours late.
San Luis, CA Arrive Late: 2 hours 0 minutes
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I had a little (keyword: little) time to kill in SLO until my return on #11 later in the day. #11 had a parlor, so I was looking forward to a nice evening-night run down the coast. While at SLO, the work train tied down. After that, UP let a freight die on the single track north of the station. This problem was resolved within about 25 minutes as a relief crew brought the train off the hill. #14 arrived almost an hour late, with AMTK 120 and Pepsi-Can #509 trailing, #14 did have a parlor. Left about the same. This delayed #798's departure however, which left about 20 minutes late.
Finally, at about 525, #11 arrived.
January 20th, 2007. Amtrak train #11.
Units P42#: 118, 121.
Consist: 48 total axels
2 P42 (#118, 121)
1 Baggage
1 Transition Sleeper
2 Sleepers
1 Parlor (the one with missing patch, don't remember her #)
1 Diner
1 Lounge
4 Coaches
San Luis Obispo Depart Late: 2 hours 13 minutes Notes:
Padding into SBA allowed us to get in there when we did, but it was not without incident. About an hour outside of SBA, the conductor came over the radio and had the engineer "go home". He told him that the rule now for the tunnels seems to be 8:30pm at SBA or no go. He sounded nervous and he knew it was going to be close. We had numerous things occur between SLO-SBA but like I said, the padding helped a bit. 10 minutes outside of SBA, at 8:26pm, we hit an approach and were coming to a red. Immediately the conductor started radioing DS73, but seconds later the signal lined up and gave us the clear. We made it to SBA at 8:35pm and were allowed to go through without a bus. WOW, that was close.
Santa Barbara CA Depart Late: 2 hours 21 minutes Notes: 8 min stop to copy warrant+rolling meet; 5 min stop to reset switch; 5 min stop for 775 and slow proceed on siding.
Oxnard, CA Depart Late: 2 hours 17 minutes Notes: 4 min stop for UP at Sea Cliff.
Simi Valley, CA Depart Late: 2 hours 15 minutes Notes:
Van Nuys, CA Depart Late: NO STOP Notes:
Los Angeles Arrive Late: 1 hours 34 minutes Notes: Padding
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We had a brief meet with a UP at Sea Cliff, and we had no work at Van Nuys so we didn't end up stopping there. The immense padding showed in our 1 hour and 34 minute late arrival into LAUPT at 10:35pm, ending another great trip on Amtrak.
P.S. If you want to check out the pictures, head on over to Train Orders. Here is the link to the post:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1325842
Just another full Saturday day trip. I had checked #11 and since she was only about 1 hour late out of SAC, I knew she **normally** does not lose more then an hour in the central valley, so I figured we would still make the tunnel work. Wow was it close.
January 20th, 2007. Amtrak train #799.
Unit P42#: 122
Consist: 28 total axels
1 P42 (#122)
1 Baggage
1 Lounge/Business Class
3 Coaches
1 Cab-baggage F40
Arrived at LAUPT at exactly 650am and proceeded to find a good parking spot in the "maze" that is the MTA parking garage.
Picked up my tickets and was train-side on track 10 by 710am. We had a UP crew deadheading with us today back up to SLO and I overheard the engineer telling them of numerous Form B's (slow orders) north of Santa Barbara so we would "eventually" get to SLO, she said jokingly...or so she thought. I should mention that we would be the first northbound Surfliner through the trackwork that had caused all the Surfliners to cancel at Goleta for the past week, so one could easily assume we would be a bit delayed. Departed 1 minute late and stayed on-time almost all the way, almost.
Los Angeles, CA Depart Late: 0:01 Notes:
Glendale, CA Depart Late: 0:01 Notes:
Burbank Airport Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Van Nuys, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Chatsworth, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Simi Valley, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Moorpark, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Camarillo, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Oxnard, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Ventura, CA Depart Late: On-Time Notes:
Carpinteria, CA Depart Late: 0:09 late Notes: 6 min stop for UP at Cliff siding.
