Nor'easter cancelling couple Acela roundtrips NYP <> BOS and Vermonter New Haven north.
Amtrak Advisory | Modified Service Due to Impending Nor'easter
I can well remember an incident when I was a little boy. It was around 1962 or '63 when we were living on Long Island.
One of my father's co-workers who was also a friend of his was sent on a business trip to Washington D.C. He flew down but after he got down there a powerful nor' easter hit. A regular "Snowmageddon". It looked like he'd be stuck there for a long time.
All the airports were completely shut down with no estimate as to when they'd reopen. NOTHING on the ground moved. Nothing, that is EXCEPT the Pennsy's celebrated GG1s.
They got the guy home in the storm. Late, for sure, but home nevertheless. But nowadays? HA~! It seems like they cancel trains based on a prediction. They don't even make any attempt to fight the weather.
The loss of "The Standard Railroad of the World" is indeed a major loss.
Fred M CainI can well remember an incident when I was a little boy. It was around 1962 or '63 when we were living on Long Island. One of my father's co-workers who was also a friend of his was sent on a business trip to Washington D.C. He flew down but after he got down there a powerful nor' easter hit. A regular "Snowmageddon". It looked like he'd be stuck there for a long time. All the airports were completely shut down with no estimate as to when they'd reopen. NOTHING on the ground moved. Nothing, that is EXCEPT the Pennsy's celebrated GG1s. They got the guy home in the storm. Late, for sure, but home nevertheless. But nowadays? HA~! It seems like they cancel trains based on a prediction. They don't even make any attempt to fight the weather. The loss of "The Standard Railroad of the World" is indeed a major loss.
In the early 60's the railroads still possessed the resource necessary to overcome the results of Winter weather - MANPOWER in mass quantities. They no longer have that in the PSR world of the 21st Century.
Go back a little further to a blizzard that hit the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in March of 1958 and the GG-1's were defeated by their own 'breathing' the cooling air blowers sucked in the fine crystal 'light' snow and it shorted out and messed up their electrical systems and they couldn't move. Diesels had to be brought in to get things moving.
I was working the night Agent's position at Salem, IL and there was a B&O MofW employee that would ride #12 The Metropolitan Special from Salem on weekend nights to catch up with System Gang he was working with. I didn't see him for several weekends and when I did see him I asked where he had been - he had been with the rest of his Gang in Chicago digging the railroad out from a blizzard that had paralaized the city. He said he go paid 24 hours a day for the two weeks he was being used 'off assignment' in digging out Chicago Terminal.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Balt brings up a great point about the railroads ability with labor back then to keep the trains moving.
I also wonder about modern lawsuits. In my line of work, years ago school was kept open and those who could make it in came in, others were excused.
Now, if the weather even hinted something was coming, we called school off. Most of that was a fear that someone would get stuck on a county road, a school bus would slide into a ditch, or a kid would be injured on ice getting to school. The lawsuit people are always waiting in the wings.
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
York1Balt brings up a great point about the railroads ability with labor back then to keep the trains moving. I also wonder about modern lawsuits. In my line of work, years ago school was kept open and those who could make it in came in, others were excused. Now, if the weather even hinted something was coming, we called school off. Most of that was a fear that someone would get stuck on a county road, a school bus would slide into a ditch, or a kid would be injured on ice getting to school. The lawsuit people are always waiting in the wings.
Another thing that comes to the fore in Winter weather - half a century ago, employees lived much closer to their on duty reporting points, in many cases within walking distance. In the 21st Century it is very rare for anyone to be within walking distance of their jobs reporting points. When you have to drive 10 miles, 20 miles or more through Winter affected roadways to get to your on duty point - Many just can't make it.
When I was working in Baltimore, my house was 25 miles from my on duty point. In the Winter of 2009-2010 the Mid-Atlantic had three well over double digit snow events. After the first one, I had to manually dig out 150 feet of driveway to get my vehicle from the garage to the street - I was not able to do that - it took me three days to dig my way to the street. Lesson learned. Next storm I parked the vehicle at the end of the driveway so I could drive right on to the street. My street was not a Snow Emergency Street and thus did not get the plowing that the Snow Emergency Streets would get. I tried to go to work - made it three houses up a hill and could go no further - took another two hours to retrace my route and get the vehicle back in the driveway. The third storm I again parked at the end of the driveway, watched a road grader plow the street about 1 PM - and that was the last plowing until began to try to go to work a 9 PM - it had snowed continuously between 1 and 9 - and I could see any attempt to depart would be a failure and I called in.
