JPS1 I'll bet Amtrak has enough quant smarts to work the problem.
I'll bet Amtrak has enough quant smarts to work the problem.
(cue mad-scientist maniacal laughter)
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
I suspect only Amtrak can say whether they have a shortage of locomotives. I have not heard of any run cancellations because of a locomotive shortage.
If the company has a locomotive shortage, how is it that it keeps a cover locomotive in Fort Worth should the regular power on the Heartland Flyer fail or one of the units on the Texas Eagle fail?
Excluding the power requirements for the length and weight of the train, or the terrain that it has to run over, the question of how many locomotives to assign to a train is a probability exercise. It is the probability of a single locomotive failing times the cost of the failure vs. the cost of running a second locomotive when it is there just in case the first locomotive fails. I'll bet Amtrak has enough quant smarts to work the problem.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
bartman-tn Locomotive failures have become a routine part of my Amtrak travels over the past year. Last fall, the Chief lost a loco coming east and BNSF gave us one, but we were still almost 10 hours late upon arrival. Two weeks ago, the same happened on westbound #5. We couldn't make Soldier Summit and lost 5-1/2 hours there and then 2 more at Sparks as we got another freight loco for that pull. A month ago we lost a loco on a trip as it needed 105 gallons of lube oil after several days. This is what worries me about any 1-loco train.
Locomotive failures have become a routine part of my Amtrak travels over the past year. Last fall, the Chief lost a loco coming east and BNSF gave us one, but we were still almost 10 hours late upon arrival. Two weeks ago, the same happened on westbound #5. We couldn't make Soldier Summit and lost 5-1/2 hours there and then 2 more at Sparks as we got another freight loco for that pull. A month ago we lost a loco on a trip as it needed 105 gallons of lube oil after several days. This is what worries me about any 1-loco train.
Add another issue as the HEP cable between locomotives 9 and 10 blew out yesterday on #6 coming into Dell siding (east of Glenwood Springs) to meet #5. Sparks shot out quite a ways and we could see them from the sleepers. The train crew did a great job of making repairs (including requests for a number of garbage bags). The delay was just less than a hour thanks to the great work of the train crew. We also didn't get the typical fueling at Omaha this morning, and didn't have enough fuel to get to Chicago. A fuel truck met the train just east of Galesburg to add enough for the train and crew to get home to Chicago.
CMStPnPHere is an article I found on this subject....... http://www.4rr.com/INTRO/update_001.htm
http://www.4rr.com/INTRO/update_001.htm
... but their 'locomotives OOS' page link is dead. Do you have a current or working one? Someone can compile statistics from sequential views of the page on the "Wayback machine" month to month when we have good data...
That HAS to be one of the funniest euphemisms I have ever seen used in the industry -- "unwanted intrusion activity". I thought they were referring to trespassers or vandals for a few moments!
What I'd like to know is what 'wanted intrusion activity' would be?
I have had my suspicions since the 1990s that the monocoque carbody can't possibly be good for 'intrusions' -- the 'bridge' construction Dilworth specified for the Fs and Es was bad enough in that respect...
Here is an article I found on this subject.......
Same situation applies to the Class 1's in freight service. Trains are loaded to max tonnage for the territory they are operateing on - lose an engine and the train is dead until a replacement can be secured - and most passing trains are also on their tonnage limits and can't give up an engine. Engine failures are serious happenings no matter if passenger or freight.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
D.Carleton Yet the NEC has all new electrics for the conventional trains. Interesting.
Yet the NEC has all new electrics for the conventional trains. Interesting.
Difficult to replace both 20+ year old locomotive fleets at the same time
Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak
blue streak 1 At present Amtrak seems to be very short of locos. LSL running with one loco,, Coast starlight yesterday had just loco # 505, derailmet of Cascades may have loco 176 OOS (?), Empire Builder yesterday delay 6+hours from Seattle, some Michigan trains not operating due to track maintenance, and other problems. The Cardinal not operating due to flooding frees up 2 locos in WASH and 2 in CHI yet still seems loco shortage. What trains have been seen with freight locos ? Maybe Amtrak is taking more time with fewer locos operating to get parked locos in good working order. Reading the tea leaves this poster really hopes that a result will not be a cancellation of one or more SD & LD trains. That would mirror the cancellation of the Florida special due to lack of cars way back when.
At present Amtrak seems to be very short of locos. LSL running with one loco,, Coast starlight yesterday had just loco # 505, derailmet of Cascades may have loco 176 OOS (?), Empire Builder yesterday delay 6+hours from Seattle, some Michigan trains not operating due to track maintenance, and other problems.
The Cardinal not operating due to flooding frees up 2 locos in WASH and 2 in CHI yet still seems loco shortage.
What trains have been seen with freight locos ?
Maybe Amtrak is taking more time with fewer locos operating to get parked locos in good working order.
Reading the tea leaves this poster really hopes that a result will not be a cancellation of one or more SD & LD trains. That would mirror the cancellation of the Florida special due to lack of cars way back when.
All of which is a result of Amtrak's lack of a sustained, reliable, funding & capital improvement structure. Going on bended knee to Congress for next years funding is not anyway to run and on going business.
At present Amtrak seems to be very short of locos. LSL running with one loco,, Coast starlight yesterday had just loco # 505, derailmet of Cascades may have loco 176 OOS (?), Empire Builder yesterday delay 9+hours from Seattle, some Michigan trains not operating due to track maintenance, and other problems.
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