Santa Barbara CA Depart Late: 0:06 late Notes:
Goleta, CA Depart Late: 0:11 late Notes: Long stop for Bikes to be loaded
Lompoc-Surf, CA Depart Late: 0:11 Notes:
After Lompoc is where things started to get interesting. We started to come up on numerous slow orders, showing in a 52 minute late arrival.
Guad.Santa Mar Depart Late: 0:52 Notes:
And now comes the most fun. As we neared Grover Beach, we had to stop for track work once again. We continued slowly for sometime until finally coming to a stop for 45 minutes, 1/10th of a mile from the Grover Beach station. Our track warrant expired directly before the platform. #799 radioed DS73 in an attempt to get permission to proceed the 1/10th of a mile into the station. She refused for 45 minutes. 35 passengers on the train were getting off here, and they were extremely frustrated, and reasonably so. Finally, 45 minutes later, DS73 let us move the 1/10th of a mile into the platform...where we sat for another 40 minutes. UP was telling DS73 that they had a MOW vehicle broken down on the tracks about a mile ahead. Whether this actually happened remains to be seen (or if it was really just the work train/crew finishing its work), as finally, 1 hour and 30 minutes later, we began to move, but we had to follow the work train all the up to SLO, which resulted in almost every signal being a stop and go, or an approach.
Grover Beach CA Depart Late: 2 hours 1 minute
Finally, we arrived into SLO at 2:46pm, exactly 2 hours late.
San Luis, CA Arrive Late: 2 hours 0 minutes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I had a little (keyword: little) time to kill in SLO until my return on #11 later in the day. #11 had a parlor, so I was looking forward to a nice evening-night run down the coast. While at SLO, the work train tied down. After that, UP let a freight die on the single track north of the station. This problem was resolved within about 25 minutes as a relief crew brought the train off the hill. #14 arrived almost an hour late, with AMTK 120 and Pepsi-Can #509 trailing, #14 did have a parlor. Left about the same. This delayed #798's departure however, which left about 20 minutes late.
Finally, at about 525, #11 arrived.
January 20th, 2007. Amtrak train #11.
Units P42#: 118, 121.
Consist: 48 total axels
2 P42 (#118, 121)
1 Baggage
1 Transition Sleeper
2 Sleepers
1 Parlor (the one with missing patch, don't remember her #)
1 Diner
1 Lounge
4 Coaches
San Luis Obispo Depart Late: 2 hours 13 minutes Notes:
Padding into SBA allowed us to get in there when we did, but it was not without incident. About an hour outside of SBA, the conductor came over the radio and had the engineer "go home". He told him that the rule now for the tunnels seems to be 8:30pm at SBA or no go. He sounded nervous and he knew it was going to be close. We had numerous things occur between SLO-SBA but like I said, the padding helped a bit. 10 minutes outside of SBA, at 8:26pm, we hit an approach and were coming to a red. Immediately the conductor started radioing DS73, but seconds later the signal lined up and gave us the clear. We made it to SBA at 8:35pm and were allowed to go through without a bus. WOW, that was close.
Santa Barbara CA Depart Late: 2 hours 21 minutes Notes: 8 min stop to copy warrant+rolling meet; 5 min stop to reset switch; 5 min stop for 775 and slow proceed on siding.
Oxnard, CA Depart Late: 2 hours 17 minutes Notes: 4 min stop for UP at Sea Cliff.
Simi Valley, CA Depart Late: 2 hours 15 minutes Notes:
Van Nuys, CA Depart Late: NO STOP Notes:
Los Angeles Arrive Late: 1 hours 34 minutes Notes: Padding
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We had a brief meet with a UP at Sea Cliff, and we had no work at Van Nuys so we didn't end up stopping there. The immense padding showed in our 1 hour and 34 minute late arrival into LAUPT at 10:35pm, ending another great trip on Amtrak.
P.S. If you want to check out the pictures, head on over to Train Orders. Here is the link to the post:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1325842
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