Very late (for the Builder)

[EmpireBuilderFan]

I just got off of the first leg of my Empire Builder birthday (mine and the Builder's) trip. #8 into Williston kept to pretty normal time keeping as we arrived 30 minutes down. #7 was another story. We passed the westbound Builder about 10 miles east of Wolf Point, putting it 5 hours 30 minutes down. Interestingly, it arrived into Minot, ND slightly early, but didn't leave MOT until 5 hours later. While having a long delay might be almost normal (sadly) for trains like the Sunset Limited, this is extremely rare for the Builder.

I almost wonder if there was something wrong with the consist itself. I couldn't see anything obvious as it passed us, but we were in the siding as it blew by at 79 MPH.

As an aside, this is quite ominous for the return trip on Monday. When I picked up my tickets a couple of weeks ago, the westbound was running 4+ hours down. Now, today the westbound is running 5+ hours down. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come... :blink:

 

[snake]

Funny, you mention the ol' Sunset Limited, which according to the Amtrak website, lists Thursday's scheduled 8:17 PM Tucson arrival as an actual arrival at 3:29 PM!! :blink:

 

[whistler]

Funny, you mention the ol' Sunset Limited, which according to the Amtrak website, lists Thursday's scheduled 8:17 PM Tucson arrival as an actual arrival at 3:29 PM!!   :blink:

Could have been worse! The Cardinal arrived 10 hours and 49 minutes late into WAS. Looks like just about anything and everything went wrong for the crew and passengers that trip.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Funny, you mention the ol' Sunset Limited, which according to the Amtrak website, lists Thursday's scheduled 8:17 PM Tucson arrival as an actual arrival at 3:29 PM!!   :blink:

Could have been worse! The Cardinal arrived 10 hours and 49 minutes late into WAS. Looks like just about anything and everything went wrong for the crew and passengers that trip.

Well not really, that arrival given into Tucson was #1 running 19 hours late, not 5 hours and 12 minutes early The flooding in TX has severly hurt the sunset this trip.

 

[whistler]

Funny, you mention the ol' Sunset Limited, which according to the Amtrak website, lists Thursday's scheduled 8:17 PM Tucson arrival as an actual arrival at 3:29 PM!!   :blink:

Could have been worse! The Cardinal arrived 10 hours and 49 minutes late into WAS. Looks like just about anything and everything went wrong for the crew and passengers that trip.

Well not really, that arrival given into Tucson was #1 running 19 hours late, not 5 hours and 12 minutes early The flooding in TX has severly hurt the sunset this trip.

Oops... read that as AM not PM for some reason!

 

[railserve]

I've had a 6 hour layover in Minot on the westbound Empire Builder before. The eastbound was late due to a derailment, and the crew needed their required rest time before heading back west. Without knowing if the prior eastbound was late, I can only speculate that this could be similar.

 

[frank]

I was dead 22 hours in Williston going east last fall. That's a long time in Williston.

Frank