# 5 and #6 service disruption

[Bonser]

I see that a disabled freight train has caused yet another service disruption between SLC and Elko today. This has become something of a regular occurance for the Zephyr. Is there something wrong with the track there or is it just unpredictable and unfortunate?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Just reading on FB that they're doing a bus bridge between 5 (SLC) and 6 (Elko).

 

[Steve4031]

I’ve been trying to figure this out. I’m on 6 that left emy this morning. I know there is a mountain pass between Elko and Salt Lake City. There is even a horse shoe curve. It’s usually passed in darkness. A freight breakdown there would be difficult to address.

 

[zephyr17]

Where is derailment? If it is east of Wells (technically Alazon), a detour over the former SP via Ogden would be perfectly feasible and logical. But I guess UP wouldn't allow it.

 

[dadonatrain]

I see that a disabled freight train has caused yet another service disruption between SLC and Elko today. This has become something of a regular occurance for the Zephyr. Is there something wrong with the track there or is it just unpredictable and unfortunate?

Newbie here. Unfamiliar with all the sources of info like what causes a service disruption. In near real time, how does one find out what the cause of a svc disruption is?

 

[Jenizie]

Yes, they are doing a bus bridge between Salt Lake City & Elko for both the westbound 5 and eastbound 6. I was on train 6; I’m currently on the buswe’ve almost made it to Salt Lake. The buses brought the #5 passengers to Elko & are now bringing us to Salt Lake as their return trip.

The derailment is a bit east of Wendover, I didn’t see it from the highway as we went by but probably would have if I’d been paying more attention.

The story circulating among the passengers is that it will be 2-3 days to clear the derailed train, but I don’t know how reliable that is.

As for sources of information, this group, the various Amtrak groups on Facebook, and Trainorders seem to be pretty good sources. Amtrak’s Twitter feed is also a source but tends to be less detailed.

 

[zephyr17]

Wendover is well on the old WP. A detour using the former SP would be possible if Amtrak were willing to push the issue with UP. With Amtrak's current management, I doubt they even brought it up.

 

[Bonser]

Yes, they are doing a bus bridge between Salt Lake City & Elko for both the westbound 5 and eastbound 6. I was on train 6; I’m currently on the buswe’ve almost made it to Salt Lake. The buses brought the #5 passengers to Elko & are now bringing us to Salt Lake as their return trip.

The derailment is a bit east of Wendover, I didn’t see it from the highway as we went by but probably would have if I’d been paying more attention.

The story circulating among the passengers is that it will be 2-3 days to clear the derailed train, but I don’t know how reliable that is.

As for sources of information, this group, the various Amtrak groups on Facebook, and Trainorders seem to be pretty good sources. Amtrak’s Twitter feed is also a source but tends to be less detailed.

So I suppose the 5 and 6 will reverse directions and switch numbers with each other.

 

[dadonatrain]

Yes, they are doing a bus bridge between Salt Lake City & Elko for both the westbound 5 and eastbound 6. I was on train 6; I’m currently on the buswe’ve almost made it to Salt Lake. The buses brought the #5 passengers to Elko & are now bringing us to Salt Lake as their return trip.

The derailment is a bit east of Wendover, I didn’t see it from the highway as we went by but probably would have if I’d been paying more attention.

The story circulating among the passengers is that it will be 2-3 days to clear the derailed train, but I don’t know how reliable that is.

As for sources of information, this group, the various Amtrak groups on Facebook, and Trainorders seem to be pretty good sources. Amtrak’s Twitter feed is also a source but tends to be less detailed.

Thx for explaining how folks find this kind of info. I’ve seen service disruption postings on Amtrak.com but they never say why. No surprise there. Same reasons why the flight attendants NEVER tell you why your flight is STILL sitting at the gate!

 

[Bonser]

Thx for explaining how folks find this kind of info. I’ve seen service disruption postings on Amtrak.com but they never say why. No surprise there. Same reasons why the flight attendants NEVER tell you why your flight is STILL sitting at the gate!

Where will the now 5 CZ westbound turn around near Elko? Or will it just push all the way to Emeryville? The 6 eastbound at Salt Lake?

 

[OBS]

Where will the now 5 CZ westbound turn around near Elko? Or will it just push all the way to Emeryville? The 6 eastbound at Salt Lake?

There is no way to push the train. They will have to wye the train, or at least the engines, at the nearest wye.

 

[Steve4031]

They would probably use a passing siding to move the engines to the other end of the train. One issue with this is that both engines usually face the same direction.

 

[zephyr17]

There is no way to push the train. They will have to wye the train, or at least the engines, at the nearest wye.

They'll just run the engines around the consist. Unless the engines are run elephant style, they don't need to wye them. If they are elephant style, they'll have to go find a wye and wye at least one of them.

The cars can be run either end forward
The coach seats are reversible, a coach attendant will probably go through and reverse them for the return journey. The consist will just be in "reverse order".

There are relatively few wyes left these days, and very few long enough to wye a whole consist, but lots of sidings and crossovers where the engines can be run around.

There are pros and cons to both elephant style and back to back. With elephant style it is easy to swap lead engines, which is a consideration in these days of frequent engine failures, but tough when you have to turn around. Back to back, it is easy to run around and go the other way, but tough if you need to swap your lead engine.

 

[Cal]

I'm assuming if there is no wye available and they're being run elephant style they will just borrow a freight engine and have that pull the train from the other end and the Amtrak engines don't change positions?

