blue streak 1 Even on today Thanksgiving day both 19 & 20 have lost over an hour between Meredian and Atlanta. Only the Meteor 97 / 22 has lost an hour on CSX today on eastern RRs .
Even on today Thanksgiving day both 19 & 20 have lost over an hour between Meredian and Atlanta. Only the Meteor 97 / 22 has lost an hour on CSX today on eastern RRs .
Birmingham remains in the ditch.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
oltmannd Birmingham remains in the ditch.
Oltmannd. Is it a cascading problem ?
1. Norris yard hump closed.
2. Inbound trains from all directions cannot get into the yard in an orderly manner.
3. Trains wait outside Norris tying up sidings.
4. Meets become very problematic due to passing on main tracks, backing in or out of sidings, waiting for freight to enter a long enough siding to proceed.
Well #20 / 24 arrived ATL only 16 minutes late. Guess anything is almost possible. A check from Jan 01, 2017 show #20 only arrived ATL early 4 times. Great stats ? For information #19 arrived Meridian 8 times early from Jan 01.
OMG! both 19 and 20 made it thru the Meridian - ATL swamp essentially on time today .
From last report both ways Crescent loosing average of 3 hours south of ATL. Yesterday 20 lost 4:29 Anniston - ATL partially due to NS freight train interferrence.
At least train 20 will be able to leave ATL on time some days in Januarary and early February. That will occurr on Monday - Thursday nights Jan 6 - Feb 8 due to Crescent not going south of ATL on those days. Bus substitution will be provided instead .
https://www.amtrak.co able to m/services/contentService.alerts.routealerts.departDate-20180109.routeName-Crescent.html
November host RR performance has Crescent end point arrivals dead last at 13%. Next worse RR was CSX at 31% for various trains. Best was the E Builder at 81%
December median delays between Meridian and ATL were for train 19 --2:03. Train 20 --- 1:38 however 2 were on time at ATL would have raised the median to 1:57.
Even the late shore limited at BUF only had 1:13 for Dec. or :51 for CLE. Also 1:01 for 48 at ALB
Do freight trains on NS factor in to the delay?
ATSFGuy Do freight trains on NS factor in to the delay?
My hunch is that the overall disfunction of NS's yard in Birmingham has led to congestion east and west of Birmingham and trains running out of slot. It's been this way since they closed the hump in Chatt.
I wonder: did NS, without any forethought, decide to emulate EHH concerning yard operation?
Johnny
Deggesty I wonder: did NS, without any forethought, decide to emulate EHH concerning yard operation?
Well, sort of. The EHH scare pushed them into the "drop the OR" promise. Closing the humps was a means to that end. Was it pushed along faster than it should have been? Maybe. None of NS's big yards have had good dwell numbers in a year. Capacity or local management? Can't really tease that out from the public numberss.
Any 'decently operating' railroad network can be managed into gridlock by ill advised senior management decisions - CSX and NS are the current examples. UP has been an example in the past.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Any 'decently operating' railroad network can be managed into gridlock by ill advised senior management decisions - CSX and NS are the current examples. UP has been an example in the past.
blue streak 1 BaltACD Any 'decently operating' railroad network can be managed into gridlock by ill advised senior management decisions - CSX and NS are the current examples. UP has been an example in the past. Yes the ill advised anticipation that the current track structure of NS Meridian - BHM - ATL could handle the additional traffic from the Meridian speedway of KCS. Then the gain in traffic from CSX partial meltdown moved more NOL and other traffic to the same route. Does anyone know if NS is actually lenghtening sidings or putting in some 2 main tracks during this month's closings of the route to Amtrak's trains # 19 and #20 Mondays thru Thursdays ?
I have NO knowledge of what NS is actually doing.
That being said, that 'curfew' period sounds like either a rail gang or tie and surfacing gang are working on single track. These kinds of gangs need track occupancy for 8 to 10 continuous hours or more without passing traffic - the gangs consist of many machines that perform the necessary actions to pull off these activities. It generally takes a hour or two to get all machines into the track structure from their clear up point and doing their jobs, by the same token it also takes a hour or two for all the machines to get into the clear and return the track to service.
The days of the Gandy Dancer and a local section crew working on several rail lenghts a day is over the horizon in the rear view mirror of today's railroads.
