New cancellations for March winter storms?

tim49424 · Mar 17, 2019

jis said:
One of the more striking pictures possible while approaching from the east headed west (train direction, the track direction is almost straight south to north there as I seem to recall) is around the Castle Gate formation near the ghost town of Castle Gate UT, where it seems like the train is entering a huge castle gate with vertical rock formations on both sides. Hope you managed to get that.

Some photos and a bit of history in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Gate,_Utah

When I used to work for Novell many moons ago and used to spend the work week in my office at Orem UT (after Novells acquired Word Perfect) and commute home many weekends to NJ, there were some weekends when I stayed on in Orem, and that is when I explored this entire area by car, and came across these quaint ghost towns and spectacular scenery all around. These are recollections from back then in the early '90s.

I remember seeing that, but we were going track speed and the pictures turned out blurry.

AmtrakBlue · Mar 17, 2019

SubwayNut said:
Sitting in the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago, luckily waiting to connect the Southwest Chief. The Zephyr #5 scheduled to depart Chicago today (3/17) has been canceled. Around Noon they announced the train wouldn't continue to Denver, about 10 minutes later, they announce the train would be cancelled in its entirity, due to weather. Heard a man arguing with the attendant that the tracks are fine, why is the train canceled.

Flooding and I think a washed out track.

tim49424 · Mar 17, 2019

SubwayNut said:
Sitting in the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago, luckily waiting to connect the Southwest Chief. The Zephyr #5 scheduled to depart Chicago today (3/17) has been canceled. Around Noon they announced the train wouldn't continue to Denver, about 10 minutes later, they announce the train would be cancelled in its entirity, due to weather. Heard a man arguing with the attendant that the tracks are fine, why is the train canceled.

Obviously that man had no clue of the weather conditions out there. If they’re worse than when I was out there, it makes perfect sense. See, if they hadn’t canceled the train, he’d argue with the conductor that the guard arms on the signal crossings between Fort Morgan and Denver were perfectly fine and we should be going track speed in 50+ mph winds. We had to stop at each and every crossing in that area so the conductor could get off the train and basically direct traffic.

oregon pioneer · Mar 17, 2019

tim49424 said:
Obviously that man had no clue of the weather conditions out there. If they’re worse than when I was out there, it makes perfect sense. See, if they hadn’t canceled the train, he’d argue with the conductor that the guard arms on the signal crossings between Fort Morgan and Denver were perfectly fine and we should be going track speed in 50+ mph winds. We had to stop at each and every crossing in that area so the conductor could get off the train and basically direct traffic.

Wasn't there one more westbound CZ that made it through after you? The Trainjam one? Wow, I am impressed that those trains made it. And I have heard that the flooding has gotten much worse since the blizzard ended. Rivers are on kind of a time-delay, as the surge moves downstream over a period of days or even weeks.

tim49424 · Mar 17, 2019

oregon pioneer said:
Wasn't there one more westbound CZ that made it through after you? The Trainjam one? Wow, I am impressed that those trains made it. And I have heard that the flooding has gotten much worse since the blizzard ended. Rivers are on kind of a time-delay, as the surge moves downstream over a period of days or even weeks.

Yes, the TJ one was behind us.

The crews fought a losing battle with Mother Nature. I’ll be eternally grateful for their hard work in their attempt to get us through safely. I’m also grateful to Amtrak for having the wherewithal to set up that van in Reno so that the riders connecting to 14 could make the connection. We indeed did with 50 minutes to spare.