(Red highlights mine)
ALBANY, N.Y. Amtrak has suspended passenger train service in upstate New York west of Albany through today due to severe cold and heavy snow.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=6036658&nav=2aKD=============================================================
How pathetic is that?!! The buses can get through, but Amtrak cannot? I guess the message is:"If you want DEPENDABLE transportation, go BUS".
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Brings to mind "Empire Builder" Big Jim Hill who left the comfort of his private car when his train got caught up in a blizzard, grabbed a shovel and started digging out the train with the crew..."long ago and far away...things like that don't happen nowadays.."
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
Railroads no longer have the huge army of employees that made such a situation possible.
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
CSSHEGEWISCH wrote: Railroads no longer have the huge army of employees that made such a situation possible.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
csx has that section of track now.with the lake effect snow etc etc.they are going to run their trains first before any amtrak trains. back in 86 when conrail had the line our westbound train was held up because of extra traffic on conrail.
stay safe
joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
Well, they are predicting heavy lake effect snow along that route. Better to cancel than have passengers get stuck, I guess.
Too bad they shut down the Three Rivers along the NY-Philly-Pittsburgh-Chicago route. Very seldom did snow and cold shut it down.
coborn35 wrote:Well since its close to -50 up here today, I doubt there will be any trains running. Wont rail snap at a certain temperature? And Yes, school is closed.
Gee, how do you deal with a temperature that cold? It gives me chills just typing it!
At minus 50 I can understand curtailing operations. And staying home, under the covers, with hot chocolate.
Need a high tech solution for inclimate weather...? I understand it runs well in very cold weather...cab heater is real effective...
Well, CSX says they're still running in that area. They've got a "Level Two" situtation.
http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=customers.news-detail&i=26291
oltmannd wrote: CSX is strictly a fair weather operation.
Jacksonville. Snow. Nope, they don't go in the same sentence...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
wallyworld wrote: Need a high tech solution for inclimate weather...? I understand it runs well in very cold weather...cab heater is real effective...
Actually the cab heater is not that effective on an 1860's style steam locomotive. About the best you can get is 40 degrees F about ambient. Thus at -50, cab temperature will be a balmy -10. Remeber the back of the cab has to be open to allow shoveling. Also at those temps. water starts freezing in the tender and feed lines. No water - bad scene. Our historically accurate Rodgers has steam lines to keep the tender lines warm and a steam hose to warm tender water. Cold weather causes lots of things to go wrong on steamers.
dd
What I really love is that bit about busses replacing the cancelled trains.
Don't look now, Amtrak, but the combination of heavy snow and near-zero visibility is causing 18-wheelers to jackknife on the NY Thruway. Or were you planning to route them south - say to I-40?
Chuck (ex-New Yorker)
zardoz wrote: coborn35 wrote:Well since its close to -50 up here today, I doubt there will be any trains running. Wont rail snap at a certain temperature? And Yes, school is closed.Gee, how do you deal with a temperature that cold? It gives me chills just typing it!At minus 50 I can understand curtailing operations. And staying home, under the covers, with hot chocolate.
Or, as I like to joke to my cutomers from warmer climates (that are genrally areas of earthquakes or hurricanes, I might add) when they exclaim that I must be nuts to live where it gets this cold (minus 18 as I'm typing but we have had a slight warming trend over the last few days), "A little 30 below zero keeps down the riff-raff" LOL!
jchnhtfd wrote:oh yes it happened when Conrail ran the show. Also NYC. Either cancelled or very very delayed. The problem is a combination of a lot of snow (in the feet per hour range) (it's called lake effect) and a lot of wind. Gets into the switches (particularly in the Buffalo area) and raises holy whatnot with operations. Switch heaters can cope, up to a point, but when that lake effect gets really cranking they are actually worse than nothing, as the snow melts just enough to form ice -- which has the consistency and general properties of a poor grade of concrete.
OK. But compared to CSX's attitude of throwing in the towel at the hint of a bad forecast, at least Conrail made the attempt to keep Amtrak moving. I don't ever recall a time when ALL the trains west of Alb-Renss were cancelled due to weather.
Good point. I remember that back in the 1960s-early 70s, when I lived in New York passenger trains still ran even when we had 4ft and 5ft snowdrifts with winds gusting hard enough to smack you in the face.
Hopefully the situation will improve with "Conrail's Southern Xtension".
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
....Just a comment of the Three Rivers route across Pa., Oh., and so on, on to Chicago....Most of that route is south of the typical Lake effect snow patterns and it's highest elevation across the Allegheny Mtns. reaches about 2200' {which is high enough to produce much snow}, but seems they were pretty much able to keep traffic flowing across the heights of Pennsylvania.
Quentin
....Is it simply the fact the railroad industry does not have the masses of people available to "take care" of each problem area in current times as was the case decades ago....I wonder if so much is relied on "automation" and other "modern" factors it in reality simply can't handle extreme conditions of weather {heavy snowfall}, and such to be able to "run trains" as was done many years ago.
I agree with someone's post above....If there is a real danger of a passenger train not able to safely make it across the route with these dangerous conditions...{extreme temps., and such}, do not run them.
There is simply no one to "help" if problems arrise without much delay.
oltmannd wrote: jchnhtfd wrote:oh yes it happened when Conrail ran the show. Also NYC. Either cancelled or very very delayed. The problem is a combination of a lot of snow (in the feet per hour range) (it's called lake effect) and a lot of wind. Gets into the switches (particularly in the Buffalo area) and raises holy whatnot with operations. Switch heaters can cope, up to a point, but when that lake effect gets really cranking they are actually worse than nothing, as the snow melts just enough to form ice -- which has the consistency and general properties of a poor grade of concrete. OK. But compared to CSX's attitude of throwing in the towel at the hint of a bad forecast, at least Conrail made the attempt to keep Amtrak moving. I don't ever recall a time when ALL the trains west of Alb-Renss were cancelled due to weather.
fair enough, Don... and true enough.
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