There really isn't any additional train count on this route that I'm aware of. Curfew is anual thing for four day a week track gang work.
oltmannd There really isn't any additional train count on this route that I'm aware of. Curfew is anual thing for four day a week track gang work.
blue streak 1 oltmannd There really isn't any additional train count on this route that I'm aware of. Curfew is anual thing for four day a week track gang work. If that is true why are trains 19 & 20 taking such a hit most days Austell <> Meridian ? These delays did not always happen in the past..
Birmingham yard is a mess causing congestion on the line.
OMG Yesterday's Crescent #20 / 10 was on time for every departure from ATL to ALEX and early from there to NYP. So all the delays except the usual are south of ATL.
Todays Crescent #20 (11) originated at Atlanta and so started ON TIME. As of (:00 PM CST it is shown as Ar Gainesville 3 min early and departing on time. So it apearantly was annulled between NOL & ATL.
Electroliner 1935 Todays Crescent #20 (11) originated at Atlanta and so started ON TIME. As of (:00 PM CST it is shown as Ar Gainesville 3 min early and departing on time. So it apearantly was annulled between NOL & ATL.
Well it is actually getting worse.
From Jan 1 to present 19 arrived ATL 18 days on time, Average delay :30 and median :03. At Meridian average arrival 2:17 median 1:42. This even though no service 16 days ATL - NOL.
20 arrived ATL average 2:28 late median 2:17. 0 arrivals OT but 16 non operating from NOL. NS does do fairly well dispatching 20 north of ATL with WASH :57 average delay and :26 median delay however many of the WASH ot arrivals were due to the ATL originations.
It may be because of weather but the problems seem to be spreading to north of ATL. 19/15 lost several hours CLT - ATL then more to HBG; 19/16 lost over hour WASH - CVS; 20/ 15 lost 5 hours due to NS hitting someone between BHM - ATL and 20 / 16 lost several hours into ATL.
This last week 2/18 - 2/24 was another poor one. Maybe the announceent by NS routing some trains BHM - Columbus - Albany - Tifton instead of thru ATL will allow the Crescent better timing ?
for 19 ATL MEI NOL
AVG :17 2:36 3:17
Median :00 2:33 2:26 latest 5:30
For 20
AVG 2:19 :36 latest 2 - 3:00+
Median 2:04 :14
I am curious if the Crescent could be rerouted over its original route west of Atlanta via Montgomery, Mobile to New Orleans over CSX until such time that NS can straighten out its maintenance? Maybe some Amshack type stations could be temporarily put up. From Mobile west restore those stations for possible gulf coast service people seem to be talking about.
A McIntoshI am curious if the Crescent could be rerouted over its original route west of Atlanta via Montgomery, Mobile to New Orleans over CSX until such time that NS can straighten out its maintenance? Maybe some Amshack type stations could be temporarily put up. From Mobile west restore those stations for possible gulf coast service people seem to be talking about.
CSX is a congested railroad Atlanta - Birmingham - Montgomery - Mobile - New Orleans. It is also congested Atlanta - Montgomery - Mobile - New Orleans.
The present operators of CSX would take an exceeding dim view of operating the Cresent over any route on their property beyond the current DC to AF leg over the RF&P.
BaltACD A McIntosh I am curious if the Crescent could be rerouted over its original route west of Atlanta via Montgomery, Mobile to New Orleans over CSX until such time that NS can straighten out its maintenance? Maybe some Amshack type stations could be temporarily put up. From Mobile west restore those stations for possible gulf coast service people seem to be talking about. CSX is a congested railroad Atlanta - Birmingham - Montgomery - Mobile - New Orleans. It is also congested Atlanta - Montgomery - Mobile - New Orleans. The present operators of CSX would take an exceeding dim view of operating the Cresent over any route on their property beyond the current DC to AF leg over the RF&P.
A McIntosh
Would running shorter trains help? Of course, this would mean that more employees would be needed--and the money-hungry people would be unhappy.
DeggestyWould running shoorter trains help? Of course, this would mean that more employees would be needed--and the money-hungry people would be unhappy.
When you are dealing with Single Track railroad there are a specific number of trains that can be operated, due to the number and size of the passing sidings. If you plan on operating trains that exceed siding capacity - realistically you can only operate them in ONE DIRECTION as all trains in the other direction must be of siding clearing size - to do otherwise creates a locked down subdivision.
If the volume of traffic being handled on a particular route exceeds the number of clearing trains that can be handled on that single track route, then then running non-clearing trains can be one means of handling the level of traffic.
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