CP Rail derailment in Watertown, WI at 2 PM on Sunday November 8 has delayed the westbound Empire Builder. The train is returning to Chicago and will be rerouted. No indication of the route, but it may be via BNSF to Savannah, IL. The problem there is that BNSF has a derailrment in Alma, Wisconsin (on Saturday). Should be interesting.
All they had to do was a reverse move to Duplainville and use the interchange track there to switch over to the CN.........Chicago to MSP mainline. Why they returned all the way to Chicago........bewilders me and probably burned cash. CN is perfectly capable of handling a Amtrak reroute but possibly because it is a Canadian road and had nothing to do with Amtrak in the first place......maybe thats the issue? They can also use CP West Line and then North on their line on the West bank of the Mississippi river. West Line is in pretty good shape at least to the Mississippi the line on the opposite shore headed North would be slow running until it linked up with the La Crosse, WI crossing.
I'm confused by the original post. The eastbound Builder has Chicago as a destination, not a place to which to return.
Dakguy201 I'm confused by the original post. The eastbound Builder has Chicago as a destination, not a place to which to return.
In the days of yore - the carriers cooperated with each other on detour routes - as most carriers had excess capacity and detours could be handled without too much fuss and bother (track capacity & crew constrains).
Today, most carriers have tailored their physical plant to their own daily operational norms and there is very little if any extra capacity either on the physical plant or with the manpower necessary to handle a detour.
My understanding, and I could be wrong, in case of derailments, it is up to Amtrak to arrange for any detour movements - not the carrier with the derailment. I expect Amtrak will tend to deal with carriers they already deal with when the time comes.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
sorry meant westbound.
The westbound arrived at LaCrosse at 7 this morning -- about 12 hours late.
Arrived in St. Paul aboard No. 7, westbound Empire Builder, from Milwaukee. What a saga!
En route from Chicago (2:15 departure) to Milwaukee, Train 8 experienced air problems near Studivant, Wisconsin. Returned to Chi town in reverse (not sure of details).
Milwaukee boarding passengers headed for Wisconsin destinations including LaCrosse were bussed to those towns to bypass the Watertown derailment. Passengers headed for Minnesota and beyond were bussed at 5:00 PM to Chicago where "train is being held for you". No train waiting at Chi Union Station. Repeated announcements that it was awaiting clearance into station, was delayed for mechanicals, etc. About 11:00 PM train pulls in headed by 2 locomotives (didn't catch numbers), baggage car, 8 (?) cars, another bagage car and trailing locomotive. No power to cars - cable on trailing baggage car burned up.
Amtrak customer service guys show up in waiting room with water and snacks and perfrom amusing songs and dances to pacify us (actually we were pretty mellow aobut the delay - nothing we could do about it). Thanks, John. Service guys left about 11:00 PM to unload Wisconsin bound passengers who had been on the train since 2:00 PM - those customers were not mellow at all. Amtrak cop was hovering in the background.
After much crawling under and around said bad order baggage car, uncoupling was accomplished, we were boarded, and No. 7 pulled out of South gates about midnight, 10 hours late. Not sure of the route due to darkness and exhaustion, but Rochelle was one town. We seemed to move at good speed with only 1 stop for freight (?). As Dakguy says, we reached LaCrosse about 7:00 AM, but pointing the wrong direction due to do-si-do through Grand Crossing. We made a reverse move across the Mississippi so we could do a wye into LaCrescent and then point north and west on the CP to Winona, Twin Cities and beyond.
Coaches were about half filled, so we all could spread out and sleep more comfortably. Car attendants and dining car and lounge people were very sympathetic to us, even though they are the ones who are going to have a very long trip to Seattle/Portland.
BaltACD In the days of yore - the carriers cooperated with each other on detour routes - as most carriers had excess capacity and detours could be handled without too much fuss and bother (track capacity & crew constrains). Today, most carriers have tailored their physical plant to their own daily operational norms and there is very little if any extra capacity either on the physical plant or with the manpower necessary to handle a detour. My understanding, and I could be wrong, in case of derailments, it is up to Amtrak to arrange for any detour movements - not the carrier with the derailment. I expect Amtrak will tend to deal with carriers they already deal with when the time comes.
True but the other thing is CP Rail is led by Hunter Harrison and he used to lead CN Rail............you would think it is just a matter of picking up the darn phone.
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