On the ground; Eastbound Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited last car derailed 4/21

[TrackWalker]

4:56am, 4/22/2021- We have separation!
View attachment IMG_1765.MOV

 

[me_little_me]

Poor guy looks lonely all by himself!

Amtrak will probably want to pick it up... you don’t want a freight crew handling passenger equipment if you can help it!

Yeah! I was thinking of sending flowers. I guess one would send them to:
Amtrak Superliner Car #32060
c/o Tehachapi Amtrak Bus stop
Tehachapi, California

Sniff! Sniff!

NOT!

 

[penguingeneral]

Yeah! I was thinking of sending flowers. I guess one would send them to:
Amtrak Superliner Car #32060
c/o Tehachapi Amtrak Bus stop
Tehachapi, California

Sniff! Sniff!

NOT!

But the car is in Palm Springs, not Tehachapi

 

[me_little_me]

But the car is in Palm Springs, not Tehachapi

Anyone want some nice flowers? Just go to the Tehachapi bus station and say your name is 32060 as you just got released from prison.

 

[TrackWalker]

Just off the phone with Amtrak Customer Relations to request a partial refund for spending two nights and days in coach (Palm Springs-Longview) and a 450 mile bus ride (San Antonio-Longview) because of the derailment.

Both myself and representative were pleasantly surprised to find out a refund had already been credited to my card last Wednesday in the amount of $277.

She was unaware of the derailment so naturally I passed along the AU website for her viewing pleasure.

 

[penguingeneral]

According to the transit docs website, train 1 spent A LOT of time doing a station stop at Palm Springs this morning. Now, I know that that site is often times off. But when Amtrak skipped the station on Thursday morning, it showed it making a 3 minute stop. And todays stop apparently went from 10:34A to 11:19A ? I'm really curious what happened. I would have gone out there but was at work.

 

[Cal]

Who knows, might've used the daylight to take the car.


On a side note, I'm annoyed that their train is late and my #1 wasn't. I hate waking up at the crack of dawn!

 

[penguingeneral]

Who knows, might've used the daylight to take the car.

I'll check later today at some point

 

[penguingeneral]

Just checked. Car is gone. Sad panda. Depending on the weather I'll check and see if 2 stops at PSN tonight.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

45 minutes for a station stop and to grab a railcar. The air brake check should be about 5 minutes once you charge it.

 

[TrackWalker]

I'm no expert but...

-stop train west of the west switch at Palm Springs.
-call dispatcher to reverse switch.
-wait for dispatcher to answer you.
-wait for switch to reverse.
-Get permission from dispatcher to proceed past red signal into siding. (occupancy b/c of sleeper.)
-walk to rear car vestibule.
-shove and protect movement. (watching for sand dunes ahead)
-stop short of sleeper.
-get off of last car and verify couplers are open.
-remove wheel chocks (most likely mechanical will do that)
-shove last 25 feet to connect.
-tug to be sure connected.
-"In between" and "set and centered" (BNSF anyway)
-shut off Head End Power.
-find connecting HEP cables.
-connect HEP cables.
-connect air hoses.
-open angle cocks.
-realize angle **** at other end of sleeper is still open from a week ago and close it.
-enter sleeper to release hand brake
-turn on HEP.
-air test.
-go get Palm Springs passengers still waiting on platform.
-let dispatcher know you are ready to proceed
-wait for several trains to pass.
-get the signal and leave.

Yeah, 45 minutes at least.

 

[Willbridge]

I'm no expert but...

-stop train west of the west switch at Palm Springs.
-call dispatcher to reverse switch.
-wait for dispatcher to answer you.
-wait for switch to reverse.
-Get permission from dispatcher to proceed past red signal into siding. (occupancy b/c of sleeper.)
-walk to rear car vestibule.
-shove and protect movement. (watching for sand dunes ahead)
-stop short of sleeper.
-get off of last car and verify couplers are open.
-remove wheel chocks (most likely mechanical will do that)
-shove last 25 feet to connect.
-tug to be sure connected.
-"In between" and "set and centered" (BNSF anyway)
-shut off Head End Power.
-find connecting HEP cables.
-connect HEP cables.
-connect air hoses.
-open angle cocks.
-realize angle **** at other end of sleeper is still open from a week ago and close it.
-enter sleeper to release hand brake
-turn on HEP.
-air test.
-go get Palm Springs passengers still waiting on platform.
-let dispatcher know you are ready to proceed
-wait for several trains to pass.
-get the signal and leave.

Yeah, 45 minutes at least.

From watching set-outs or pick-ups in Denver, I agree. And then there was the trip that awarded me a hotel room in Chicago for a night when Train 6, running three hours late, was combined with the Winter Park Express at the end of the ski season. Electrical problems netted a seven hour late arrival in Chicago, missing everything.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

-realize angle **** at other end of sleeper is still open from a week ago and close it.

This proves you are an expert. That’s exactly what would have happened!!!! Ha

 

[Cal]

Took the Surfliner into LA today. Still there. Saw the car attached to I believe the sunset consist

 

[jiml]

Took the Surfliner into LA today. Still there. Saw the car attached to I believe the sunset consist

Nice detective work.

 

[Cal]

Nice detective work.

Thank you

 

[Seaboard92]

I'm no expert but...

-stop train west of the west switch at Palm Springs.
-call dispatcher to reverse switch.
-wait for dispatcher to answer you.
-wait for switch to reverse.
-Get permission from dispatcher to proceed past red signal into siding. (occupancy b/c of sleeper.)
-walk to rear car vestibule.
-shove and protect movement. (watching for sand dunes ahead)
-stop short of sleeper.
-get off of last car and verify couplers are open.
-remove wheel chocks (most likely mechanical will do that)
-shove last 25 feet to connect.
-tug to be sure connected.
-"In between" and "set and centered" (BNSF anyway)
-shut off Head End Power.
-find connecting HEP cables.
-connect HEP cables.
-connect air hoses.
-open angle cocks.
-realize angle **** at other end of sleeper is still open from a week ago and close it.
-enter sleeper to release hand brake
-turn on HEP.
-air test.
-go get Palm Springs passengers still waiting on platform.
-let dispatcher know you are ready to proceed
-wait for several trains to pass.
-get the signal and leave.

Yeah, 45 minutes at least.

That sounds incredibly accurate. When we were cutting PVs on and off at Huntington we had the process down to five minutes. But those crews there were so used to us doing it they could have done it in their sleep. The only thing you are missing is Amtrak does three short pulls when confirming a coupling to make sure the pin fell. Or at least that is what Huntington did with us every time.