Silver Star Delays

[Mister Monorail]

Does anyone know why Train 91 (14) and 92 (14) were stopped for several hours overnight north of Denmark SC, and both will finish their runs several hours late today?

 

[pennyk]

This was posted in the 91/CSX Collision thread in response to a similar question:

91's engine was disabled by an animal strike. After a spell, 92 was used to push 91 back into a siding to allow 92 to pass while waiting for a CSX rescue engine out of Columbia.

 

[Mister Monorail]

Thanks for the info - I have been searching online, and couldn't find anything! Must have been a big animal.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Thanks for the info - I have been searching online, and couldn't find anything! Must have been a big animal.

I believe it was a deer

 

[LookingGlassTie]

Yep Rudolph was cut from the sleigh team and had to find alternate transportation.................

 

[the_traveler]

You mean Santa had to borrow a lead unit?

 

[Charles785]

This may be a very naive question, but can striking a deer really disable the typical

Amtrak locomotive?

 

[Mister Monorail]

Does anybody wonder why it took Amtrak so long to replace a disabled locomotive and/or timed out crews that both the northbound and southbound Silver Star completed their runs more than 9 hours late? According to the timetable the running time between Columbia and Denmark SC is 57 minutes. From what I've seen, since January 4 there was a derailment in Savannah, a trespasser strike near Jacksonville, the collision at Cayce, a freight train fire in southern Virginia and now an animal strike near Denmark, all in less than 6 weeks. Each incident caused massive delays on the NYP-MIA route, which affected all 6 trains, 91, 92, 97, 98, 52 and 53. The Auto-Trains have arrived at destination more than 13 hours late. This unreliability is going to destroy passenger rail in this country.

 

[jis]

I am certain at least one person and perhaps a few more do, who have difficulty accepting the simple explanation that a replacement locomotive or crew was not available for more rapid deployment [emoji52]

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