Turning of the Eagles

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OlympianHiawatha

Engineer
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Feb 7, 2008
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Location
Norman, OK
Moments ago I got home from a very pleasant 4 day each way run from Norman OK to West Palm Beach and before I left I was curious how the truncated southbound (21) Texas Eagle was turned in less than 2 hours in FTW. Some great planning went into this. Rather than hurry and turn a potentially late set and send it out half baked, the arriving set is unloaded south of the station just before the platform peters out by the Tower 55 Interlock. Then it is moved aside for a good overnight cleaning and restocking. Meanwhile the set that arrived the day before is pulled up to serve as that day's northbound 22.

The 2 engines are configured back to back and simply run around, putting the Coaches up front and the Trans Dorm in back. That set is then pulled up to the normal platform area, loaded and sent east to Dallas via TRE. In STL the power is pulled forward and the local Coach put right behind it.

And a big hats off to the FTW turn around crew for how well they ready that train, even making sure curtains are tucked back, headrests are on the seats and cleaning supplies and air freshener are in the johns, at least on the Trans Dorm.

As for the Heartland Flyer, because the 2 Eagles have its normal make ready track tied up it simply stays on the receiving track, nipping and tucking between the traffic when it leaves.
 
Thanks for the report on the turn of the Eagles in FTW! I've always thought the crews in FTW did an excellent job (the grumpy old agent is an exception) servicing the Eagles (and the HF) during the Station Stops!

Sounds like the STL crews have improved their MO also, the switching they used to do with the cutout Coach was slow and rough!

Maybe they need to go to CHI and help re- train the crack yard crews!!!!
 
The Eagle used to run two locomotives back to back for years in the 80s,90s and early 2000s and yes, they would just swap ends at San Antonio.

Thank you for your report, so the Eagle is stored on the third track farthest from the station and to the south of it?
 
Thank you for your report, so the Eagle is stored on the third track farthest from the station and to the south of it?
Correct. And the Eagle going out that day is positioned on the next track west (Track 2 I believe) giving it a straight shot onto the TRE. So for up to a few hours each afternoon both Eagles are in and the Heartland Flyer is sitting on its receiving track (Track 3 I believe) and gets serviced there since it cannot go further south. And as an interesting point, both the Diner and Cafe on 21 stay open almost to the bumper and the crew stays on to help with the first round cleaning.
 
So the Heartland Flyer train stays in FTW in between arrival at 12:23 and departure at 17:25?
Yes. It gets a good cleaning and I believe is restocked as well. Yesterday I saw crews vacuuming the cars and doing other work. At least for a run of just over 4 hours you usually don't have to deal with bombed out stinky toilets :)
 
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