 

[Siegmund]

There is a balloon track in Elko. (I do not know whether it was used to turn the CZ or not.)

Once upon a time, UP would have felt obligated to get the passenger train over the road via the detour, just like they will be doing with their freight trains. That time seems to be long past.

 

[RichardWSnow]

I am on 6. We are just pulling into McCook NE. We're about 15 1/2 hours late at this point. They announced there is a problem with a computer in one of the engines, and our speed will be restricted for the duration of the trip. The fastest speed I've seen on my iPhone speed app is just under 60 MPH. Thus, we'll undoubtedly lose more time between here and Chicago.

 

[Cal]

I am on 6. We are just pulling into McCook NE. We're about 15 1/2 hours late at this point. They announced there is a problem with a computer in one of the engines, and our speed will be restricted for the duration of the trip. The fastest speed I've seen on my iPhone speed app is just under 60 MPH. Thus, we'll undoubtedly lose more time between here and Chicago.

Thank you for the updates.

 

[Trogdor]

Same reasons why the flight attendants NEVER tell you why your flight is STILL sitting at the gate!

Flight attendants wouldn’t have that info. Pilots, on the other hand, often do make announcements regarding delays. Some airline apps even give a quasi-detailed explanation of why a flight is delayed. Amtrak doesn’t really have the same level of integrated operational systems, though, and relatively few people on staff tasked with consolidating and disseminating that information.

In theory they could, though. Whenever delays occur, conductors are required to log the reason for the delay. Way back in the day, it was done on paper and filed at the end of the trip, but nowadays it’s done via their mobile device. With a bit of coding they could translate that into simpler language and include that info on the train status page. Knowing Amtrak, though, they’d probably make it technically correct but completely nonsensical to the passenger, and then not bother to debug it based on common sense.

 

[BlackDiamond]

In theory they could, though. Whenever delays occur, conductors are required to log the reason for the delay. Way back in the day, it was done on paper and filed at the end of the trip, but nowadays it’s done via their mobile device. With a bit of coding they could translate that into simpler language and include that info on the train status page. Knowing Amtrak, though, they’d probably make it technically correct but completely nonsensical to the passenger, and then not bother to debug it based on common sense.

On my CZ trip last year we had a few occasions when there were problems with the PTC causing an emergency stop and resetting of the system. Eventually they had to cut it out. This was explained by the crew. I thought they did a pretty good job explaining it in a nontechnical manner.

 

[billosborn]

It seems from routine checks of the daily status of the Zephyr that there are recurring delays between Salt Lake and Elko, mostly due to freight interference These delays seem to average 2 hours - today's CZ, which departed on 4/1, incurred a 5 hour delay there, due to freight interference. Does anyone have any thoughts on why this is so common at that one segment?

 

[Bonser]

It seems from routine checks of the daily status of the Zephyr that there are recurring delays between Salt Lake and Elko, mostly due to freight interference These delays seem to average 2 hours - today's CZ, which departed on 4/1, incurred a 5 hour delay there, due to freight interference. Does anyone have any thoughts on why this is so common at that one segment?

The CZ arrived over 5 hours late yesterday in Emeryville, which serves a major world city - San Francisco. Every day last week ir was significantly late.SLC seems to start the real delays. . Is this all freight interference? Back in the day, freight and passenger trains seemed to have been far, far better coordinated and there were probably 20 times more passenger trains. I realize that private RR's have no stake in the game now but why isn't Amtrak more forceful? Amtrak can't even run a truncated schedule without always be shunted to side rails or just stopped dead in its tracks.

 

[Bonser]

The CZ arrived over 5 hours late yesterday in Emeryville, which serves a major world city - San Francisco. Every day last week ir was significantly late.SLC seems to start the real delays. . Is this all freight interference? Back in the day, freight and passenger trains seemed to have been far, far better coordinated and there were probably 20 times more passenger trains. I realize that private RR's have no stake in the game now but why isn't Amtrak more forceful? Amtrak can't even run a truncated schedule without always be shunted to side rails or just stopped dead in its tracks.

Today the Zepher left SLC 3 minutes late and arrived in Elko 2 hrs 17 minutes late. This has been going on for months now. The trip between SLC and Reno is taking forever. I know there was a derailment in January outside Salt Lake but we're in April now. What's going on?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Today the Zepher left SLC 3 minutes late and arrived in Elko 2 hrs 17 minutes late. This has been going on for months now. The trip between SLC and Reno is taking forever. I know there was a derailment in January outside Salt Lake but we're in April now. What's going on?

Freight traffic

 

[billosborn]

Today the Zepher left SLC 3 minutes late and arrived in Elko 2 hrs 17 minutes late. This has been going on for months now. The trip between SLC and Reno is taking forever. I know there was a derailment in January outside Salt Lake but we're in April now. What's going on?

Specifically, this delay between SLC and Elko was caused by a disabled freight train, according to Amtrak Alerts on Twitter. But it lost another hour after Elko for an unspecified reason.

 

[amtrakp42]

Having rode Amtrak 50 years, it seems that last 5 or 6 years it is announced disabled freight ahead but have found out that is code for we are now running freights and letting Amtrak sit. They tried that on the CN from Chicago to New Orleans a few years ago. Senator Durbin got a dispatcher fired and then Amtrak was on time into Chicago. Then they started being late 2 or 3 hours again. He called for a meeting with CN at Champaign IL but railroad didn't show up. About a week later federal investigators stopped a freight on the main track for a about 2 hours! Now Amtrak runs on time unless due to a legitimate reason!!