What happened to 20 at Meridian today?

[haolerider]

Then again I could just be trying to justify why they have a third P42 back to back. If they needed it repaired, it makes no sense to tow it to NOL...

Train #20 runs to NYP, so if they were indeed initially towing a dead engine, it would be on it's way to DC, not NOL.

Exactly. So if the third unit isn't dead, what is it doing?

I love a good rail mystery...

Does anybody know if the 3rd unit could have been from 19? I

talked to the attendant at TCL and he said at Meridian both units failed when they stated to leave the station, one was fixed and pulled until it got about halfway to TCL in York AL, then died again.

At this point a NS unit was dumped from a train at TCL to aid 20.

19 also lost a good bit of time between TCL and MEI, so that leads me to believe 19 gave up a unit at York to tow 20 to TCL then to provide HEP while the NS unit led.

According to the local yard crews in TCL there is a hill just North of TCL that has a 2% grade with a short section of 2.5% grade and Amtrak would have to cut HEP to have enough power for one loco to drag the train over the hill in its normal consist minus one p42 , but since there were two dead units NS required them to add one of their units to climb the grade to protect against stalling out.

You are correct. That is exactly what happene and that explains the three locomotives and the NS power.

 

[had8ley]

Then again I could just be trying to justify why they have a third P42 back to back. If they needed it repaired, it makes no sense to tow it to NOL...

Train #20 runs to NYP, so if they were indeed initially towing a dead engine, it would be on it's way to DC, not NOL.

Exactly. So if the third unit isn't dead, what is it doing?

I love a good rail mystery...

Does anybody know if the 3rd unit could have been from 19? I

talked to the attendant at TCL and he said at Meridian both units failed when they stated to leave the station, one was fixed and pulled until it got about halfway to TCL in York AL, then died again.

At this point a NS unit was dumped from a train at TCL to aid 20.

19 also lost a good bit of time between TCL and MEI, so that leads me to believe 19 gave up a unit at York to tow 20 to TCL then to provide HEP while the NS unit led.

According to the local yard crews in TCL there is a hill just North of TCL that has a 2% grade with a short section of 2.5% grade and Amtrak would have to cut HEP to have enough power for one loco to drag the train over the hill in its normal consist minus one p42 , but since there were two dead units NS required them to add one of their units to climb the grade to protect against stalling out.

I've never seen a pax train "double" (cut the train in half and make two runs over the hill and then put the train back together.) Not only would it tie up the single track NS for hours I would think it would be a major embarrassment~ especially if the NS insisted on another unit.

 

[Crescent Mark]

Thanks for the explanation! Very interesting indeed.

I've never seen a pax train "double" (cut the train in half and make two runs over the hill and then put the train back together.) Not only would it tie up the single track NS for hours I would think it would be a major embarrassment~ especially if the NS insisted on another unit.

Exactly, which is why they didn't do that