Wasn't it standard practice to have critical employees report early and stay in onsite dorms? I remember Balt talking about that in JAX on a prior thread.
rdamonWasn't it standard practice to have critical employees report early and stay in onsite dorms? I remember Balt talking about that in JAX on a prior thread.
I think you may be referring to a post I made about hurricane preperations for the centralized version of the Dufford Dispatch Center - volunteers were requested to go to a back-up Dispatching site that was being maintained in Indianapolis. I suspect the volunteers would be housed in local motel/hotels at Indy. Hurricanes and Winter storms are mutually exclusive by season. I have no idea what CSX is doing during hurricane season since I have retired and the dispatching function was recentralized by EHH and his PSR management.
My observation about Railroads manpower shortage during storms has to do with automation of many routine duties. Track maintenance not only needs fewer personnel, but they are centralized, rather than spread out over the whole line. Also in storms, roads are shut down. What is the point of running a train, only to have the passenger getting off at a snowbound station, or maybe just a open platform?
MidlandMikeMy observation about Railroads manpower shortage during storms has to do with automation of many routine duties. Track maintenance not only needs fewer personnel, but they are centralized, rather than spread out over the whole line. Also in storms, roads are shut down. What is the point of running a train, only to have the passenger getting off at a snowbound station, or maybe just a open platform?
21st Century world is built upon unimpeded transportation - by land, sea, air and pipeline - the steady flow of people and materials - from one side of town to the other, from one side of the state to the other, from one side of the counrty to the other, from one side of the World to the other. The functioning of this transportation network is known as the Supply Chain. With Covid and its direct and after effects - people and materials weren't where they were needed, when they were needed. It took the 75 years from the end of WW II to put the Supply Chain in place as it existed at the time Covid hit in 2020. Covid SHUT DOWN whole countries for varying times that had no coordination with how those countries and their industrial/manpower output fit into World Supply Chain equation, thus for the past three years the Just In Time nature of the World's economic engine has been sputtering as it encounters spot shortages of various things that are required to facilitate the output of economic products for World consumption.
In the 21st Century we get our noses out of joint because a element of transportation is affected by a snow storm, by floods, by droughts, by high winds by anythng Mother Nature wants to throw at us.
Logistics - it is what keeps the World and its inhabitant's having a 21st Century life style and not a 18th Century life style and all the intervening centuries.
A friendly reminder: Immigration, "cancel culture," the pandemic, and similar inherently political topics are prohibited on this Forum. Posts have been deleted. If we resist the temptation to veer into contentious, off-topic subjects like these, then I don't have to step in and lock threads.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Steven OtteA friendly reminder: Immigration, "cancel culture," the pandemic, and similar inherently political topics are prohibited on this Forum. Posts have been deleted. If we resist the temptation to veer into contentious, off-topic subjects like these, then I don't have to step in and lock threads.
A friendly reminder Steve - comment on the correct threads. This is not such a thread.
BaltACD Steven Otte A friendly reminder: Immigration, "cancel culture," the pandemic, and similar inherently political topics are prohibited on this Forum. Posts have been deleted. If we resist the temptation to veer into contentious, off-topic subjects like these, then I don't have to step in and lock threads. A friendly reminder Steve - comment on the correct threads. This is not such a thread.
Steven Otte A friendly reminder: Immigration, "cancel culture," the pandemic, and similar inherently political topics are prohibited on this Forum. Posts have been deleted. If we resist the temptation to veer into contentious, off-topic subjects like these, then I don't have to step in and lock threads.
It was. As I said, I deleted the offending posts.
Steven OtteIt was. As I said, I deleted the offending posts.
Hey with the PM not working still. Just have a quick suggestion, take it or leave. I was a moderator on Military dot com back during GWOT. Can we start potentially a new Forum for interacting with the Moderator? This way you don't have to comb through the threads for stuff. May or may not work. Would be on a trail basis. Might save you some work because we could post requests to end threads and move topics between threads in one Forum (central location).
Another landslide closes PDX <> SEA until Sunday Feb 18th.
Amtrak Advisory | Rail Service Temporarily Suspended Between Seattle and Portland
Freight trains can go to San Diego again. Looking at the pictures have to wonder if the wall goes up between tracks and hillside can machinery get behind wall to remove more debri and dirt when it comes tunbling down?
Workers remove soil, debris from railroad right-of-way allowing San Diego freight trains to resume runs through San Clemente (msn.com)
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