Empire Builder discussion 2023 Q4 - 2024

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Rasputin said:
I see that 8(30) is operating 13 hours 30 minutes late due to an apparent locomotive breakdown near Ephrata, WA. Arrival in Chicago is expected to be 2:39 a.m. Sept. 2.

There is a discussion on another list that Amtrak no longer has a spare locomotive at Spokane. Not sure how long that has been going on.
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Estimated arrival of 8 (30) in Chicago is now 5:10 a.m. on Sept. 2.
 
Rasputin said:
Estimated arrival of 8 (30) in Chicago is now 5:10 a.m. on Sept. 2.
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I cannot find the actual arrival time of this train on the Amtrak train status cite or on the privately run Amtrak train status archive site. Maybe it is still on the road and hasn't arrived yet. Maybe Amtrak is hoping that no one will notice.
 
Rasputin said:
I cannot find the actual arrival time of this train on the Amtrak train status cite or on the privately run Amtrak train status archive site. Maybe it is still on the road and hasn't arrived yet. Maybe Amtrak is hoping that no one will notice.
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It arrived in Chicago at 6:53 AM. Juuuust a tad late: 14 hours 8 minutes.😉
 
MARC Rider said:
That should be more than enough time. I had a 7 come into Seattle 5 hours late, and they turned the train and left as 8 in less than 3 hours.
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Chicago is a longer turn, being the home maintenance base. Seattle is the "away" terminal and they pretty much just clean, turn and top off the stock.
 
I think the odds are about 50/50 of cancellation of 7(2). If the train cannot go out within an hour or two of OT, they'll be at risk of cascading delays with subsequent trips, due to 7(2) missing its slot and getting later. That happens with unfortunate regularity with the Builder, partly due to the relatively short time to turn at Seattle/Portland. It cannot recover much lost time over a couple hours in that turn. They ultimately have to cancel a trip to "reset" the equipment rotation when such a snowball happens. There is a reasonable possibility they'll cancel if they think that's coming rather than run several days of increasingly late trains, then do it anyway.

In any case, we'll see in the next few hours.
 
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What I'm puzzled about is why it took 8 or 9 hours to rescue that train. I'd say that's a sign of a banana republic. And as I said the other day, I'm surprised BNSF lets Amtrak run the Empire Builder through the long Cascade Tunnel with only one engine, given all the recent reliability problems. With both sections combined, the EB always has two locomotives through the almost-as-long Flathead Tunnel, with, as I recall, much less grade.
 
zephyr17 said:
7's OBS crew has to be utterly exhausted, though. They're based in Seattle and turned with the train. My sympathies for them soldiering through.
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Not having an overnight must suck. Can they tap into the extra board? Or no because they're not chicago based
 

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