Search results

The original photos that came out (or at least the ones that I saw) didn’t clearly show that it was on opposite ends of the switch so a lot of people, professional railroaders on Reddit included, believed it was a picked switch. The last photo shown makes the waters murkier. It still could be a...

can only imagine using WD-40 to get an aircraft cabin door open… Does anyone out west know if there are still cars being shipped from Sacramento to Chicago?

The way the diner ended up and the way the points are facing are what’s curious to me…almost looks like the switch could’ve traveled under the train but I don’t know how the in-train forces would result in how the cars ended up. The NTSB will examine the switch points and the rod that moves...

There are many things that can be a “violent bump”. Minor track misalignment, a switch at speed, etc. There’s really no way to tell just from a “violent bump”. I’m not sure where you see cat-fighting…Amtrak150 voiced their opinion as someone who has personal ties to the incident. It is a valid...

I understand it’s personal to you. It’s personal to everyone who knew the crew involved. And you have my sympathies if you knew anyone on board who was injured or god forbid killed. That being said, I’m not a “railfan”. I do work for a western Class I in their Transportation department. The...

A switch allows a train to transition from one track to another, from one track to multiple tracks, or multiple tracks to one track. By “picking a switch”, it means that the switch points (which determine what track the train goes on) was not fully lined for a particular track. Railroad wheels...

Honestly looks like the switch got picked given the location and how the train derailed. This is pure speculation, but given my experiences recently working for a Class I, I would be willing to bet that the switch was slightly gapped (meaning the point wasn’t totally flush with the rail) and...

Indeed, neither have I, which is part of the reason why I’ve been so hesitant to share specifics. I trust the source, he’s one who would know what’s going on with the equipment. But I don’t understand why Brightline cars aren’t affected unless the interior fittings are drastically different.

I am not sure how the issues are being fixed, only that they exist and are the reason that the cars have not entered service yet. Ceiling panels falling at random would probably not be something IDOT wants to show off…

The issues are beyond suspected lead in components. As far as I am aware, that is correct. The cars have been used for test runs but none have entered revenue service. Currently around 30 sitting at the 14th Street Yard, I’m not sure if there are any at Brighton Park.

I would imagine the changes are being done by either Amtrak Mechanical or a Siemens contractor. For the time being they are simply in storage.

There should be information on the 305 website regarding $ on hand still. Whether or not that’s money that includes what was put towards these cars is not something I know. I believe the lack of acceptance of the cars started with the lead issue and then other problems slowly started revealing...

As far as I am aware the issues are all fitting out problems and not structural, otherwise I would imagine we’d be seeing the Brightline cars get pulled too. As far as the exact issues, it seems like the problems stem from either bad subcontracting or poor quality control, the latter being...

Oh they’ll enter service. It’s just been delayed until these issues can be worked out. There are a lot of problems that have cropped up that thankfully occurred in storage versus in revenue service, or so I’ve been told by a very reliable source.

There are updates, just not public ones because it’s not good news. I’m not at liberty to share specific information but suffice to say these cars will not be in service for quite some time….

Have you ridden the route between Porter and Chicago recently? There isn’t really room for a new alignment let alone something that will avoid the issues presented by the canals. We’re talking billions of dollars to rework dozens of miles of track. No one is going to bounce for it, unfortunately.

It’s been tossed around at Amtrak, but the lift bridges in Indiana and Illinois are a major obstacle. They’re double tracked and the other spans haven’t been used in years, possibly decades. They would have to either be completely replaced or repaired, either way a MASSIVE investment of capital...

You also have to deal with two hostile host railroads who can’t seem to figure out a way to run their own trains let alone Amtrak. CN has gotten marginally better in Michigan but only because the traffic has taken a downturn. NS in Indiana and Chicago is a complete mess. We can’t even...

You need demand before you add frequencies. We’re still very much in a pandemic. The full MI Service roster isn’t back yet (I believe we are still missing 352/353). Even then, there’s a reason why we haven’t gotten above the three Wolverine RTs and one each for the Blue Water and Pere Marquette...

It’s already happening, TransitDocs is clocked them over 79mph yesterday.