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I believe Flagman refers to the act of flagging (protecting) the rear of the train when unexpectedly stopped. In the old days of timetable and train order operation and without automatic block signals, the rules assumed a train would keep moving at authorized speed so that a following train...

Being under Railroad Retirement and being under the Railway Labor Act are two different things. For instance, union airline employees (I am retired from an airline) are under the Railway Labor Act but airline employees are not under Railroad Retirement. I have no idea how being an intrastate...

When we lived in Roselle, we saw theater shows in Chicago several times per year on Saturday nights. Rarely was Metra an option. At that time, the MD-W had trains at 10:40pm and 12:40am. 10:40 was too early for most shows (many ended after 10:30pm) and we were not going to wait until 12:40am...

If a trainman is directing her to a specific car or seat, she should mention that the rest of her party is joining her at Syracuse. Most likely, he or she will then treat her as a party of two and hold the seat for you. While there are some bad apples, most Amtrak employees do their best to...

That's what I said. They're Schengen (so no immigration (passport) check when entering from another Schengen country) but not EU so officially, Customs inspection of your goods (but in reality, very, very rarely unless you go in the "something to declare" lane). For further clarity, when you...

Brexit made no difference to passport checks. When the UK was in the EU, it was in one common area with continental Europe for Customs (inspection of goods) but it was never in the Schengen area which is one common area for Immigration (inspection of people). Pre-Brexit, when you travelled...

I'm not seeing how they'll going to handle equipment. Unless the Borealis equipment piggybacks with Hiawatha equipment, they're going to need a third Hiawatha set. Currently, one set does 330-331-334-335-338-339-342 while the other does 329*-332-333-336-337-340-341 (*343 Fri eve instead of 329...

No, needs to less than the cost of air travel plus a hotel night. A few years back, I did a fun trip to finally ride a train around Horseshoe Curve. Booked the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Newark. Then I needed to fly from Chicago and find a hotel in Pittsburgh for the night before. Found...

It must be that your lack of familiarity makes you think going to the north side platforms is more convoluted as it's actually just the mirror image of what you do to get the south side platforms: "past the Metropolitan Lounge, slight bend to the left and down a short, shallow ramp (or 2 or 3...

The only CUS north side tracks Amtrak normally uses are 17 and 19. 1 through 15 (odd numbers) are Metra and at rush-hours their use is pretty tightly choreographed. 17 is a stub and 19 is a run-through so 19 is preferred for the EB with the Hiawathas turning on 17. The only time it might be...

From my own trip on 5 CHI-OAK on 9/9/83: At this time, the route was DEN-D&RGW-SLC-UP-OGD-SP-OAK. The D&RGW had reopened about a month earlier after being closed by the Thistle slide (5/6 had officially moved to the D&RGW route from the UP across Wyoming with the April time change but due to...

I find it sad that the linked report was written in a way to lead you to think the derailment was a far more important aspect of the event than the collision. Talk about burying the lede. I can just imagine a report of some future incident where they'd say trains collided, several cars damaged...

My opinion is that too often, food service on trains (and in other situations) is viewed as an independent good that is viewed as something that should be profitable on its own. But it's not independent. I can't just decided I want to go to the Amtrak dining car for dinner unless I'm first on...

Only if the battery was getting weak to begin with. We've been away for a month or two in the past and never had an issue (although cars in a garage).

I obviously don't know you but I suspect how people present themselves at the border makes a big difference. Show up reasonably well dressed (and as an airline retiree traveling on travel privileges, when I fly in I am always dressed to my airline's employee travel dress code (a t-shirt and...

Well, of course. Entering your own country and entering a foreign country are completely different processes. You are always admissible to your own country so once you prove you are a U.S. citizen, the Immigration (admission of people) part of what CBP does is over; it’s only the Customs...

My experience has been just the opposite. Twice entering at YVR and when asked why I was coming to Canada, I said riding the Canadian and was told things like "sounds like fun" and "enjoy your trip."

Ah. Thanks.

Did this get split from another topic? It starts with a reply to a post I cannot find.

From what I've observed, most convention official hotels are in downtown Chicago. There's not all that much by McCormick Place. I am sure that's why they built the busway was built between downtown Chicago and McCormick Place in the former Illinois Central freight right-of-way (if you've ever...