# One long day (and then some) of railroading



## battalion51 (Jun 20, 2004)

Well kiddies I return from Jacksonville, what a day. I got up at 6:00 yesterday morning to get ready to leave, finally made it out of the house at 7:15. Got up to Delray Beach got some cash, plus food at McDonalds before heading down to the station for 607. Got on Tri-Rail, fully planning to go down to Ft. Lauderdale before doubling back north. But 607 arrived 20 minutes late, then the damn dispatcher held us in siding when we would've easily made it to a better meet with 606 on Double Track. As it was I only made it to Deerfield where I bought my new railpass and waited for 92. I saw my friend Ron and spoke with him for a few minutes before 92 arrived. One of the Conductors, Spider, let me on in the sleepers, so I hung with him until West Palm. When we approached West Palm we realized we'd gotten screwed big time. The dispatcher lined us up to take the siding for a rock train. Now, there are two things sorely wrong with this situation, first you don't put a passenger train in siding for a ******* rock train, you run the rock train through the siding. Second, with West Palm siding configured like it is, it makes it a long process to get all the passengers across the main track and then triple spot the train (move the train three times to get everyone on).

I got off 92 and headed over to City Place for a movie. I had a Gift Certificate from Dr. Franks, so I used one of them to get my admission and a coke (I still have a $10 certificate left). I saw Dodgeball, which is absolutely hilarious. Favorite seen though is right at the end when two chicks make out (sorry its a guy thing). I walked over to Quizno's to get my lunch, then to City Place to pick up Dinner for the night, and some batteries for my digital camera from Publix. I made it back to West Palm Station with plenty of time before 615 arrived. As it turns out they were bussing everyone down to Lake Worth to get on the train because of construction being done between Lake Worth and West Palm. What kills me though is how much people will complain about things. This one girl would not stop bitching about having to take a bus to Lake Worth. I couldn't help but think to myself, well you don't have much of a choice here, you can either take the bus or wait two hours til 619 comes through, your choice. Either way, shut up and deal with it, the rest of us are. Made it down to Lake Worth and got on in the cab car. What kills me is that almost everyone got on in the first two coaches because they were closer to the entrance to the station. Rather than walking down to the cab car everyone got on in those two cars. Those coaches were probably packed, while the cab car was deserted. Idiots. I ate my sub on the train and changed shirts before we got to Ft. Lauderdale. I got off and waited for 90 to arrive.

90 got in a few minutes late because he probably got screwed in his meet with 615, but that's life. I went up to the lounge to set up camp for the next few hours. We had two really great Conductors between Miami and Lakeland. It killed me that once the lounge opened for business it would take two hours before the line was completely done (people didn't wait in line for two hours, but that's how long it took before there was no line). We got held at West Palm about 10 minutes for 621, but that's to be expected, especially since we had good meets with 617 and 619. We moved along pretty well, no major delays since 91 took the hole for us at Delta. I ate dinner after Sebring, which would've been better if it were hot, but you work with what ya got. We arrived in Lakeland about 15 minutes down for the crew change. The Miami Conductors and Engineer go to the hotel for the night, and a Jacksonville based crew takes the train to Jacksonville. The Jacksonville crew was great, my favorite Conductor (Billy) was our Conductor, with Helen as the Assistant Conductor, and Steve was our Engineer. We left Lakeland and headed west to Tampa. We moved along well to Tampa where we pulled into Neve on the north side of Ybor City for the reverse move into Tampa Union. The Conductors did the brake test, got a signal and started the reverse move into the station. We moved along at about 25 MPH before hitting TUS block. We hit the switches and ended up on Track 2. Good safety stop, and then a good stop in Tampa only a couple of minutes down. I got down on the ground for some fresh air during the long stop. Steve climbed down off the lead unit and into the second unit which turned out to be a good decision later on. Miami had the engines set up with the lead unit moving the train and the trailer providing power to the train. He set up the trailer to provide power to the train, but also to provide traction to the train, getting us up to speed really fast (in railroad terms anyway). We headed back towards Lakeland before turning north to go to Dade City. The trip was pretty quiet til we got out of Ocala. After leaving Ocala the Steve called back and said he was getting two faults on the lead engine, low oil pressure in the crankcase (or something like that) and that the cab temperature was getting to warm (the cab itself was fine, but the A/C was probably overheating). Billy called Jacksonville to let mechanical know that they'd need to look at the engine. Steve said that the lead was really sluggish in loading up, but that the trailer is what saved us from losing a lot of time. We got close to Waldo when a passenger complained about a drunk lady on the other side of the lounge. She was told to go back to her seat, but she refused. The crew worked Waldo, and then came back to deal with the drunk. She wouldn't listen to anything the crew had to say. Needless to say it was decided that she'd be put off in Jacksonville, Billy called ahead to have the law meet us at the station. We entered the Jacksonville area, I packed up and got ready to go. We flew by the Jacksonville station. Good brake test, then we backed into the Station on 2 Rail. Good safety stop then back up to couple up to the RoadRailers. Three Steps up, Blue flags up, end of that part of the trip.

