Somebody is doing their job

[Michael061282]

A friend of mine is on #7 (20) right now. Their Engine crew went dead a little ago before hitting Minot. But someone somewhere was doing their job because the relief crew was there and had it back in the road within 20 minutes. That's one of the quickest resolves I've seen in this situation. Took UP 6 hours one time when I was on #5 and that wasn't all that far from Grand Junction. Why do I have the feeling somebody at BNSF is like "Find this proactive person, bring him to me, I will his head to me on a platter for this!"

 

[PRR 60]

A friend of mine is on #7 (20) right now. Their Engine crew went dead a little ago before hitting Minot. But someone somewhere was doing their job because the relief crew was there and had it back in the road within 20 minutes. That's one of the quickest resolves I've seen in this situation. Took UP 6 hours one time when I was on #5 and that wasn't all that far from Grand Junction. Why do I have the feeling somebody at BNSF is like "Find this proactive person, bring him to me, I will his head to me on a platter for this!"

The crew on #7 are Amtrak employees. The responsibility for re-crewing belongs to Amtrak, not BNSF. When the re-crew is done in a timely manner, it is to Amtrak's credit. When it is not, it is Amtrak's fault. BNSF, UP and the other host railroads are not responsible for Amtrak crews.

 

[Ryan]

While the responsibility is Amtrak's, the host RR can certainly do things to make it easier or more difficult for Amtrak to recrew.

 

[Trogdor]

While the responsibility is Amtrak's, the host RR can certainly do things to make it easier or more difficult for Amtrak to recrew.

About the only thing the host might be able to control is giving a reliable run / estimate on where the train will be when the crew dies.

As for the topic in general, the majority of recrews are invisible to the passenger because they happen before the original crew dies. Many happen at a station stop beforehand. Others happen somewhere along the line where the new crew is waiting when the train gets there. A few others are like this where the crew dies, but the relief crew is already on its way and is close by.

It's only the occasional situation where a number of extenuating circumstances combine to prevent a smooth recrew that a train gets seriously delayed due to crew hours of service, and it's those rare occasions that cause folks on AU to go all crazy and demand everybody be fired and how the rules should be changed and how railroads should change how they operate, etc. because only the tiny number of clusterf***s get made public rather than the large number of times it goes right on a daily basis.

 

[George Harris]

About the only time the railroad company's crews would be involved would be on a reroute over a line for which the Amtrak crew is not qualified, and then they are usually as pilots with the Amtrak crew still in the engine. The other occasion would be when the Amtrak engine dies on the road or has some defect that disqualifies it from leading and a railroad company engine is pressed into service. It should be noted that this is not out of the goodness of the heart of BNSF, UP, or whoever, but because Amtrak is paying for it and otherwise chances are the train would be tying up the railroad. For lines where the speed limit is 79 or 90, this will result in the train running at a lower top speed. Otherwise, even this may be invisible to the passenger.

 

[Ryan]

While the responsibility is Amtrak's, the host RR can certainly do things to make it easier or more difficult for Amtrak to recrew.

About the only thing the host might be able to control is giving a reliable run / estimate on where the train will be when the crew dies.

By giving the train priority (or putting it in the hole), they can also control where the recrew happens. A good dispatcher knowing the crew is about to die may get a train over the road faster and get it to the crew change point (if it's close), or somewhere else easily accessible. A bad one might put the train in the hole in the middle of a swamp that's a pain in the @$$ to get to.

 

[the_traveler]

Another thing that may have helped is that Minot is a crew change point, so crews are available. (OP said "before Minot" but not how far away.) GJT is not I don't believe, so any relief crew must get there first.

 

[Michael061282]

I said BNSF because it happened on the detour and I figured there would at least be a pilot in the cab along with the Amtrak guy(s)

 

[rickycourtney]

The other occasion would be when the Amtrak engine dies on the road or has some defect that disqualifies it from leading and a railroad company engine is pressed into service.

That used to be true but it's not really the case anymore. Most of Amtrak's engineers have been cross trained on the most common freight locomotive types. That means they can operate an Amtrak train with a freight locomotive without any assistance.