What services are based in CHI?

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NSC1109

OBS Chief
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
544
Location
MI
I’m trying to get an idea of what services in Chicago utilize Chicago-based T&E crews. I know all of the long-distance services do, but I recently learned that most AML trains west of Battle Creek are crewed by Chicago T&E.

Are all corridor services based out of Chicago too? How does this work?
 
NSC1109 said:
I’m trying to get an idea of what services in Chicago utilize Chicago-based T&E crews. I know all of the long-distance services do, but I recently learned that most AML trains west of Battle Creek are crewed by Chicago T&E.

Are all corridor services based out of Chicago too? How does this work?
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The Pere Marquette is crewed out of Grand Rapids, but the cafe attendent is from Chicago.
 
tim49424 said:
The Pere Marquette is crewed out of Grand Rapids, but the cafe attendent is from Chicago.
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I’ve heard that GR is a sub-base of Battle Creek, just like Port Huron is a sub-base of Pontiac (apparently).

It surprises me because I know there is (or was) a T&E base in BTL but if the AML West crews are CHI and AML East is Pontiac, then what’s the point of having a BTL base?
 
NSC1109 said:
I’ve heard that GR is a sub-base of Battle Creek, just like Port Huron is a sub-base of Pontiac (apparently).

It surprises me because I know there is (or was) a T&E base in BTL but if the AML West crews are CHI and AML East is Pontiac, then what’s the point of having a BTL base?
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I‘m not even sure what a sub base is. All I know is that the GR crew start in GR and live relatively near there and the cafe attendant is from Chicago base and stays in GR overnight.
 
tim49424 said:
I‘m not even sure what a sub base is. All I know is that the GR crew start in GR and live relatively near there and the cafe attendant is from Chicago base and stays in GR overnight.
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They work out of GR but administratively they report to the trainmaster/RFE in Battle Creek.
 
NSC1109 said:
I’m trying to get an idea of what services in Chicago utilize Chicago-based T&E crews. I know all of the long-distance services do, but I recently learned that most AML trains west of Battle Creek are crewed by Chicago T&E.

Are all corridor services based out of Chicago too? How does this work?
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Do all of the Long Distance trains? For years and years, the Capital and the Lakeshore were crewed with T/E from the Toledo Crew base. Into Chi in the morning, out in the evening....
 
OBS said:
Do all of the Long Distance trains? For years and years, the Capital and the Lakeshore were crewed with T/E from the Toledo Crew base. Into Chi in the morning, out in the evening....
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That's what I heard.
 
It really doesn’t make sense to base many of them out of Chicago does it? You want a crew base to be able to serve both directions. So Carbondale - Chicago and Carbondale to Jackson for example.
 
crescent-zephyr said:
It really doesn’t make sense to base many of them out of Chicago does it? You want a crew base to be able to serve both directions. So Carbondale - Chicago and Carbondale to Jackson for example.
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That's one way of looking at it...especially if you wanted a crew base to 'qualify' on only one railroad. But it would seem to me, that if all the trains were staffed out of Chicago, you could eliminate the expense of having lots of smaller crew bases and their support personnel, if crews could qualify on several different routes out of Chicago.
 
railiner said:
That's one way of looking at it...especially if you wanted a crew base to 'qualify' on only one railroad. But it would seem to me, that if all the trains were staffed out of Chicago, you could eliminate the expense of having lots of smaller crew bases and their support personnel, if crews could qualify on several different routes out of Chicago.
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Well... the smaller crew bases would still need to exist. That's where the crew changes. If you had Chicago engineers running to Carbondale, then the Carbondale engineers would only run south. So you'd have the same crew base for only 1 section of track.

I'm not saying I know how it works, it could be that there is a base of engineers and conductors in Chicago who work a variety of routes filling in. I just know the Conductors I got to know on the City of New Orleans were based out of Carbondale and could work either North or South out of Carbondale.
 
crescent-zephyr said:
Well... the smaller crew bases would still need to exist. That's where the crew changes. If you had Chicago engineers running to Carbondale, then the Carbondale engineers would only run south. So you'd have the same crew base for only 1 section of track.

I'm not saying I know how it works, it could be that there is a base of engineers and conductors in Chicago who work a variety of routes filling in. I just know the Conductors I got to know on the City of New Orleans were based out of Carbondale and could work either North or South out of Carbondale.
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Or...you could make Jackson the crew base, to run either Carbondale or New Orleans in that case...
So on longer routes, that are too far to only operate between 'hubs' with only one crew change, an intermediate base would have to be established.
I can imagine a 'work-around' for those situation's, but it would probably not go over very well with the crews...
Say the Chicago crew runs to Carbondale, gets rested, runs to Jackson, gets rested, runs to Carbondale, gets rested, then runs home. That would mean a multi-day trip, similar to OBS crew's, but then several days off until the next trip. Some might like that, but probably not those with young families...
 
From my recent trip in the area I want to say these are the districts.

Toledo
-Pittsburgh
-Chicago
-Buffalo

Huntington
-Charlottesville
-Indianapolis (Even though I think there is a base here too, that also works to Chicago)
 
bms said:
Trains magazine published this map in 2014:

https://trn.trains.com/~/media/files/pdf/map-of-the-month/trn-m0506_a.pdf
I'm certain some changes have been made since then, however. Pontiac is shown as an away terminal in 2014, but this year on the Wolverine, the Conductor's announcements thanked passengers on behalf of their "Pontiac-based crew."
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I suppose it’s possible that things changed very briefly, but that map doesn’t seem quite right in Michigan if it’s from 2014. When I was working for Amtrak 2010-2013, they definitely had a Pontiac crew base, and I don’t recall any crew ever changing in Detroit. IIRC, crews worked 351-350, 353-352, and 355-354, turning in Battle Creek. I don’t remember if the conductors and engineers worked together, but part of me thinks they did. From the other end, they started in Chicago and worked 350-353, 352-355. I want to say there was also a Battle Creek base that worked 351-354 and 365-364, but my memory on that is a bit hazy now.

After the 110 mph operation was up and running (and after the 30 mph speed restrictions on the NS side were lifted after a tie replacement project), we put in a schedule change that had 351 running earlier, and it allowed a BTL crew to work 351-352, but I don‘t remember how that affected the rest of the turns.

I don’t know what the 2019/2020 (pre-COVID) schedule looks/looked like, and nobody I worked with who would know the answer even works for Amtrak anymore.
 

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