The drunk lady was removed from the train, and was lucky that the cops who showed up were nice, and that Billy was nice, otherwise her ass probably would've ended up in Jail, because she was DRUNK. Billy had to stay an hour past when we arrived doing paperwork on her, but that goes with the territory. I went into the Station to relax before 89 arrived, which was estimated to be around 3:45A, it was currently 2:00A. I would end up outside BSing with the guys who work the fuel trucks, commenting on the drunk lady. It's hilarious watching drunks, she dropped her cell phone four times, and wouldn't stay in one spot for more than five minutes. About 4:15A or so S456 stopped in front of the station. I turned on my radio to find out he stopped because his manifest wasn't right. Moncrief yard told him to proceed north to Callhan to clear up the station enterance for 89. He refused to do so because it violated operating rules, as if there were an accident he'd have no clue where his hazmat cars were, which makes the ingredients for a disaster. A CSX official was finally contacted, gave him clearance to igonore the rule and clear up Main 2 for 89. The Dispatcher had to run 89 by the station and have him back in because he couldn't hit the crossovers necessary to pull in regularly. It was really something watching the train fly by the station, especially with the RoadRailers on the bottom. 89 finally arrived in the station at 5:00A. The train loaded, fueled, and closed up at 5:24A. We pulled down, three steps up to whack the RoadRailers. Three steps down, slack 'em, and pull 'em, good separation, brake test then depart. I made my way up to the lounge, grudgingly, since I hated the Conductor. I was in and out of sleep from about 7:00 til our 9:00 arrival in Lakeland. We would bypass Tampa in order to make up lost time. Crew change in Lakeland, got the same crew we had the day before. We had a pretty uneventful run into Ft. Lauderdale, where we arrived at 1:10P. We made it from JAX to Ft. Lauderdale in under 6 hours. You can't drive it that fast, and we went through the heart of the state. Chalk one up for Amtrak.


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## Amfleet (Jun 20, 2004)

Looks like a good day/night/day on the rails.


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## engine999 (Jun 20, 2004)

You may be able to beat that if there isnt that much traffic. That very inpressive though considering the train gose to the western side of the state first.


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## AlanB (Jun 22, 2004)

battalion51 said:


> We would bypass Tampa in order to make up lost time. Crew change in Lakeland, got the same crew we had the day before.


They bypassed Tampa? What did they do with the pax headed for Tampa? Throw them off the train at the Y?

Frankly it would make more sense to me to bypass a few of the smaller stops, not Tampa.


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## engine999 (Jun 23, 2004)

Tampa is sort of out of the way, the way the line was constructed. The train has to backtrack on itself to serve the station. I would guess they had the pax bussed to tampa.


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## battalion51 (Jun 23, 2004)

999 is correct. The on time status of 89 out of Tampa was reflected to that of the time the busses were to leave. Buses brought the PAX's to Lakeland where they waited for 89. 89's PAX's for TPA were put off at LAK and taken on the buses to TPA. TPA is very out of the way, it's a 60 mile round trip to TPA from LAK. The reverse move itself takes 10 minutes, and its only a 2 mile run. So it saves at least an hour by not going to TPA. It also makes it so the JAX-LAK is well rested for 90 that night. It also makes it so that Amtrak doesn't pay 89's crew for nothing. Once your set back once, on the second set back you go on the clock from the time you were supposed to go on duty with the first set back. It's all in the economics.

Also, the bussing is pretty regular right now, they pretty much have it down to a science now. The Central Florida Station Master and CNOC pretty much anticipate it 3 or 4 nights a week.


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## AlanB (Jun 23, 2004)

engine999 said:


> Tampa is sort of out of the way, the way the line was constructed.  The train has to backtrack on itself to serve the station.  I would guess they had the pax bussed to tampa.


I'm quite familiar with the Tampa routine, having experienced it several times on the poor old former Silver Palm, but thanks for explaining anyway. 

I was simply questioning the "bypassing Tampa" statement, with no mention of what happened to the pax, which B51 has now fully explained.

I'm still not sure that bypassing was the correct choice, unless there were only a very few passengers to/from Tampa. But that's a whole other discussion.


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## battalion51 (Jun 23, 2004)

Well Alan they use at least one bus a day (normally, right now they're using two because of an Extra that runs to Orlando with the Super Train in effect) between TPA and points on the West Coast. Most of the time all the TPA passengers'll fit in two buses (assuming there's no group move). So in my mind to save an hour for the other 150 or so passengers that are still on the train, besides the crew rest issue, it's the right call IMHO. The JAX-LAK crew has to be in LAK by 1030AM at the latest to be rested for that night (and not delay 90). So that's probably a big contributing factor to CNOC.


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